2 NYC men charged with running alleged 'secret police station' in Chinatown for a foreign government, federal prosecutors say

Two New York City men were arrested Monday and charged with allegedly operating “an undeclared secret police station” in Manhattan’s Chinatown to monitor and harass dissidents, in what a federal prosecutor called “a flagrant violation of American sovereignty.”

Lu Jianwang, also known as Harry Lu, 61, of the Bronx, and Chen Jinping, 59, of Manhattan, are each charged in a complaint with conspiring to act as agents of the People’s Republic of China and obstruction of justice, for allegedly deleting communications from their cellphones with a Chinese police official.

The alleged acts of “transnational repression” announced during a Brooklyn news conference Monday, also included charges against 34 defendants, all members of China’s Ministry of Public Security, for allegedly conspiring to intimidate and harass Chinese dissidents. Another 10 people, also believed to be living in China, were also charged for attempting to censor speech on a U.S.-based technology platform, including conversations on the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said the police station opened in February 2022 in a nondescript office building in Manhattan’s Chinatown under the guise of offering assistance to Chinese citizens, including assisting them to renew their Chinese driver’s licenses. The defendants were required under U.S. law to provide prior notice of their services to the attorney general, which didn’t happen, Peace said.

About a month later, an MPS official sought Lu’s assistance to locate a pro-democracy activist and Chinese dissident living in California, officials said.

“This prosecution reveals the Chinese government’s flagrant violation of our nation’s sovereignty by establishing a secret police station in the middle of New York City,” Peace said. “As alleged, the defendants were directed to do the PRC’s bidding, including helping locate a Chinese dissident living in the United States, and obstructed our investigation by deleting their communications with a Chinese Ministry of Public Security official. Such a police station has no place here in New York City — or any American community.”

The office closed after the FBI raided it last October.

The Spain-based human rights group Safeguard Defenders said in a report last year that the Chinese government runs over 100 secret police stations in the United States and several other countries in order to monitor and harass dissidents.

Peace, who said his office and the FBI were the first law enforcement agencies to take action against China’s network of secret police stations, added: “New York City is home to New York’s finest, the NYPD. We don’t need or want a secret police station in our great city.”

Defense attorneys for the defendants could not be immediately reached for comment.

Michael J. Driscoll, the assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York field office, said: “Not only was the police station set up on the order of MPS officials, but members of the Chinese consulate in New York even paid a visit to it after it opened. It is our belief that the ultimate purpose of this illegal police station was not to protect and serve, but rather silence harass and threaten individuals here in the United States and particularly those expressing views contrary to the Chinese government.”

Federal prosecutors last year announced the arrests of two Long Islanders and three others suspects for allegedly conspiring with Chinese government and political officials to stalk and harass Chinese dissidents, including a U.S. military veteran and Tiananmen Square demonstrator who had announced a run for Congress on Long Island.

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.