New York man pleads guilty in Chinese 'secret police station'

19/12/2024 6:09

A New York resident who

prosecutors say operated a "secret police station" in the

Chinatown district of Manhattan to aid Beijing's targeting of

dissidents, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiring to act as

an unregistered foreign agent.



Chen Jinping, 61, entered the plea at a hearing in Brooklyn

Federal Court before U.S. District Judge Nina Morrison. He faces

up to five years in prison when he is sentenced on May 30.



In court, Chen admitted to removing an online article about

the alleged police station on behalf of China's government in

September 2022. He said he was not registered with the Justice

Department as a foreign agent at the time, as U.S. law requires

of people acting for other countries.



Chen and a New York-based co-defendant, Lu Jianwang, were

initially arrested on April 17, 2023. Lu has pleaded not guilty

to the same charge, as well as to obstruction of justice.



The arrests followed a 2022 investigation published by

Spain-based advocacy group Safeguard Defenders that reported

China had set up overseas "service stations," including in New

York, that illegally worked with Chinese police to pressure

fugitives to return to China.



The Department of Justice has been ramping up probes into

what it calls "transnational repression" by U.S. adversaries

such as China and Iran to intimidate political opponents living

in the United States.



China's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to

a request for comment on Chen's plea.



The Chinese government has said there are centers outside

China run by local volunteers, not Chinese police officers, that

aim to help Chinese citizens renew documents and offer other

services. Beijing has accused Washington of fabricating the

charges to smear China's image.



Lu and Chen are U.S. citizens who ran a nonprofit

organization that lists its mission as providing a social

gathering place for people from China's Fujian province,

prosecutors said.



Before it closed in the fall of 2022, the men's New York

operation occupied a full floor in a nondescript Chinatown

building near the Manhattan Bridge.



Prosecutors said the site was being used in part for mundane

government services such as helping some Chinese citizens renew

their driver's licenses - activity they say should have been

disclosed to U.S. authorities.



But prosecutors also said that in 2022, Lu was asked by

Beijing to locate an individual living in California who was

considered a pro-democracy activist. In 2018, Lu had sought to

persuade an individual considered a fugitive by China to return

home, prosecutors said.