China Expands Its Network of Secret Police Stations Around the World

National Security

China uses 54 overseas police stations, including in New York City, to hunt down citizens 

Chinese president Xi Jinping / Getty Images 

Karl Salzmann • September 15, 2022 3:00 pm

China has opened up its latest secret “overseas police service centers” in Chinese restaurants and shops throughout the United Kingdom, the Telegraph reported Wednesday.
The Chinese Communist Party runs 54 police centers outside of China, 36 in Europe alone. One of the two in London claims to be a real estate company, while one in Glasgow operates in a Chinese restaurant.
The expansion of these overseas police stations comes as human rights activists warn that China is harassing political dissidents on foreign soil. Some political exiles say China is misusing Interpol to bring back dissidents, including foreign nationals, the Telegraph reported.
While the stations say they help Chinese travelers with paperwork, researchers have found that they are actually “hunting down and blackmailing Chinese citizens to force them to return home.” According to the human rights organization Safeguard Defenders, the centers’ activity “is all taking place under the radar,” unseen by police and the public.
One Chinese secret police center operates in New York City, the Safeguard Defenders report found.
Officers at a center in Madrid tracked down a man and forced him to take part in “a video call with public security agents and a prosecutor” in China.
The centers also extort people into returning to China by “threatening to cut electricity to the homes of …