An NGO survey found that China monitors the diaspora in Europe and Canada through foreign police offices

The investigation was published last month, but it emerged at the end of October as Xi Jinping began an eternal and relentless period in China’s leadership. According to the NGO Safeguard Defenders, the Chinese government has set up more than fifty unofficial police offices overseas. These agencies are located mostly in the European Union: in Paris (three agencies), the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland, but also in Canada, especially in the city of Toronto. Types of unofficial offices of the Chinese police.

Safeguard Defenders explains that these sites Partly used to assist Chinese citizens with administrative procedures such as obtaining a driver’s license. With regard to France, the Chinese government in 2017 formally asked the French authorities for the right to deploy deputies from the Chinese police in Paris to protect Chinese tourists after a series of attacks. But, according to the human rights NGO, Chinese police have also used these offices to carry out overseas surveillance of the Chinese diaspora.

Grateful to see global interest in our area #110 abroad An investigation of the secret police stations of the People’s Republic of China around the world.

For more information on China’s national legal framework for these policing operations and the stories of those ‘convinced to return’ https://t.co/uLrAAlYe6W pic.twitter.com/cWwaaCnJfI

– Protect Defenders (保护 卫士) (SafeguardDefend) October 26 2022

In the crosshairs of Chinese influence, the defensive advocates say, are Chinese tax evaders, dissidents, and all those critical of the Xi Jinping regime. Between April 2021 and July 2022, 230,000 Chinese citizens were forced to return home, according to the NGO. Chinese authorities are relying on a law passed last month in Beijing that declares crimes committed by Chinese nationals abroad transgress territorial boundaries.

In Europe, the investigation by Safeguard Defenders reveals in particular the case of dissident Wang Jingyu who dared to criticize the Chinese regime on social networks. He has taken refuge in the Netherlands but is still being tracked down by Beijing and even threatened, he told the NGO. WAng Jingyu said to be A call from an officer from the Chinese police station in Rotterdam in early 2022. The Dutch Foreign Ministry confirms that it is investigating the existence of these offices located in the Netherlands. The ministry says that such facilities would be in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Practices, explaining that it does not own them “He was informed through diplomatic channels.”

In Canada, there is a memorandum of cooperation between the Canadian and Chinese police for the fugitives, but a former Canadian diplomat says it is a front for other activities. The Canadian Gendarmerie is also investigating the matter. In Paris, police officers from China’s Ministry of Public Security have been spotted demonstrating in support of Uyghurs. Several countries have launched investigations, but at the moment France has not officially responded. As for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, it denies the information contained in the “Protectors of Defenders” report.