Chinese immigrants express fear over China’s alleged secret overseas police stations

Chinese citizens who have fled repression at home fear they could now be ensnared by the increasingly long arm of Beijing’s law enforcement, with facilities identified in Europe and North America, according to new revelations.

Simon Cheng, the founder of London-based Hongkongers in Britain spoke to media outlets saying that, “People are afraid that it is becoming impossible to escape Chinese repression even in places like London.”

Safeguard Defenders, an NGO headquartered in Spain disclosed last year, in two reports, that at least 100 police stations were established overseas based on various Chinese polices authorities since 2018.

Dissidents said that the stations represent a warning that without real action by the democratic countries in which many of the alleged facilities are operating, there will be few places left in the world where they can be safe from the Chinese state.

The US Justice Department announced in a press conference on April 17, the first arrest of two men on accusations of repression against immigrant community members, in cooperation with the Chinese police stations

Elaborating on the issue, the US department said that the two men arrested admitted to having deleted correspondence with a Chinese official when they discovered they were under investigation.

It did not confirm the location of the alleged police station, but the case is suspected to be linked to the Manhattan site, which closed towards the end of last year.