Secret Police in Chinatown: NYC Man on Trial for Running CCP Surveillance Outpost

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A "Community Center" With a Hidden Mission

On the fourth floor of a nondescript building in Manhattan's Chinatown, federal prosecutors say something deeply troubling was taking place. What appeared to be a community service office was, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, an unauthorized outpost of China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) — operating on American soil, without the knowledge or consent of U.S. authorities.

The man accused of running it: Lu Jianwang, 64, a naturalized U.S. citizen from the Bronx and former president of the America ChangLe Association, a nonprofit serving immigrants from China's Fujian Province. His trial opened on May 6, 2026, at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn.

"He Was Working for the Chinese Government"

Prosecutors did not mince words in their opening statements. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsey Oken told the court: "In 2022, the defendant Lu Jianwang was living in New York City, but he was working for the Chinese government."

According to the prosecution, Lu admitted to FBI agents during interviews in late 2022 that he had opened the station and that he maintained a direct contact — a handler — within China's Ministry of Public Security. Prosecutors say the station helped local Chinese citizens renew Chinese driver's licenses, which in and of itself is a crime if done without informing United States leadership in advance. But that, they argue, was only the surface.

Lu faces three charges: acting as an unauthorized agent of China, conspiracy to act as a foreign agent, and obstruction of justice — the latter for allegedly deleting WeChat messages exchanged with MPS officials after meeting with the FBI.

The Defense: "He Was an Agent for Local People"

Lu's attorney, John Carman, presented a very different picture. He argued that his client simply wanted to help members of the Chinese-American community renew their Chinese driver's licenses at a time when travel to China was effectively impossible due to COVID-19 restrictions. Letting those licenses lapse, Carman said, would have forced residents to start the entire licensing process from scratch.

"Harry Lu is not a spy. He's not part of Chinese intelligence services. He's not a member of the Chinese Communist Party," Carman told the jury. "If Harry Lu is an agent for anyone, he is an agent for the people in his community."

Carman dismissed the charges as amounting to little more than failing to file a government registration form and deleting a single chat message.

A Co-Conspirator Who Already Admitted Guilt

The defense's uphill battle is made steeper by the case of Lu's co-defendant. Chen Jinping, who helped run the police station, pleaded guilty in December 2024 to a charge of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government. At the time, the DOJ stated that the illegal police station was "not opened in the interest of public safety, but to further the nefarious and repressive aims of the PRC in direct violation of American sovereignty."

According to court documents, in January 2022, Lu attended a ceremony in Fuzhou, China, at which the Ministry of Public Security officially launched an effort to establish overseas police stations worldwide. On his return to the United States, Lu allegedly helped found the illegal overseas police station in mid-February 2022.

More Than Driver's Licenses: Tracking Dissidents

Expert testimony on the trial's first day put the case in a much broader context. Julian Ku, a Hofstra Law professor in international law, outlined to the court the functions and operations of China's United Front Work Department, the Ministry of Public Security, and affiliated agencies.

Ku explained how MPS officers aren't allowed to travel internationally in their official capacity — and as a result, they rely on "friends and allies" of the CCP overseas to communicate with them and investigate on their behalf.

Prosecutors say the station did exactly that. The center assisted a Chinese police official in locating a person of interest — a California pro-democracy advocate who had served as an adviser to a 2022 congressional candidate from New York state.

A Global Network of CCP Surveillance

The New York case is not an isolated incident. Investigations by the human rights organization Safeguard Defenders documented at least 102 Chinese Overseas Police Service Centers in 53 countries around the world, and found evidence that some host governments have been complicit in their operations.

Beijing has denied operating undeclared police forces outside its territory. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has claimed the facilities are administrative hubs set up to help Chinese expatriates with tasks like renewing their driver's licenses — and has described them as being staffed by volunteers.

Rights groups, governments, and law enforcement agencies around the world have rejected that explanation. Safeguard Defenders has called on all democratic governments to thoroughly investigate the overseas police service centers and their underlying United Front networks, which it describes as engaged in influence operations to advance CCP interests and silence critics abroad.

Protest Outside the Courthouse

Before his trial began, Lu stood outside the courthouse alongside a group of supporters holding signs reading "No Bias, No Profiling," "We Love America," and "Stop Racial Profiling in our Community." Prosecutors raised concerns with the judge, arguing that jurors arriving for duty were forced to walk past the assembled crowd. They described it as a possible attempt to influence the jury. The defense denied any coordination with the protest.

Lu's trial is expected to last until mid-May. If convicted on all counts, he faces the prospect of decades in federal prison.

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Sources

1. Courthouse News Service – Trial opening coverage (May 2026): https://www.courthousenews.com/feds-describe-global-network-of-chinese-police-stations-at-nyc-spy-trial-opening/
2. ABC News – Chen Jinping guilty plea (December 2024): https://abcnews.go.com/US/guilty-plea-expected-secret-chinese-police-station-case/story?id=116907684
3. South China Morning Post – Trial opens (May 2026): https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3352677/us-trial-opens-over-alleged-chinese-secret-police-station-new-york
4. South China Morning Post – Original arrest coverage (April 2023): https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3217381/us-charges-two-setting-chinese-secret-police-station-new-york
5. Safeguard Defenders – "Patrol and Persuade" Report: https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/publications/patrol-and-persuade
6. CNN – Global Chinese police station network (December 2022): https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/04/world/china-overseas-police-stations-intl-cmd/index.html

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