2023-04-18 00:39:02
The United States Attorney’s Office announced on Monday the indictment of two people for opening and maintaining operations an illegal police station in Manhattan’s Chinatown (New York) who was working under orders from the Chinese National Police to monitor and harass residents of that country critical of the Beijing authorities.
Likewise, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York accused other 34 alleged Chinese police officers to lead a “massive campaign” on social media in order to “threatening Chinese dissidents, amplify divisions among Americans and undermine confidence” in the democratic process.
“In the heart of bustling Chinatown, in Lower Manhattan, a dark secret was hidden until several months ago, an entire floor of a building housed and undeclared a police station of the Chinese National Police“U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace, said at a press conference.
Peace cited that on at least one occasion, Chinese security forces asked one of the two defendants in this case, arrested this morning, to locate a pro-democracy activist of Chinese descent living in California.
The prosecutor assured that the two defendants admitted to deleting communications with Chinese police officers from their phones, after learning that the FBI had opened an investigation against them.
The detainees are Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, both residents of New York and who will appear this Monday for the first time before a federal judge in the city.
Lu, who according to prosecutors collaborated for years with the Chinese security apparatusand Chen are charged with conspiring to act as foreign agents and with obstruction of justice for the alleged destruction of evidence of their communications with Chinese officials.
As for the second case, it involves the accusation of 34 Chinese Police officers who belong to a group called “Special Project 912”, which operates as a “troll farm” that acts “against Chinese democracy activists and dissidents located outside the PRC”according to Peace.
The prosecution maintains that this group created thousands of fake profiles that were used in a coordinated manner to harass, discredit, and threaten dissidents and activists around the world: “Individuals perceived by the People’s Republic of China as threats to the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party.”
Among his activities, the prosecutor highlighted the boycott of online meetings, to force their interruption. Also, he said, “they use their fake online profiles to spread propaganda and the official narrative of the Chinese government with the aim of counteracting and coercing dissidents who speak out in favor of democracy”.
We cannot and will not tolerate the Chinese government’s persecution of pro-democracy activists who have sought refuge in this country. We want this prosecution to serve as a warning that we remain determined to fight any attempt by the Chinese Communist Party to oppress and intimidate our residents,” Peace said.
The authorities also added this Monday eight new defendants in another cause of transnational repression opened in 2020, in which a former executive of the Zoom video conferencing company in China was accused of censoring, in collaboration with the Chinese government, virtual meetings on that platform that commemorated the Tiananmen Square protests.
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