NEW YORK — The FBI has arrested two people accused of helping run an illegal police station for the Chinese government in lower Manhattan, two senior law enforcement officials said.
The two are accused of conspiring to act as agents of the Chinese government, the sources added.
Besides the New York complaint, the sources said, two other complaints were filed in Washington: one against 34 members of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau and another against a group of 10 people including eight Chinese government officials.
The common thread running through the three complaints is that the suspects allegedly worked to intimidate, harass and threaten “wanted” Chinese nationals in the United States.
Last November, the FBI said it knew China was operating a de facto police station in Manhattan, outside of proper procedure or authority, as part of a global network of such outposts. . This followed an investigation carried out in September 2022 by a non-governmental organization, Save Defenderswho reported that there were dozens of such centers around the world conducting police operations.
Chinese officials criticized this characterization, saying the “service centers” were run by volunteers and had nothing to do with surveillance. But the New York Times reported in January that Chinese state media had explicitly portrayed the centers as police facilities operating in other countries without collaborating with local authorities. The Times also reported that the FBI searched the East Broadway facility in the fall of 2022.