Manhattan resident Chen Jinping pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) after he operated a secret police station in the city on behalf of the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS).
Chen now faces five years in prison.
Chen and co-defendant Lu Jianwang conspire to “act as illegal agents of the PRC government and also obstructed justice by destroying evidence of their communications with an MPS official,” a press release explains.
The defendants worked to establish the “first known overseas police station in the United States on behalf of the Fuzhou branch of the MPS.” The police station, which closed in 2022, operated from an “entire floor in an office building in Manhattan’s Chinatown.”
After seizing and reviewing the contents of the defendants’ phones, FBI agents found that communications between the defendants and the MPS official appeared to have been deleted, the release describes.
Prosecuting U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Chen participated 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,” Peace said.
FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Dennehy said Chen Jinping “admitted to his role in audaciously establishing an undeclared police station in the heart of New York City and attempting to conceal the effort when approached by FBI New York.” He noted the illegal police station “was not opened in the interest of public safety, but to further the nefarious and repressive aims of the PRC in direct violation of American sovereignty.”
The two defendants were arrested last year.
