Operator of secret Chinese police station in NYC pleads guilty

(NEW YORK) — One of the suspects accused of running a secret Chinese police station in lower Manhattan has pleaded guilty.

The suspects in the case, Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping, were accused by prosecutors last year of working on behalf of China’s Ministry of Public Security in violation of the Espionage Act.

Chen pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a charge of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government. He will be sentenced on May 30, 2025. Lu has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

At the time the case was charged in April 2023, the FBI called it in an example of China’s “audacious activities” on U.S. soil.

The location in Chinatown claimed to be a nonprofit organization helping Chinese-Americans but federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, who brought the case, said it “appears to have had a more sinister use.”

Prosecutors said the secret police station was set up by Chinese counterintelligence operatives to harass and intimidate dissidents living in the United States.

“Today, a participant in a transnational repression scheme who worked to establish a secret police station in the middle of New York City on behalf of the national police force of the People’s Republic of China has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to act as an illegal agent,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said. “We will continue our efforts to protect the rights of vulnerable persons who come to this country to escape the repressive activities of authoritarian regimes.”