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China has set up dozens of police stations around the world, including one in Australia, which a human rights group claims are using to track down and retrieve dissidents.
A new report from Safeguard Defenders, a human rights watchdog, revealed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has at least 54 “overseas police service stations” in 30 different countries.
It is feared that China is carrying out an operation of the secret police station in Sydney (pictured is a Chinese officer on duty in Beijing)
Safeguard Defenders, a human rights watchdog, reported that the police stations have been used to signal Chinese nationals to return home
The Chinese Police Operation in Sydney was established in 2018 by the Communist Party’s Department of Public Security ABC reports.
A founding ceremony for the station was covered by the Chinese press, but it flew under the radar in Australia.
While the CCP claims the stations are intended to keep an eye on “fraud and telecom fraud” perpetrated by civilians living on board, a human rights group claims China has used the program to track down dissidents and return them to their country of birth. .
Laura Harth, campaign manager for Safeguard Defenders, which released the new report, said people who oppose the communist regime could be at risk, including their families.
Spain-based human rights agency Safeguard Defenders says Chinese ‘contact points’ are also home to Chinese police operations. The campaign manager, Laura Harth, said people who have fled China – and their families – could be at risk
She told the ABC that the ‘point of contact’ in Sydney was comparable to China’s overseas police stations in other countries.
“Each country uses different names… it seems they are using a pre-existing framework of United Front Work organizations around the world to build this additional functionality,” said Ms. Harth.
“For Australian people, I would say, especially for overseas Chinese who have fled China — dissidents, ethnic and religious minorities — these organizations could of course potentially be used to go after them or go after their families.”
In January, Safeguard Defenders claimed that at least eight Australian residents had been involuntarily returned to China by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to be prosecuted for alleged “economic crimes.”
In the report, the nonprofit describes cases where the family wanted citizens to ask their loved one to come back to China.
Safeguard Defenders said it served as a threat from the CCP that if the civilian did not return, something would be done to their families.
Pictured: Chinese officials at work in their New York City police station. It is one of at least 54 operating worldwide, and the only one known to operate in the US
New York’s Secret Police Station is located above a ramen shop on East Broadway between Chinatown and the Lower East Side and opened on February 15
“Nothing seems too impressive or too harsh,” Harth said. “That is a clear message to anyone who wants to leave China, or has already left China: that you are not safe anywhere.”
The report warned that China was likely expanding its program around the world.
According to Safeguard Defenders, China already has the stations in cities around the world, including New York, London, Paris, Toronto and Amsterdam. Madrid and Rome.
It also claims that the program falls outside existing bilateral agreements on international crime.
“These operations eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate the international legal order, and may violate the territorial integrity of third countries involved in establishing a parallel police mechanism using illegal methods,” the group’s report said.
In addition to the list of police stations, Safeguard Defenders also noted that China has designated nine Asian countries as “banned” and is calling on all countries to immediately return from their countries.
Countries include Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia.
According to the report, a Chinese restaurant owner in Cambodia was forced to return to China after police warned her that her mother’s power would be cut off if she did not.
Safeguard Defenders said there have been many reports of police going around the homes of ‘fraud’ suspects and spraying ‘shameful fraud’ on them.
Some have been found to assist Chinese police in keeping “persuasion sessions” at bay, the nonprofit said.
A Madrid train station has tracked down a man wanted in China for environmental pollution.
He was forced to sit down for a video call with public security agents and a Chinese prosecutor – while a relative was asked to sit next to authorities in China during the call.
Other examples of blackmail include authorities threatening to cut off electricity to families’ homes or restricting access to schools for family members.
The Chinese embassy in Canberra and the consulate general in Sydney declined to comment on the nature of the contact point and the activities taking place here.