Man admits guilt for spying; harassing Chinese living in US

SCREENSHOT

Chen Jinping, right, and his co-defendant Lu Jianwang.

Not only do Chinese immigrants in the US have to worry about adjusting to life in an unfamiliar culture, they have to contend with harassment and threats from their country of irigin, the Peoples Republic of China (PRC).

Chen Jinping, 60, of New York, New York, pleaded guilty today (Dec. 18) to conspiring to act as an illegal agent of the government of the PRC, in connection with opening and operating an undeclared overseas police station, located in lower Manhattan, for the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

“Today’s guilty plea holds the defendant accountable for his brazen efforts to operate an undeclared overseas police station on behalf of the PRC’s national police force — a clear affront to American sovereignty and danger to our community that will not be tolerated,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “The Department of Justice will continue to pursue anyone who attempts to aid the PRC’s efforts to extend their repressive reach into the United States.”

As alleged, Chen Jinping and co-defendant “Harry” Lu Jianwang , both US citizens, conspired to act as illegal agents of the PRC government and also obstructed justice by destroying evidence of their communications with an MPS official. While acting under the direction and control of the MPS official, the defendants worked together to establish the first known overseas police station in the United States on behalf of the Fuzhou branch of the MPS. 

The so-called police station — which closed in the fall of 2022 — occupied an entire floor in an office building in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Lu and Chen helped open and operate the clandestine police station. None of the participants in the scheme informed the U.S. government that they were helping the PRC government surreptitiously open and operate an undeclared MPS police station on U.S. soil.

The "police station" occupied an entire floor of the glass building in New York City's Chinatown.

“Not only was the police station set up on the order of MPS officials, but members of the Chinese consulate in New York even paid a visit to it after it opened,” said Michael Driscoll, the FBI’s assistant director in charge of its New York office. “It is our belief that the ultimate purpose of this illegal police station was not to protect and serve but rather silence, harass and threaten individuals here in the United States.

The two suspects were alleged to be the leaders of a nonprofit organization founded in 2013 that described its mission as a “social gathering place for Fujianese people,” and over the past several years, he built what prosecutors describe as a “relationship of trust” with the Chinese government.

The nonprofit sent counterprotesters to Washington in 2015 when members of the Falun Gong religion protested Chinese president Xi Jinping’s visit to the U.S., and Lu helped the Chinese government locate other dissidents in the U.S.

In another instance, one of the alleged Chinese agents began harassing a Chinese American who was advising a California candidate for the US Congress.

In October 2022, the FBI conducted a judicially authorized search of the illegal police station. In connection with the search, FBI agents interviewed both defendants and seized their phones. In reviewing the contents of these phones, FBI agents observed that communications between the defendants and an MPS official appeared to have been deleted. 

In subsequent consensual interviews, the defendants admitted to the FBI that they had deleted their communications with the MPS official after learning about the ongoing FBI investigation, thus preventing the FBI from learning the full extent of the MPS’s directions for the overseas police station.

Chen faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Per Chen’s plea agreement, the government has agreed to dismiss the obstruction of justice charge against him. Lu has pleaded not guilty to both of the charges against him and is awaiting trial.

The PRC's aggressive interference in the lives of Chinese immigrants not only violates their rights in the US, the strategy also gives red meat to racists' anti-Asian assaults, which rose signicantly during the pandemic and spurred by Trump's anti-Chinese rhetoric during his first term as President and  continued during his 2024 re-election campaign.

“Today's acknowledgment of guilt is a stark reminder of the insidious efforts taken by the PRC government to threaten, harass, and intimidate those who speak against their Communist Party,” said Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells of the FBI’s National Security Branch. 

“These blatant violations will not be tolerated on U.S. soil. The FBI remains committed to preserving the rights and freedoms of all people in our country and will defend against transnational repression at every front.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.