Two U.S. citizens charged with helping run secret Chinese gov’t police station in NYC

Two U.S. citizens helped the Chinese government set up a secret, illegal “police station” in a Chinatown office building last year, setting up a spy operation to track and harass dissidents living in America, federal prosecutors said Monday.

The arrests of Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx, and Chen Jianping, 59, of Manhattan, Monday morning, came as federal authorities charged dozens of officials with China’s Ministry of Public Security, or MPS, with running online operations to harass and troll dissidents, and have their Zoom meetings canceled.

“Two miles from our office, just across the Brooklyn Bridge, this nondescript office building in the heart of bustling Chinatown in lower Manhattan has a dark secret. Until several months ago, an entire floor of this building hosted an undeclared police station of the Chinese national police,” Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Monday.