Two men have been arrested by the FBI for allegedly running a covert station for China’s police force in New York. The station, which was allegedly set up in February 2022 in Manhattan’s Chinatown, was operated by Beijing’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) and used as a base to track Chinese dissidents living in the US.
The station was raided in October 2022, and on Monday, the FBI arrested the two New Yorkers who were suspected of running it. They have been charged with obstruction of justice for deleting evidence on the phones of their contacts with an MPS official.
The justice department has also announced charges against 40 MPS officers and four others for allegedly running an internet troll operation against dissidents in the US. The officers, thought to be in China, are members of an MPS unit, the “912 special project working group,” dedicated to the pursuit of dissidents abroad.
There are allegations that similar offices are run by volunteers around the world and are not connected with the police, but there is evidence of direct ties between the Chinese police and the New York site. This case serves as a reminder that China will stop at nothing to bend people to their will and silence messages they don’t want anyone to hear.
[Information from The Guardian]
