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OAN Staff Abril Elfi
4:50 PM – Wednesday, December 18, 2024
A New York City man accused of running a secret Chinese government police station in Chinatown, Manhattan, has pleaded guilty.
On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace stated that Chen Jinping, 60, pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an agent of the government of China.
“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,” Peace said. “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.”
During a press release, Peace explained that Chen and co-defendant Lu Jianwang, 61, acted as illegal agents of the Chinese government, obstructing justice by destroying evidence of their communications with a Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS) official.
The release also said that the men worked together to establish the first known overseas police station in the United States. The illegal police station reportedly utilized an entire top level of a Chinatown business building until closing in the fall of 2022.
Chen and Lu were both charged with aiding in the establishment and running of the covert establishment. However, Lu has not pleaded guilty. Chen also admitted to removing an online article about the police station for his Beijing handlers in September 2022.
“I knowingly agreed to act as a foreign agent, for a foreign government,” he admitted to Judge Nina Morrison, speaking through an interpreter.
“At the time I did this, I did not inform the attorney general that I was acting as a foreign agent, and I was not registered as a foreign agent,” he added.
Court papers have noted that Lu, whose case is still pending, purportedly assisted Chinese security officials in locating targeted “dissidents” who were living in the U.S.
In October 2022, the FBI executed a search warrant on the illegal business, where they interviewed the two men and seized their electronics. The feds have alleged that the duo tried to cover up their crimes by deleting their communications with a Chinese Ministry of Public Security official after learning that they were under investigation.
Chen is set to be sentenced May 30th, 2025. Jianwang pleaded not guilty and is now awaiting trial.
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