Eleven times in Italy: China is said to operate 102 illegal police stations abroad

In a new report, human rights organization Safeguard Defenders reveals evidence behind the establishment of at least 48 more overseas Chinese police stations. Including the station unveiled in September, China operates a total of at least 102 stations in 53 countries worldwide. The stations aim to monitor exiled Chinese nationals and urge them to return, the report said.

Safeguard Defenders is a Madrid-based non-profit organization that monitors disappearances in China. In September, the NGO released the report 110 Overseas – Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild. There she listed 54 Chinese overseas police stations in Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America – one of them in Frankfurt.

The report released Monday is titled “Patrol and Persuade” and adds 48 more stations to the list. Most of these are said to have been set up as early as 2016. In Europe, most of the stations are said to be in Italy: the report lists a total of 11 locations.

The new report focuses on the extent of the police network and examines the role of joint police initiatives with European countries. Some of the stations in Africa and Asia are said to have been set up in express agreement with the host country. The establishment of the pilot stations in Italy is said to have been the result of a bilateral agreement from 2015 between Italy and China.

Exiles are said to have been forced to return

The report cites the case of a Chinese national who is said to have been living in France. Agents at a Chinese police station in Aubervillier, north of Paris, are said to have forced him to return to China. The head of the station revealed in a Chinese interview that he had been sent to France for this purpose, the report says.

These illegal operations are called “persuasion to return”. One of the Chinese authorities is said to have assisted in arrest or forced return in 80 other cases.

China denies operation of overseas police station

Beijing denies it maintains undeclared police forces outside of China. The State Department told CNN in November: “We hope that the parties involved will stop hyping the matter to create tension. Using this as an excuse to slander China is unacceptable.”

China claims the facilities are administrative centers set up to help Chinese expatriates with administrative tasks such as driver’s license renewal. The offices were set up in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has made travel to and from China difficult. Safeguard Defenders’ indications that many stations were set up as early as 2016 contradict this statement.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry also told CNN that the stations were staffed by volunteers. The Safeguard Defenders report, on the other hand, speaks of 135 paid employees in the first 21 stations.

Unannounced consular activity outside of a country’s official diplomatic missions is illegal unless the host country has given its express consent. The reports have so far sparked investigations in at least 13 different countries, according to CNN, and sparked an increasingly heated diplomatic row between China and countries like Canada.

To home page