The Chinese consulate-general in New York has demanded the United States stop engaging in what it has described as a “smear campaign” against its overseas police stations.
Two leaders of the America ChangLe Association, an organization with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, were charged by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for operating as unregistered agents of China. The DOJ alleges that several senior Chinese consular officials were working with the America ChangLe Association in some capacity, while the group was operating a secret Chinese police station in New York on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of Public Safety (MPS).
However, the Chinese consulate-general told National Review that the charges are baseless and part of a “smear campaign” against the CCP: “We hope that the US could do more to promote people-to-people exchanges and cooperation between China and the US, stop smearing Chinese diplomatic missions in the US, and stop politically persecuting individuals engaged in normal exchanges and cooperation with China.” (RELATED: FBI Raided Overseas Chinese Government Police Station In New York, Seized Materials: REPORT)
The Chinese consulate-general in New York demanded that the US put a halt to what it characterizes as a smear campaign. | @james_t_quinn https://t.co/omRNqDViAD
— National Review (@NRO) July 12, 2023
The Daily Caller News Foundation has reported extensively on Chinese security activity in the United States, particularly on “Overseas Chinse Service Centers” (OCSC). The so-called service centers are run by United Front Work Department (UFWD), a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence service that specializes in “coordinating [foreign and domestic] influence operations,” according to the U.S.-China Economic Security and Review Commission.
During a 2018 trip to Beijing, OCSC officials met with Ministry of Public Security (MPS) officers at a police station in China’s Zhejiang province. It was there that state security officials demonstrated how they’re leveraging new technology to conduct “cross-border remote justice services” overseas, the DCNF reported.
China has dismissed the accusations that it is running “secret police stations” stating that the service centers are simply part of their normal operations and run in “accordance with laws and regulations,” the National Review reported.
“China never interferes in other countries’ internal affairs,” the consulate-general’s press team told the outlet.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect that the alleged secret police station in Lower Manhattan is not one of the Overseas Chinese Service Centers operating in the United States.