Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: A day after President Xi Jinping resurfaced in Beijing after an 11-day ‘quarantine’ attempting to scotch widespread rumors of his overthrow, a disturbing report took the world by storm on Wednesday: China, the wannabe superpower, has set up illegal police stations across the planet to challenge national sovereignty of several countries and to keep a watch on its adversaries.
Such ‘informal’ police service stations, affiliated with the Public Security Bureau (PSB) of China, have been set up against Beijing’s opponents, Investigative Journalism Reportika stated citing the local media reports.
But to skirt responsibility, China, which has a highly centralized and pyramidal structure of governance and controls, has decentralized this overseas network of illegal policing.
For example, these overseas police stations have been set up ‘independently’ by local police in Chinese cities. The Fuzhou Police said it has already opened 30 such police stations in 21 countries, including in developed countries like Canada and Ireland. It has triggered alarm bells and concerns among human rights campaigners. Other Chinese cities and provinces, like Qingtian, also operate their own overseas police stations, the report added.
These illegal police stations especially monitor the activities of the Chinese dissidents and people of Chinese origins who work through human rights organizations and NGOs against the ‘interests’ of Beijing.
According to local media reports, Fuzhou has established informal police service stations affiliated with the PSB across Canada. At least three stations are in the Greater Toronto Area only.
The Chinese government is also influencing the elections in certain countries through these illegal police stations.
Countries like Ukraine, France, Spain, Germany, and the UK have such illegal Chinese police stations. Their leaders question the rise of China and its worsening human rights records on public platforms.
Human rights campaigners have accused the ruling Communist Party of China of committing widespread abuses across the country in the name of security, steps which include confining people to internment camps, forcibly separating families, and carrying out forced sterilization.
But China claims these facilities are “vocational skills training centers” that are necessary to “counter” extremism and improve livelihoods. Chinese officials said most of their “trainees” had “graduated” from these centers.
China claims these police outposts would crack down on global and multinational crimes. With the help of these police posts, the Chinese government is also influencing the elections in the respective countries and controlling the activities of the Overseas Chinese Diaspora and espionage cases have also been reported.
It has ostensibly set these overseas illegal police stations up to help Chinese citizens living abroad file local police reports and aid in other bureaucratic processes. According to the Chinese state-affiliated media, the “police service stations” force alleged Chinese “criminals” to be sent back to China. The organization Safeguard Defenders claims that over 230,000 people have been sent to China through these unofficial channels.
These illegal Chinese police stations even have their phone numbers, like 110, the emergency phone number in China, and 911, and 112 in the US and EU, respectively. The Fuzhou city police operation out of Fujian province uses the name “110 Overseas” for its campaign, while other police jurisdictions use different names.
The exposure of these clandestine police stations all over Europe and in Toronto (Canada) and New York (USA) has left security experts bewildered and concerned, as China is directly challenging their sovereignty.
Other countries where China opened these outposts include Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Nigeria, Tanzania, Lesotho, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Cambodia, Brunei, and even Japan!