A jury convicted a 64-year-old man Tuesday of acting as an illegal foreign agent for running a police station on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in New York City.
Lu Jianwang was also convicted of obstructing justice for deleting online messages, according to a Justice Department (DOJ) press release. Prosecutors said the messages featured orders from Beijing to silence, harass, and intimidate dissidents, The Associated Press (AP) reported. Jianwang, who also goes by the name Harry Lu, established a Chinese police station in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood in 2022 with his co-defendant Chen Jinping, the DOJ said. (RELATED: REPORT: AI Giant Resisted CCP Infiltration As US Extends Tech Lead Over China)
“A police station operating in New York City at the direction of the Chinese government has been exposed, its sinister purpose disrupted, its founder held accountable for blatantly disregarding the law and our country’s sovereignty,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said.
Prosecutors said Jianwang set up the station after attending a Fujian province event where China’s Ministry of Public Security announced it was opening 30 secret police stations globally.
Jianwang’s lawyer, John Carman said he planned to appeal the conviction and denied that his client had engaged in espionage.
“This is not espionage. This is not spying. This is not intelligence gathering,” Carman said following Jianwang’s week-long trial in Brooklyn federal court, according to the AP. “He wasn’t charged with any of that.”
Jianwang’s attorneys claimed the location was a community center where individuals could renew their Chinese driver’s licenses without having to return to China. People also gathered at the location to play ping-pong and mahjong, Carman said. It reportedly shared offices with the America ChangLe Association, an organization Jianwang ran with his brother. The America ChangLe Association has ties to the CCP, according to Influence Watch.
Jurors in the trial saw a banner from the location reading, “Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, New York USA” and heard testimony from Chinese dissident Xu Jie, who prosecutors argued the outpost attacked, the AP reported.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Antoinette Rangel said the CCP uses the outpost to monitor the activities of its perceived enemies during the trial’s closing arguments. “The police station wasn’t the defendant’s idea or initiative, this was the Chinese government,” Rangel said during her closing argument at Jianwang’s trial. “This was the Chinese government’s plan and the defendant made it happen.”
Jianwang faces up to 10 years behind bars for acting as an illegal foreign agent and up to 20 years in prison for obstruction of justice. He is out on bail ahead of sentencing, according to the AP.
Jinping previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government, the outlet reported in December 2024.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched a raid against the location on Oct. 3, 2022. The following day, Jianwang told agents he had launched the outpost and communicated with his handler via WeChat but had deleted the messages, according to prosecutors.
Some of the messages were recovered through screenshots on Jianwang’s phone, which proved he was following the Chinese government’s orders, Rangel said.