Chen Jinping, of Manhattan, pleads guilty to running an illegal police station in Chinatown for Chinese government, federal prosecutors say

A Manhattan man pleaded guilty Wednesday in connection with a scheme to conspire with Chinese government officials to operate an illegal overseas police station in lower Manhattan in an effort to monitor and intimidate dissidents.

Chen Jinping, 60, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to act as an agent of the government of the People’s Republic of China. He is facing up to 5 years in prison when he is sentenced on May 30.

"A priority of my Office has been to counteract the malign activities of foreign governments that violate our nation’s sovereignty by targeting local diaspora communities in the United States," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. "Today, a participant in a transnational repression scheme who worked to establish a secret police station in the middle of New York City on behalf of the national police force of the People’s Republic of China has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to act as an illegal agent. We will continue our efforts to protect the rights of vulnerable persons who come to this country to escape the repressive activities of authoritarian regimes."

Chen was arrested in 2023 and charged with conspiring to act as agents of the government of the People's Republic of China as well as obstructing justice by destroying evidence of their communications with an official from the government’s Ministry of Public Security.

"Harry" Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx, also pleaded not guilty to the charges and is awaiting trial.

Chen and Lu, at the direction of a Chinese official in the Fuzhou branch of the MPS, established the first known overseas police station in the United States. Chen and Lu, prosecutors said, helped to open and operate the police station, without informing the U.S. government.

The FBI raided the illegal police station, which occupied an entire floor of an office building in Chinatown, in October 2022. It was then shut down.

Prosecutors said FBI agents interviewed Lu and Chen and seized their phones. Prosecutors alleged that communications Lu and Chen had with an MPS official were deleted from their phones and that the defendants later admitted deleting the communications.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.