Seoul investigates alleged presence of secret Chinese police station

Diplomacy

Published: 21 Dec. 2022, 15:09

Seoul investigates alleged presence of secret Chinese police station

A photo of a Chinese police station used in the report by Safeguard Defenders released on Dec. 5. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Seoul is looking into the alleged presence of a secret Chinese police station in Korea, the Foreign Ministry confirmed Tuesday.

“We have been communicating with relevant departments on the matter,” a Foreign Ministry official told the press in Seoul on Tuesday. “At this point we do not have anything significant to share.”

The nongovernmental human rights organization Safeguard Defenders announced earlier this month that China’s local-level public security bureau based in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, was running at least one police station in Korea, though it couldn’t confirm its exact location.

These overseas police service stations, according to Safeguard Defenders, are a form of long-arm policing by the Chinese government, to monitor its nationals. They are said to be located in at least 53 countries across five continents.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is investigating ″reports of criminal activity″ related to foreign police stations after Spain-based human rights group Safeguard Defenders reported that China is operating more than 50 overseas stations including three in the Greater Toronto Area. Here, one of the Greater Toronto Area locations noted is a building in a business park in the Markham area of Toronto on Oct. 31. [AP/YONHAP]

The Chinese government has allegedly persuaded 230,000 suspects of fraud from around the globe to return to China to face prosecution from April 2021 to July 2022, and these police stations are suspected to have played a part, according to the rights group.

While these so-called fugitives or targets of the Chinese government could include actual suspects of crime, many others would be dissidents of the Chinese government, according to the group. In any case, running a clandestine police station abroad would violate both domestic and international laws.

“These methods allow the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] and their security organs to circumvent normal bilateral mechanisms of police and judicial cooperation, thereby severely undermining the international rule of law and territorial integrity of the third countries involved,” Safeguard Defenders said in its report released in September.

Screen capture of the locations of Chinese secret police stations released by Safeguard Defenders in their Dec. 5 report. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

China has denied that these stations play a policing role, but said they rather are local centers to help overseas Chinese nationals renew relevant documents.

But even if this were to be true, it would still be enough to sour diplomatic ties if the Chinese government had not first sought the official approval of the host country.

At least 14 governments including those in Austria, Canada, Chile, Nigeria, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States have begun investigating the alleged secret Chinese police stations in their countries, according to Safeguard Defenders.

Relevant investigative authorities in Korea include the National Intelligence Agency and the police.

The map released by Safeguard Defenders in their recent report released Dec. 5. The colored locations are the countries in which they found clandestine Chinese police stations to be operating. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]