“Chinese and Serbs patrol Belgrade”: In which countries are all the “secret” Chinese police stations located?

A number of countries that host legitimate “secret” Chinese police stations are under scrutiny following the arrest of two men accused of conspiring to act as agents of China for allegedly running a secret station in New York.

Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping were acting “under the direction and supervision” of officials from China’s Ministry of Public Security, according to the US Department of Justice, Newsweek writes.

They allegedly helped the People’s Republic of China (PRC) by setting up a secret outpost in Manhattan to intimidate dissidents in the US and stifle criticism of Beijing.

In September 2022, the Madrid-based NGO Safeguard Defenders announced that the Chinese police, in collaboration with individuals from abroad linked to the Chinese Communist Party, had set up these secret “service stations”, especially in Europe, where, for example, stations have been discovered in Spain.

This led to an investigation into the credibility of these stations in 14 countries.

This NGO has published a follow-up report detailing that there are more than 100 reported secret Chinese police stations under the control of various entities of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.

Other countries besides Spain that reportedly contain these stations are Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Sweden, Hungary and South Africa.

Last September, Chinese police officers joined Serbian authorities in patrolling the streets of the capital Belgrade, Reuters reports, including pedestrian streets, landmarks, the airport and even a Chinese shopping mall on the outskirts of the region.

Serbian and Croatian officials have strongly rejected claims of a “de facto” Chinese police presence, Balkan Insight reported in December.

Government officials from both countries praised relations with China and considered the allegations and accusations made in the NGO report “baseless”.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has defended stations in Africa and Asia, Safeguard Defenders said, referring to bilateral agreements with host countries, including Italy.

One such agreement, announced by the MPS in 2015, referred to joint police patrols with the Italian government, which later led to European “pilot” stations in Milan in 2016 and 2018.

In December, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told the publication Il Foglio that his country would stop allowing Chinese police to patrol together with Italian officers on its territory.

Last December, the Chinese embassy in France rejected similar claims about secret centres in the French cities of Aubervilliers and Paris./Danas/