Conservative MP Michael Chong is again calling attention to secret Chinese police stations operating in Canada, prompted by a recent incident in France involving alleged coercion of a critic of the Beijing regime, who narrowly avoided forced repatriation to China.
Forced Repatriation
Beijing’s operation of clandestine police stations worldwide came to light in a September 2022 report by Spain-based human rights NGO Safeguard Defenders. The organization identified 102 secret Chinese police stations in 53 countries, including five in Toronto and Vancouver. Subsequently, the RCMP revealed it was investigating two organizations in the Montreal region suspected of hosting such Chinese police outposts.Safeguard Defenders cautioned that the overseas Chinese police stations engage in surveillance and manipulation of Chinese diaspora communities to advance Beijing’s interests. The NGO initially focused on studying the regime’s use of forced repatriation using campaigns known as Operation Fox Hunt and Sky Net. The Chinese campaigns initially aimed at curbing online fraud crimes committed by Chinese nationals living abroad but were later extended to silence regime dissidents.
Starting in 2018 as a separate campaign, the overseas Chinese police stations later facilitated the forced repatriation efforts of the Fox Hunt and Sky Net campaigns, according to Safeguard Defenders. Targeting dissidents and persecuted religious and ethnic minorities, the Chinese police outposts adopted various intimidation tactics, including harassing targets or their family members in China. The regime describes those who succumb to the pressure as being “persuaded to return” to China, the NGO said.
Citing Chinese officials and state media reports, the NGO noted that Chinese authorities have effected the involuntary return to China of 230,000 nationals between April 2021 and July 2022.
In his post, Mr. Chong, who is also a known target of Beijing’s intimidation campaign, highlighted that “the human rights NGO Safeguard Defenders [identified] the same PRC ‘police stations’ here [in Canada] as in France.”
Chinese Police Stations in Canada
Addressing public concerns about the secret Chinese police stations, former Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told MPs at a House of Commons committee hearing in April 2023 that the RCMP had taken action to shut them down. Other senior RCMP officials, including former commissioner Brenda Lucki, have made similar statements in Parliament, testifying that the alleged Chinese police stations no longer operate.In response to inquiries from The Epoch Times regarding the status of the RCMP’s investigation into the alleged Chinese police stations in Canada, a spokesperson stated, “The RCMP continues to actively investigate reports nationally of criminal activity in relation to the so-called ‘police stations.’”