On Monday April 17th, 2023, a complaint was unsealed in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charging two defendants for opening and operating an illegal overseas police station, located in lower Manhattan, New York. This police station was for a provincial branch of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) of the People's Republc of China (PRC).
"Harry" Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx, and Chen Jinping, 59, of Manhattan, were arrested that same day and were brought forth before a court presided by U.S. Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes Jr., by the afternoon.
Lu and Chen were charged with conspiring to act as agents of the CCP as well as obstructing justice by destroying evidence of their communications with an MPS official. The defendants worked together to establish the first overseas police station in the United States on behalf of the Fuzhou branch of the MPS.
The police station which closed in the fall of 2022 when it became known to the FBI, occupied a floor in an office building in Manhattan's Chinatown (once part of Little Italy). While acting under the direction and control of an MPS Official, Lu and Chen helped open and operate the clandestine police station.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division stated as such:
“The PRC, through its repressive security apparatus, established a secret physical presence in New York City to monitor and intimidate dissidents and those critical of its government. The PRC’s actions go far beyond the bounds of acceptable nation-state conduct. We will resolutely defend the freedoms of all those living in our country from the threat of authoritarian repression.”
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York stated:
“This prosecution reveals the Chinese government’s flagrant violation of our nation’s sovereignty by establishing a secret police station in the middle of New York City. As alleged, the defendants and their co-conspirators were tasked with doing the PRC’s bidding, including helping locate a Chinese dissident living in the United States, and obstructed our investigation by deleting their communications. Such a police station has no place here in New York City – or any American community.”
Acting Assistant Director Kury Ronnow of the FBI Counterintelligence Division remarked:
“It is simply outrageous that China’s Ministry of Public Security thinks it can get away with establishing a secret, illegal police station on U.S. soil to aid its efforts to export repression and subvert our rule of law. This case serves as a powerful reminder that the People’s Republic of China will stop at nothing to bend people to their will and silence messages they don’t want anyone to hear. The FBI is dedicated to protecting everyone in the United States against efforts to undermine our democratic freedoms, and we’ll hold any state actors – and those who help them – accountable for breaking our laws.”
Lu had a longstanding relationship with CCP law enforcement, including the MPS. Since 2015, and through the operation of the secret police station, Lu was tasked with carrying out various activites, including assisting in promulgating the CCP's communist activites on U.S. soil:
In 2015, during PRC President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States, Lu participated in counterprotests in Washington, D.C,. against members of a religion (most likely Falun Gong) that is forbidden under PRC law. A deputy director of the MPS awarded Lu a plaque for the work he performed on behalf of the PRC government.
In 2018, Lu was tasked with harassing a Chinese defector to return to China under duress. The defector reported being repeating threatened with violence both to himself and their family, both in the U.S. and those still in China.
In 2022, the MPS Official sought out Lu's assistance in locating a pro-democracy activist that was speaking against the CCP in California. In order to help him locate this person, Lu decided to enlist the help of another individual. When confronted about the conversations between the parties that were uncovered, Lu denied any involvement.
That same year, the FBI conducted a search of the illegal police station where Lu and Chen's personal devices were seized. In reviewing the contents of the devices, the conversations between Lu, Chen, and the MPS Official appeared to be deleted. Lu and Chen later admitted to the FBI that they had delted their communications with the MPS Official when they were tipped off to the FBI investigation, which prevented the FBI from learning the full extent of the MPS's directions for the overseas police station.
Lu and Chen are now looking at a five year sentence, however, since they admitted to deleting evidence, they are also facing a 20 year sentence for obstructing justice.
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