60-Year-Old in New York Pleads Guilty to Alleged 'Chinese Secret Police Station' Charges

A Chinese-American man accused of operating a 'secret police station' for the Chinese government in New York's Chinatown has pleaded guilty, AP News and the British daily The Guardian reported on the 18th (local time).

Chinese-American Tian Jinping (60) pleaded guilty on the same day at a hearing held at the Brooklyn Federal Court in New York to charges of establishing and operating an illegal secret police station affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security in Manhattan, New York.

A building in New York's Chinatown suspected to house the Chinese government's "secret police." Photo by AP Yonhap News

James Denehy, Deputy Director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), stated that Tian acknowledged his role in establishing the illegal police station to "directly infringe upon U.S. sovereignty and achieve China's malicious and oppressive objectives."

Foreign media reported that with Tian's guilty plea, he could face a prison sentence of five years at the sentencing scheduled for next year.

Lu Zengwang (62), who was indicted alongside him, maintains his innocence.

According to authorities, they were charged with assisting in surveillance activities targeting Chinese-American democracy activists and other individuals critical of the Chinese government through an office bearing the name of a hometown association in Manhattan's Chinatown. They are also accused of deleting communication records with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security to obstruct the investigation.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied the very existence of the secret police station. At a briefing on the 19th, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Zhen responded to questions about the trial by saying, "I do not know the specific circumstances." He added, "China is a country under the rule of law, consistently abiding by international law and respecting the judicial sovereignty of all countries," and stated, "The so-called secret police station does not exist."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.