Four Unofficial Chinese Police Stations in Canada Have ‘Ceased’ Operations: RCMP

A building in a business park in Markham, Ont., is seen on Oct. 31, 2022, one of three locations in the Greater Toronto Area identified by Spain-based human rights group Safeguard Defenders as being a Chinese unofficial police station. (The Canadian Press/Cole Burston)

Four overseas Chinese police stations reported to be functioning in various locations across Canada have now “ceased” operations, the RCMP says.

The RCMP’s deputy commissioner of federal policing Michael Duheme appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs on March 2, where he was asked by Conservative MP Raquel Dancho about overseas Chinese police stations reported to be functioning in different locations in Canada.

“Our understanding is that they’ve ceased and we’re continuing investigation,” Duheme said, adding that a Chinese embassy representative expressed displeasure to the RCMP about actions they took concerning the police stations.

“Any time you have representatives from the embassy whose law enforcement liaison officer comes up to us and is not pleased with the actions we took, I think that’s a sign that we did our job,” Duheme said.

Duheme also confirmed that no criminal charges have been laid in relation to the issue.

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki previously told the Commons Standing Committee on Canada-China Relations that the RCMP had sent officers in uniform and marked police cars to show a “visible presence” at four of these unofficial police stations in Canada, adding that three are in the Toronto area, and one in the Vancouver area.

“We did a disruption by going in uniform with marked police cars, to speak with the people involved in those police stations, or those locations,” Lucki told the committee on Feb. 6.

Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders, which first brought the issue of the unofficial police stations to the attention of the public, has said that it is aware of five unofficial Chinese police stations in Canada: three in the Toronto area, one in Vancouver, and another one in an unspecified location.

The RCMP reportedly visited the Wenzhou Friendship Society (WFS) in the Vancouver area in December 2022. When asked for comments on the incident, RCMP cited its ongoing investigation into China’s overseas police stations.  WFS has not returned requests for comment by The Epoch Times.

The Epoch Times in February reported that an online post by the a regional police bureau in China, the Nantong Public Security Bureau, has listed a location in Richmond, B.C., as one of its overseas service centres. The phone number of the listed centre is the same as the B.C.-based Canadian Association of Nantong Merchants Abroad (CANMA). The Epoch Times has attempted to contact the CANMA, but hasn’t heard back.

The Epoch Times has asked the RCMP if it is aware of the centre affiliated with the Nantong police bureau, but hasn’t heard back.

Overseas Police Stations

The RCMP said in November 2022 that it was seeking witnesses with knowledge of “possible foreign actor interference” at the alleged secret Chinese police stations in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) after news of the stations first emerged in September 2022.

Safeguard Defenders published a report at the time identifying over 50 police service stations in dozens of countries around the globe operated by two provincial-level Chinese police bureaus. =

Safeguard Defenders released an updated report in December 2022 identifying two more provincial-level Chinese police bureaus also operating overseas service stations, bringing the total worldwide count of alleged secret stations up to 102 and the number in Canada up to five.

Andrew Chen contributed to this report.