The defendant, Chen Jinping, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 30.
U.S. prosecutors are seeking a three-year prison sentence for a Chinese American citizen accused of operating a secret police station for Beijing in the New York City borough of Manhattan.
Chen Jinping, who pleaded guilty in December 2024 to conspiring to act as an illegal agent, is scheduled to be sentenced in Brooklyn Federal Court before District Judge Nina Morrison of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on May 30. Chen and a co-defendant, Lu Jianwang, were arrested in April 2023.
The hidden outpost was established in February 2022, under the auspices of a Chinese organization called the America ChangeLe Association in Manhattan’s Chinatown. At the time of their arrest, Chen was the association’s secretary general, while Lu was the former president.
According to prosecutors, the defendants had set up and operated the station at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to conduct transnational repression schemes in coordination with the regime’s Ministry of Public Security.
The arrest of Chen and Lu followed a 2022 report published by Spain-based advocacy group Safeguard Defenders that stated that the CCP had set up more than 100 overseas police stations in 53 countries.
In a sentencing memorandum filed on May 16, prosecutors said the case represents the first known prosecution related to the Chinese regime’s “practice of opening and operating undeclared police stations in foreign nations” to assist the CCP in “enforcing its laws throughout the world.”
Prosecutors explained that their recommendation of a three-year sentence for Chen was based on the “serious nature” of his conduct.
“Such a sentence would constitute just punishment, reflect the severity of the defendant’s conduct, promote respect for the law, and provide the specific and general deterrent effect called for by the defendant’s offense,” prosecutors wrote.
In contrast, Chen’s defense lawyer, Susan Kellman, told the judge in a sentencing memorandum that her client should be put on supervised release, which could include a “healthy dose of community service.”
According to Kellman, Chen has “expressed remorse for his wrongdoing.”
By Frank Fang
