A large group of U.S. House Republicans sent a letter on Friday questioning Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of State Antony Blinken over the presence of a Chinese Fuzhou police service station in New York City.
“We are writing to express our grave concern over reports of the law enforcement presence of the People’s Republic of China in New York City,” begins the letter from 21 lawmakers, including Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.).
The letter states, “The Public Security (Police) Bureau of Fuzhou, China, announced in January 2022 that it has opened the ‘first batch’ of 30 overseas police service stations in 25 cities in 21 countries. In the United States, the Fuzhou Police’s overseas service station is hosted at the American Changle Association, an overseas Chinese hometown organization in New York City.”
Basically, this Chinese Communist Party (CCP) police station has been illegally set up to spy on the country’s nationals in Lower Manhattan, and is being allowed by the Biden administration.
The New York Post reported, “The non-profit America ChangLe Association NY Inc. owns and operates the ‘service station’ located above a noodle shop on the third floor of 107 East Broadway on the Lower East Side, according to public filings. In May, the IRS yanked the group’s tax-exempt status for its failure to submit tax filings for three straight years, according to public records.”
The nonprofit “listed its charitable mission as a ‘social gathering place for Fujianese people,’ [and] paid $1.3 million three years later for the suite of offices that houses the Fuzhou Police Overseas Chinese Affairs bureau,” according to the Post.
The lawmakers’ letter was elicited after a September report from NGO Safeguard Defenders revealed that Chinese authorities have set up at least 54 police service stations across five continents, in the U.S. as well as in cities from Toronto to Dublin, as part of the CCP’s sprawling United Front Work Department.
According to a June report by think tank Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the United Front Work Department is a unit under the CCP that coordinates thousands of groups to carry out foreign political influence operations, suppress dissident movements, gather intelligence, and facilitate the transfer of technology to China.
The Epoch Times shared that the stations are supposedly there to help Chinese nationals overseas with administrative tasks such as renewing their driver’s licenses. But Safeguard Defenders warned that “the stations have ‘sinister’ purposes, such as assisting the CCP in targeting the Chinese diaspora.”
The GOP lawmakers agreed, writing that the police service stations “coerce purported Chinese fugitives abroad to return to China to face legal proceedings, which is euphemistically dubbed as ‘persuading to return’ in Chinese parlance. By doing so, China avoids scrutiny on its human rights record in relation to repatriating alleged fugitives overseas by eschewing formal international cooperation mechanisms.”
“It is deeply troubling that the Chinese government could use these service stations as its long arm policing abroad,” the lawmakers stated, adding, “there should be no room for the Chinese government to exercise extraterritorial law enforcement unilaterally on U.S. soil.”
Banks told Fox News Digital, “The Department of Justice and State Department must explain why the Biden administration has allowed CCP police to set up an office on U.S. soil. When Republicans take back the House, we will hold the Biden administration accountable for their continued efforts to aid and abet the Chinese Communist Party.”
The GOP letter to Blinken and Garland closed with the following:
“Considering the importance to safeguard the liberty of U.S. persons and the sovereignty of the United States from foreign encroachment, we request that you kindly respond to the following questions by October 21st, 2022,
- Did the Department of State, Department of Justice, or any other agency of the federal government invite or approve China’s Fuzhou police to establish a presence in New York City?
- Is there any other Chinese law enforcement presence in the United States besides Fuzhou police’s overseas services station in New York City?
- Has the Biden administration rescinded the visa restrictions imposed by the previous administration on Chinese nationals engaged in United Front work activities?
- Has the Department of State issued any visas to Chinese nationals to perform law enforcement or other related government duties at the Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station in New York City?
- Have the Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station in New York City and any of its employees registered with the federal government in accordance with [the] Foreign Missions Act and Foreign Agents Registration Act?
- Has the Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station in New York City engaged in any activities to monitor [or] harass U.S. residents or has it coerced any purported fugitive to go to China without due process under U.S. law?”
