<span class ="kicker">The Telegraph article featuring Smith's commentary</span>'Inside New York's first secret Chinese police station'

This press release from Representative Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ) was published on 2026-06-26 and titled "<span class ="kicker">The Telegraph article featuring Smith's commentary</span>'Inside New York's first secr".

<span class ="kicker">The Telegraph article featuring Smith's commentary</span>'Inside New York's first secret Chinese police station'

By Iona Cleave Published June 26, 2026 at 10:00 AM BST In a drab office block in Manhattan’s Chinatown, sandwiched between a ramen bar and a supermarket, the long arm of the Chinese state had been hiding in plain sight. A banner on one of its wall identified it as “The Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station”. In the first case of its kind, the man accused of running the first known Chinese outpost on American soil was convicted of acting as an “illegal foreign agent” on May 13. US prosecutors said the police station in the heart of New York City – which was disguised as a community centre – was under orders from Beijing to monitor, harass and silence Chinese dissidents. The Chinese government operated a secret police station in a building in New York City’s Chinatown Credit: Getty Images One of its targets was Xi Jie, a pro-Democracy activist who fled China and now lives in California. Mr Xi, the key witness at the trial, told The Telegraph: “I was targeted with messages, death threats and calls – once more than 170 in one day. I called the police, but there was not much they could do.” A banner on the wall identifies the building as ‘The Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station’ Credit: US District Court for the Eastern District of NY The police station was raided by the FBI in October 2022, sending shockwaves through the intelligence community and raising the obvious question: “Where are the rest?” Laura Harth leads research on China at Safeguard Defenders, the human rights organisation that tipped off the FBI about the building. She said: “We know this is the tip of the iceberg, and there will be more.” The New York outpost is believed to have been part of a network of 102 covert police stations around the world acting under the command of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security. Xi Jie, a pro-democracy activist, fled China and was targeted by the Chinese policing operations in the US A 2022 report by Safeguard Defenders exposed three such operations in the UK. In 2023, Britain said that China had closed the alleged stations. Last week, a court revealed that Beijing had been running shadow police operations at an outpost in Central London. Bill Yuen, 66, was jailed for eight years on a charge of assisting a foreign intelligence service . The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the world’s most prolific and sophisticated perpetrator of transnational repression. It targets dissidents, journalists and ethnic and religious minorities across the globe in an effort to control its diaspora and silence protests. Yana Gorokhovskaia, director of research at Freedom House, an independent watchdog, told The Telegraph: “Embedded in its policy towards Chinese citizens overseas is the idea that China and its laws extend far beyond its borders.” The Chinese secret police station operated above a ramen shop in East Broadway in Manhattan Credit: New York Daily News Ms Gorokhovskaia said the campaign was “very extensive” in the US, but rarely documented. Representative Chris Smith, a senior member of the House foreign affairs committee and co-chairman of the congressional-executive commission on China, told The Telegraph it was “an active and pressing danger to the American people”. Mr Smith said: “With complete impunity, the CCP harasses, intimidates and stalks Chinese dissidents – including US citizens of Chinese descent – and their families, both in-person and online, all within the United States’ borders. “We cannot stand idly by while our citizens and lawful residents are being targeted and harassed by foreign governments on our soil.” In 2014, Beijing launched Operation Fox Hunt, a programme to track, threaten and coerce overseas dissidents and repatriate alleged fugitives. Outposts used for ‘espionage and intimidation’ The global repression campaign then moved its focus towards Chinese overseas police stations, coordinated through the United Front Work Department. The outposts are mostly a mix of community centres and surveillance centres. Ms Gorokhovskaia said: “They accomplish the goals together. One part provides consular services, the other espionage and intimidation.” Beijing has long denied the presence of clandestine overseas outposts, dismissing reports as part of a Western smear campaign. According to court documents, Lu Jianwang, 64, a Chinese-American citizen, founded the police station in early 2022. In March, the outpost received instructions to start tracking Mr Xi, beginning a campaign of harassment. ‘I’ve been persecuted by the CCP for years’ He said: “I was not too scared, I have become used to it. I have been facing persecution from the Chinese Communist Party for so many years now.” Mr Xi, 60, who took part in the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square , said he was continuously persecuted and detained until he fled China in 2013. After moving to the US in 2018, he said he was continuously targeted by intimidation and harassment, largely online, including death threats. After the outpost