A group of U.S. House Republicans on Oct. 7 sent a letter questioning Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of State Antony Blinken over the presence of Chinese service stations in New York City.
“We are writing to express our grave concern over reports of the law enforcement presence of the People’s Republic of China in New York City,” the 21 lawmakers wrote, referring to China’s full name.
“The Chinese overseas police service station established in New York City earlier this year appears to be a further step of China’s illicit long arm policing on U.S. soil that violates our sovereignty,” Republican Study Committee chairman Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Reps. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), and 18 other GOP House members wrote in the letter.
The letter came after a September report from NGO Safeguard Defenders revealed the Chinese authorities have set up at least 54 police service stations across five continents, including the United States, as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) global transnational repression.
An outpost in New York City was among the “first batch” of 30 overseas police service stations in 21 countries set up by the Public Security Bureau in Fuzhou city, the capital of the southern coastal province of Fujian.
The Chinese police authorities’ division in New York, called Fuzhou Police Oversea Service Station, is located at 107 East Broadway, inside the headquarters of the American Changle Association, a non-profit that was founded in 1998, according to its website.
Such Chinese hometown associations hosting the overseas police service stations are often linked to the Chinese regime’s “United Front” system, according to Safeguard Defenders. The network of thousands of overseas groups is loosely overseen by the United Front Work Department (UFWD), a powerful Party agency that works to advance the regime’s interests abroad, including by carrying out foreign influence operations, suppressing dissident movements, gathering intelligence, and facilitating the transfer of technology to China.
The lawmakers noted that the Trump administration imposed visa restrictions on CCP officials in the UFWD in 2020. Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said those officials “have engaged in malign activities to co-opt and coerce those who oppose Beijing’s policies” in December 2020.
By Dorothy Li
