NEW YORK: US authorities arrested two men Monday for setting up a Chinese "police station" in New York and charged dozens of Chinese security officials for a campaign to monitor and harass US-based dissidents.
The arrests and charges take aim at "transnational repression schemes targeting members of the Chinese diaspora community in New York City and elsewhere in the United States," said Breon Peace, the federal district attorney in Brooklyn.
The two men arrested were identified as Harry Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, who US officials said opened an office in Manhattan's Chinatown at the behest of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), China's national police force, last year.
The office, which was not registered as required with the US government, performed services like renewing China-issued drivers licenses, said Peace.
But it also took a role in helping track down and harass fugitive dissidents from the People's Republic of China (PRC), he said.
Harassing dissidents
The two were the first arrested anywhere over China's alleged campaign to establish surreptitious "police stations" in countries around the world, according to Peace.
Canada and several European governments have cracked down on similar operations.
Lu and Chen were charged with acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government and obstruction for destroying evidence of their communications with Chinese officials.
In a related case, the Justice Department announced charges against 34 members of the Ministry of Public Security involved in harassing dissidents overseas.
The 34 are members of the MPS 912 Special Project Working Group, which the Justice Department described as a task force set up "to target Chinese dissidents located throughout the world, including in the United States."
According to the US allegations, the task force created thousands of fake personae on social media sites including Twitter created "to target Chinese dissidents through online harassment and threats."
"This task force isn't a normal police force," said Peace in a press conference.
"It doesn't protect people or combat crimes. It commits crimes targeting Chinese democracy activists and dissidents located outside of the PRC, including right here in New York City."
Interrupting Zoom meetings
Another six MPS officials and two members of China's Cyberspace Administration were charged with conspiracy in an updated 2020 case of an employee of Zoom acting to disrupt online meetings and discussions by anti-Beijing activists.
The new indictment says the employee, Julien Jin, "worked directly with and took orders from" the MPS and Cyberspace Administration.
"It shows the PRC efforts to globalise the oppressive tactics used domestically in China to silence dissent," said David Newman, the US principal deputy assistant attorney general for national security.
"The efforts of the government of the PRC to export authoritarian methods to stifle free expression in the United States is a threat to American democracy that we will not abide."