The CCP Is the World’s Bounty Hunter

China’s police state enjoys a global presence as it hunts down dissidents

A balloon is held at a press conference and rally in front of the America ChangLe Association highlighting Beijing's transnational repression, in New York City on Feb. 25, 2023. A now-closed overseas Chinese police station is located inside the association building. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Commentary

In June 2022, Madrid-based Safeguard Defenders revealed the existence of secret Chinese police stations in various countries worldwide. This revelation prompted outrage by human rights advocates that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would dare to do such a thing.

But to Chinese dissidents living abroad, it was no surprise at all. In fact, thousands of Chinese living abroad have been returned to China since 2016 by illegal police activities performed by Chinese nationals on foreign soil.

Things have been taken to a new level as the Hong Kong government issued $1 million bounties on the heads of eight dissidents living abroad.

‘Secret’ Police Stations

It’s no secret that for several years, the CCP has relentlessly pursued dissidents who’ve fled to other parts of the world to publicize the oppression of the CCP in China and, as mentioned above, in Hong Kong.

In March of this year, a “secret” police station run by two New York residents was “discovered” and presumably shut down by the FBI. Reportedly, Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, both residents of Manhattan, were working as agents for the Chinese Ministry of Public Security to harass Chinese dissidents, undermine faith in the U.S. rule of law, and persuade dissidents to return to China under threat of punishment to their family members.

The Message to Dissidents: Nowhere to Run

Furthermore, the Department of Justice charged an additional 34 agents of China’s Ministry of Public Security, whose job was to intimidate and silence dissidents and promote CCP propaganda to undermine the pro-democracy, anti-CCP messages of Chinese dissidents. What’s more, the CCP operates more than 110 so-called police stations in more than 50 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

The foreign-based police stations are a calculated and aggressive effort to silence any opposition to the brutal and absolute reign of terror that the CCP exerts over the Chinese people. It’s a message to anyone anywhere who dares to speak out against the prison state that there’s nowhere to hide from the long arm of the CCP.

Beijing Recognizes No Laws

Beijing operates its foreign police stations in violation of local, national, and international law. And yet, so far, Beijing has faced only minimal diplomatic or economic consequences, if any, for its blatant illegal actions.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the CCP’s nefarious behavior.

The CCP has long been taking advantage of the openness and civil liberties in Western nations to undermine the confidence and loyalty of citizens in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. For years, Confucius Institutes could be found on major university campuses across the United States. Their purported mission was to bring about mutual understanding between the Chinese and Western cultures. But in reality, the institutes functioned as propaganda and indoctrination centers for the CCP targeting American college students and professors.

The Thousand Talents program, which recruited the most talented and accomplished scientists and professors in various technological disciplines, was another scheme to steal cutting-edge technology and scientific talent away from the United States. The CCP did so by paying professors much more than market salaries to send their research to Beijing or even relocate to China.

Detection by Authorities?

The question arises: “How could all of these various plans be run for years in plain sight before coming under scrutiny by U.S. authorities?”

Are we to believe that just as the Confucius Institutes and the Thousand Talents programs operated openly on college campuses, independent police stations operated in major cities without the knowledge of local FBI offices, police authorities, or local politicians?

Or, even more unlikely, that no Chinese person knew of the existence of these “secret” police stations?

The U.S. intelligence services have the most sophisticated surveillance capabilities in the world. What’s more, as a constant target of terrorist activities, New York City has the capabilities to monitor communications and other surveillance tools at hand that would have let them know about the police stations from the outset.

And yet authorities are “shocked” to find illegal CCP police stations operating in their city?

Possible Penetration Into Law Enforcement and Politics

Given the revelations that President Joe Biden’s family members have received payments from a Chinese energy company, it’s not a stretch to imagine that key parties in power have been paid off to turn a blind eye to CCP activities wherever they may be. After all, bribing figures with less authority than the vice president is well within the realm of possibility for Beijing. Therefore, the most likely scenario is that people in authority in both high and low places have known about these “secret” police stations—and their missions—since the very beginning.

Is it difficult to believe that Beijing has bought off people in places of power to allow the existence of illegal police stations across our country for years?

Is there a better explanation for their existence?

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.