NEW YORK and WASHINGTON D.C.- Manhattan resident Chen Jinping has pleaded guilty to a charge in federal court related to running a secret Chinese police station in New York.
Chen Jinping, a U.S. citizen, had assisted with administrative tasks at the hidden outpost in Manhattan’s Chinatown in 2022.
According to U.S. prosecutors, it was set up by officials at China’s Fuzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, a branch of its Ministry of Public Security, and was used to intimidate and silence critics of the Chinese government in New York.
Chen’s plea in Brooklyn on Wednesday is the first time a person involved in one of these overseas outposts has been held to account in court.
More than 100 of the Chinese police outposts have apparently been opened in cities around the world.
Chen, 61, admitted to conspiring to act as a foreign government agent, for which he faces up to five years in prison.
The existence of the police station in Chinatown and in other locations around the world was first reported in a 2022 report by the Spain-based human-rights group, Safeguard Defenders.
“I hope the outcome of cases like this will encourage victims of the PRC’s transnational repression to come forward in greater numbers,” Laura Harth, the campaign director of Safeguard Defenders, told RFA, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
“I also hope that the 53 countries where ‘overseas police stations’ have been uncovered take note and take action. This case serves as a warning to anyone considering assisting the CCP in its covert operations: there is no advantage in doing so,” she said, using an acronym for the Chinese Communist Party.
Chen Jinping was arrested in April 2023. He was charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice. He did not plead guilty to the second charge. He will be sentenced on May 30, 2025.
Chen Jinping, a home health aide, wore a dark blue suit and a red tie to appear before Judge Nina Morrison of the Eastern District of New York.
Rising to address the court, he read from a sheet of paper. “I knowingly acted as a foreign agent,” he said in Mandarin. An interpreter from Fujian Province translated.
When RFA asked later how he felt after pleading guilty, he only smiled.
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According to prosecutors, Chen and another man who was also charged, Lu Jianwang, worked at the outpost set up within the confines of the nonprofit American Chang Le Association in Chinatown.
RFA visited the association last year, and members of the Chinese community in New York disclosed that while the association had helped some in the diaspora with paperwork and logistics, it had also played a role in harassing others.
Responding to Chen’s plea Wednesday, Zhou Fengsuo, a community leader, told RFA: “This is a representative case for the U.S. system, in which justice is served and evil is punished.”
“We hope that more overseas police stations will be closed and investigated so that Chinese people living abroad will face less oppression and threats from the CCP,” he added.
Lu is due in court in 2025.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not return a request for comment by press time, but the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry has previously denied the existence of overseas police stations.
Edited by Boer Deng
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Jane Tang, Tara McKelvey.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.