Philip Lenczycki, an investigative journalist with Daily Caller, said he believes the undercover Chinese police station that was recently closed down in New York was likely not the only one operating in the U.S., and wonders if some elected officials might have ties to those operations.
Lenczycki voiced his concern in an episode of the China Conversations podcast on Feb. 21. Last fall, FBI agents searched an office building in New York City's Chinatown that was suspected of housing an undercover Chinese organization that illegally conducted police operations, according to the New York Times. The police station was one of more than 100 similar operations around the world, tasked with “collecting intelligence” and working to solve crimes without coordinating with local law enforcement, Chinese officials have said.
"Consider the China police station in New York," Lenczycki said on the podcast. "That’s an interesting story, and there's no doubt in my mind that that was not the only location. There was a Fujianese Association called America ChangLe Association that was hosting this overseas Chinese police station. They were working with the Chinese consulate and they were working with the United Front Work Department and the propaganda department from Fujian to pull this off. You had the individual who's the former head of the America ChangLe Association, Lu Jin Wong, who went to China to participate in the launching of the overseas police station initiative. So I'm guessing that that's the exact same model that we're going to see elsewhere. There are going to be these home China associations that represent a certain part of China, that are going to be hosting these government initiatives. It’s important that we suss this out in our communities."
Western officials believe the outposts enable the Chinese government to conduct surveillance on Chinese dissidents living abroad, which could be related to China's Operation Fox Hunt, which was implemented by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2014, utilizing a network of undercover Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents, according to a ProPublica report. The targets have supposedly committed financial crimes, but some are political dissidents or whistleblowers. The CCP operatives use coercive measures, such as threatening family members, to "persuade" the target to return to China.
“They use pressure, leverage, threats against family, they use proxies,” FBI Deputy Assistant Director Bradley Benavides said in the report. “Certainly, they are good at getting what they want.”
Through Operation Fox Hunt, CCP agents have reportedly caught more than 8,000 targets living abroad, ProPublica reported.
A State Department spokesperson told the National Review in January that the facility raided by the FBI has now been shut down.
“The FBI has confirmed that the ‘overseas police station’ in New York linked to Fuzhou has closed,” the spokesperson said.
The nonprofit Safeguard Defenders has identified at least three more similar operations in the U.S., one in New York, one in Los Angeles and a third in an undetermined location.
Lenczycki said the operations mean questions need to be asked.
"I would encourage you to look at some locally elected officials," he said. "Public records show the support that they've been receiving from some of these sectors, and this is recent. For instance, we saw that New York City Mayor Eric Adams attended [America ChangLe Association] events. He had received donations from their current head, was introduced to the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs by way of an assistant, an individual who has also met with that same entity connected to the United Front Work Department in China."
A Chinese businessman posted photos on LinkedIn showing Adams on stage at the gala event. State Sen. John Liu and City Councilman Sandra Ung were also reportedly in attendance. America ChangLe President James Lu donated $4,000 to Adams' mayoral campaign, public records show, LocalToday reported.
