The two males are alleged to have helped China set up its first abroad police station for Beijing’s Ministry of Public Security.
(Reuters Archive)
Two alleged Chinese cops have been taken into custody and 40 different Chinese National Police officers have been charged with a sprawling plot to spy on US-based dissidents, the Justice Department has introduced.
The two males who have been arrested early Monday morning have been recognized as New York City residents “Harry” Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx, and Chen Jinping, 59, of Manhattan.
They are alleged to have helped China set up its first abroad police station for Beijing’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS).
The clandestine station was closed within the fall of 2022 after its operators grew to become conscious of an FBI investigation, prosecutors mentioned.
It was based mostly in Manhattan’s Chinatown district.
“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,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen mentioned in a press release, referring to China by its formal acronym.
“This prosecution reveals the Chinese authorities’s flagrant violation of our nation’s sovereignty by establishing a secret police station in the midst of New York City,” he added.
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Spying accusations
The men are accused of destroying evidence of their communications with an MPS official ahead of their arrests.
Lu and Chen are being charged with conspiring to act as agents of the Chinese government and obstructing justice. They face up to 25 years in prison if convicted of both charges.
Dozens of other individuals who remain at large were separately charged with carrying out two schemes on behalf of Beijing that sought to intimidate US-based dissidents “whose political opinions and actions are disfavored by the PRC authorities, reminiscent of advocating for democracy within the PRC.”
Those charged embody 40 MPS officers, two officers with the Cyberspace Administration of China, and one Chinese and one American worker of a US-based telecommunications firm.
All are believed to reside in China or elsewhere in Asia.
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Source: AA
Source: www.trtworld.com
