Owner of suspected Chinese secret police station denies forcing people to return home

Wang Haijun, owner of a Chinese restaurant in Seoul pegged as a secret Chinese police station, briefs the press at his restaurant on Saturday. [YONHAP]

Wang Haijun, owner of the restaurant in Seoul pegged as a secret Chinese police station, admitted that he had helped some Chinese nationals return home, yet not because of their alleged political dissidence.

Wang, besides running Dongfang Mingzhu, a Chinese restaurant that floats on the Han River, also operates the Overseas Chinese Service Center (OCSC) in Seoul, which nongovernmental human rights organization Safeguard Defenders suspects could be a channel used by the Chinese secret police around the world to monitor its citizens.

The group said there was at least one location in Korea suspected to be operated by the Chinese police force to monitor its nationals in Korea.

“There was a time when a Chinese student had developed a mental illness problem, and he contacted the Gangseo Police Station and the [OCSC] to ask for help,” said Wang, giving an example of when he stepped in to send a Chinese national home, during a press conference he hosted at his restaurant in Songpa District, southern Seoul, Saturday.

Wang said that the OCSC exists to help Chinese nationals who have fallen ill or have met sudden accidents to return to China to receive medical attention.

While he refuted the idea that the OCSC was working as the long-arm of the Chinese police in Korea, which without approval of the Korean authorities would be illegal, his comment was an admission that the center did play a part in assisting Chinese nationals return home, a task that only official consulates or diplomatic missions are entitled to do.

When a question was raised directly about this during the press conference, Wang said that the center “serves as a platform” for the work of the consulate, and that it has no official diplomatic authority to send anyone back.

The Safeguard Defenders, a nongovernmental organization headquartered in Spain, released several reports from September raising the allegation that China was running covert police service stations in at least 53 countries across five continents to monitor its citizens and even pressure some, including political dissidents, to return home.

As many as 230,000 suspects in fraud cases from around the world were persuaded to return to China to face prosecution from April 2021 to July 2022, according to the Chinese government’s records reported by the group, and these suspected secret police stations may have played a part.

While these targets of the Chinese government could include actual suspects of crimes, many others were likely dissidents, according to the group.

China has denied the presence of secret police stations overseas.

Wang on Saturday also dismissed the allegation that his restaurant had ties with any alleged covert Chinese police operation in Korea.

He said the restaurant will close temporarily from Jan. 1 for renovation work and that in the meanwhile he will open up an interim restaurant in Myeong-dong in central Seoul.

Wang is also the CEO of HG Culture Media, a Chinese-Korean television network with an office located across the street from the National Assembly in western Seoul.

Allegations were raised by media reports that the office could be collecting information on Chinese nationals living in Korea and remitting them to the Chinese government.

“HG Culture Media produces news reports, talk shows and educational programs to deliver Korean news to China through live or recorded broadcasts,” Wang said. “Video is provided to CCTV, but there is no direct relevance [in the work of HG Culture Media with that of CCTV].”

At least 14 governments including those in Canada, Chile, Nigeria, Spain, Britain and the United States are said to have begun investigating the alleged secret Chinese police stations in their countries

The Foreign Ministry has said it has looked into the allegation, but the Korean government has not made any official announcement on commencing an investigation.

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