A bombshell investigation has revealed China is secretly running illegal “police stations” overseas – including at least one in Sydney – in order to harass its citizens living on foreign soil.
According to Spanish human rights group Safeguard Defenders, more than 100 stations have been established worldwide, particularly in Europe and Africa.
The stations have reportedly been set up in order to harass Chinese citizens and coerce them into returning home.
The operation has been dubbed “110 Overseas”, which is a reference to China’s emergency number, and is as part of global security measurers under President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.
While the organisation first went public about the practice in September, the latest developments, which come after months of investigations, revealed the scale was much wider than first reported, and that the stations were being run with the assistance of at least some host nations.
Over the weekend, Safeguard Defenders told CNN that the stations were established in foreign nations by at least two Public Security Bureaus from Zhejiang and Fuzhou province in what appeared to be close co-operation, in order to “resolutely crack down on all kinds of overseas Chinese-related illegal and criminal activities’’.
“Documents identified by Safeguard Defenders show such overseas police stations have been used by police back in China to carry out persuasion to return operations on foreign soil including in Europe,’’ the organisation said.
While China claims the stations exist to assist and serve expats, Safeguard Defenders argued they “also serve a more sinister goal” of targeting Chinese citizens who might be involved in illegal acts.
A number of nations have reacted with fury, with Austria’s interior ministry telling the APA news agency that “under no circumstances will we tolerate illegal activities by foreign intelligence services or police authorities”, while the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it takes “threats to the security of individuals living in Canada very seriously and is aware that foreign states may seek to intimidate or harm communities or individuals within Canada”.
So far, there is evidence that at least one station has been operating in Sydney, with the ABC reporting in October that “an official ‘contact point’ had been established in Sydney by the Department of Public Security in the Chinese city of Wenzhou in 2018”.
In recent months, Safeguard Defenders has called on authorities “across all democracies to recognise the domestic threat represented by these rapidly expanding transnational repression operations” and to “adopt a whole-of-government approach” when it comes to investigating the stations and protecting at-risk residents.
The latest revelations come amid a period of turmoil for Chinese authorities on home soil, as Beijing faces growing protests over President Xi Jinping’s controversial zero-Covid strategy.
Frustration over lockdowns and mass testing have boiled over recently, with furious citizens demanding an end to Mr Xi’s policies.
Authorities moved fast to quell the unrest, with a heavy police presence seen on the streets while online censorship and surveillance has been significantly beefed up.
However, while some cities have started to ease restrictions, local clashes continue to flare up, with commentators describing the demonstrations as the most significant in decades.
In fact, former Labor MP Michael Danby has told 2GB China “has to ease” widespread Covid-19 lockdowns before demonstrations in every major city take an ugly turn, with Mr Danby warning of the comparison between the current anti-lockdown protests and those of Tiananmen Square.
“Chinese people all over, of all ages, are involved in these demonstrations,” he told 2GB.
“China has to ease these lockdowns but because people are not properly vaccinated, I predict there will be a lot of deaths of older people.”
