A New York man, Chen Jinping, pleaded guilty to running an undeclared Chinese police station in Manhattan, marking an important milestone in the US government’s campaign against foreign government influence on US soil. Chen, 60 years old, admitted to conspiring to act as an agent of the Chinese government, particularly for the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), and to running a clandestine police station in Lower Manhattan.
Chen faces up to five years in prison when she is sentenced next year. US Attorney Breon Peace described Chen’s actions as part of a “transnational repression scheme” that was aimed at targeting Chinese American pro-democracy activists. Peace emphasized that the US Justice Department is committed to disrupting foreign operations that violate American sovereignty, especially affecting local diaspora communities.
The illegal police station, located in Manhattan’s Chinatown, operated under the direction of China’s MPS and offered basic services like renewing Chinese driving licenses. However, US officials revealed its more nefarious purpose to help the Chinese government track and locate pro-democracy activists, including a Chinese American living in California.
The 62-year-old co-defendant is Lu Jianwang, another US citizen, who also pleaded not guilty to related charges and awaits trial. Both men were arrested in April 2023. Though the station was closed during the fall of 2022, its presence made alarm bells ring about interference from abroad in domestic matters. The FBI raided the facility, taking phones that belonged to Chen and Lu. Later, investigators uncovered deleted communications between the men and an MPS official.
In recent years, the US government has increased its crackdown on Chinese espionage activities. This case forms part of a broader attempt to halt China’s covert influence operations, including forcing people in the US and around the world to toe the line of Beijing’s interests. In 2020, the Justice Department indicted several individuals connected to the attempts to force a man from New Jersey to go back to China. Moreover, US officials have condemned China’s increasing dominance in America’s politics and their pressures on US-Chinese residents.
Chen’s conviction is a culmination of what has been growing between the two nations concerning security threats toward their nation; law authorities have stated the requirement of safeguarding America from another country’s influence from an external government.
