NEW YORK CITY, NY – A 64-year-old man was found guilty earlier in May of helping operate a clandestine police station in Manhattan which bore links to the Chinese government and served as a means to monitor dissidents of said foreign government abroad, according to reports.
On May 13th, a jury found Lu Jianwang guilty on two counts of acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in connection to operating a foreign police station on American soil, with prosecutors alleging the police station was meant to track PRC dissidents who sought refuge in the United States.
According to a press release from the Justice Department, a second individual involved in the illegal operation, Chen Jinping, had already pleaded guilty back in December of 2024 to conspiring to act as an agent of the PRC.
The clandestine foreign police station was reportedly established as far back as January of 2022, with Lu and Chen having received orders from the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) to help run the operation.
Federal authorities raided the foreign police station located inside an office building on 107 East Broadway in Manhattan’s Chinatown back in October of 2022, with authorities recovering a banner from inside the office which read, “Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, New York, USA.”
During the October 2022 raid, Lu and Chen’s phones were also seized, with investigators finding the WeChat messages shared between their MSP handlers had been deleted.
Investigators later learned the isolated foreign police station is part of a broader global initiative by the PRC to establish similar posts abroad “to influence, threaten, and coerce political dissidents abroad, including in the United States, in an effort to silence them.”
Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI New York Field Office, James C. Barnacle, Jr., issued a statement following Lu’s conviction, saying, “Lu Jianwang used a police station in New York City to target PRC dissidents in furtherance of the Chinese government’s political agenda. May today’s verdict send a message to other foreign agents – the FBI maintains its unwavering resolve to reveal and disrupt the clandestine operations of adversarial nations.”
Lu faces up to 30 years in federal prison following his conviction. As for Chen, the Justice Department noted in their release that he is still awaiting sentencing following his 2024 plea agreement.
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