Chinese police stations in US, FBI investigating

Police stations linked to China have been set up across the US. According to NGO Safeguard Defenders reports, the presence of these stations around the world, including in New York. The report also said, the stations were an extension of Beijing's efforts to pressure some Chinese nationals or their relatives abroad to return to China to face criminal charges.The FBI's director, Christopher Wray,said that "We are aware of the existence of these stations,"  Wray said that the agency is investigating the operation of an unauthorized police station that China is running out of New York as part of a global network of such stations. He said that the United States is deeply concerned about the Chinese government setting up unauthorized police stations in US cities to possibly pursue influence operations. The FBI Director said that such an uncoordinated law enforcement operation violates sovereignty and circumvents standard judicial and law enforcement cooperation processes.

Earlier in September, the Spain-based human rights organization  Safeguard Defenders published a report revealing the presence of dozens of Chinese police service stations in major cities around the world. It said that Chinese public security bureaus established the "overseas police service stations" in several continents, including two in London and one in Glasgow. In North America, it found stations in Toronto and in New York. The units were reportedly created to tackle transnational crime and to provide administrative services to Chinese nationals abroad, such as renewing drivers' licences abroad and other consular services.However, Safeguard Defenders said they also serve a "more sinister goal", by contributing to "cracking down on all kinds of illegal and criminal activities involving overseas Chinese". China has denied running the overseas stations.

Wray said the United States had opened a number of charges related to the Chinese government harassing, stalking, monitoring and blackmailing people in the US who had been critical of Chinese President Xi Jinping. In October, the US unsealed criminal charges against seven Chinese nationals accused of spying on and harassing a US resident and his family as part of efforts by the Chinese government to return one of them to China.