The Attorney General of Missouri, Andrew Bailey, has announced an impending investigation into a center allegedly linked to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) intelligence unit.
The Daily Caller disclosed a letter from Bailey stating his intent to probe the operations of this center, dubbed the “service center,” within his jurisdiction.
This initiative follows a report by the DCNF revealing that the United Front Work Department (UFWD), a CCP intelligence service with expertise in “coordinating [foreign and domestic] influence operations”, runs a number of Overseas Chinese Service Centers (OCSCs) in various U.S. cities.
These centers, established between 2014 and 2017, are situated in St. Louis, Missouri; St. Paul, Minnesota; San Francisco, California; Omaha, Nebraska; Charlotte, North Carolina; Houston, Texas and Salt Lake City, Utah, as detailed in Chinese state media reports.
In a communication to Republican Representative Ann Wagner of Missouri, Bailey expressed deep concern and ensured that this issue would garner his office’s full attention.
He wrote, “The information you have shared with my office about a possible CCP outpost within the borders of Missouri is deeply concerning and will receive the full attention of my office,” and highlighted that “The threat posed by the CCP is very real.”
Previously, Wagner had alerted the Attorney General about the existence of an OCSC branch in St. Louis and expressed to the DCNF that such alleged CCP attempts to “gain a foothold in America” must be halted.
This specific OCSC is located within the Chinese Education and Culture Center in St. Louis, having been set up in 2017 according to Chinese state-run media.
Last week saw various Republican lawmakers, including Senators John Cornyn of Texas, Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, and Nebraska Republican Representative Don Bacon, raise their concerns about these alleged service centers.
These officials reportedly engaged in talks with the FBI over the seven U.S. OCSC branches.
The DCNF has linked the OCSC program not only to Chinese intelligence but also to the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), China’s national police authority, with which it has reportedly introduced its international representatives.
The DOJ has often stated that the MPS conducts covert intelligence operations in the U.S, involving “illicit, transnational repression schemes.”
In 2018, OCSC representatives from America visited Beijing to partake in a “work conference”, as reported by Qiaowang, a Chinese state-run media outlet.
During this visit, they also met with MPS officers in Zhejiang province, China, and observed demonstrations of how Chinese police utilize communication platforms for overseas “cross-border remote justice services.”
Despite the lack of proof that these U.S.-based service centers employ MPS technology, the DCNF report indicated that OCSC centers in various nations aid China’s global policing endeavors through their service as “Overseas Chinese Police Contact Points” and through conducting “armed patrols.”
Wagner urged both federal and state governments to scrutinize these allegations closely, stating to the DCNF that, “It is imperative that U.S. federal and state governments build a complete understanding of the PRC’s network of overseas police stations and the Chinese Communist Party-linked entities supporting their malicious work to extend PRC repression and coercion beyond its borders.”
