China’s mysterious police presence in Sydney

Mystery surrounds China’s police presence in Australia after a report claimed overseas stations were being used for “sinister” purposes.

Mystery surrounds an official “contact point” in Sydney established by Chinese cops about four years ago after a new whistleblower report claimed Chinese “police service stations” in countries around the world were being used for “sinister” purposes.

It has been revealed this week that a web of police “service stations” have been set up around the world by the People’s Republic of China, ostensibly to help Chinese nationals renew their government-issued identification and drivers’ licenses.

But according to Safeguard Defenders, a human rights group that documents Chinese repression around the world, the stations have been used to spy on the Chinese diaspora for the Chinese Communist Party.

“Openly labelled as overseas police service stations … they contribute to ‘resolutely cracking down on all kinds of illegal and criminal activities involving overseas Chinese,’” the group said in a September report.

The report accuses stations overseas of involvement in forcibly “returning” more than 200,000 overseas nationals to China.

The method is called “persuasion to return” and “collateral punishment” is a key tactic, where relatives back in China risk punishment if they don’t convince the person to return.

Authorities track down the wanted person’s family and use “intimidation, harassment, detention or imprisonment” to pressure them into returning “voluntarily”, according to the report.

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Map of publicly documented Overseas Police Service Centers from Fuzhou County and Qingtian County. Picture: Safeguard Defenders

While there is no complete list of service stations, also called “110 Overseas Stations” named after China’s emergency number 110, as of June there was at least 54 across five continents and Safeguard Defenders expects the actual number to be even higher.

The report did not list a station in Australia.

However, ABC reporter Bang Xiao revealed on Thursday an official “contact point” had been established in Sydney by the Department of Public Security in the Chinese city of Wenzhou in 2018.

There was an official establishment ceremony in 2019 in Wenzhou, which the city’s police chief spoke at, he reported.

ABC stated it was not aware of any evidence that the Sydney operation had been used for any of the activities suggested by Safeguard Defenders about other overseas sites.

But Xiao did get the runaround trying to determine what activities the Sydney site carried out.

The Australia Wenzhou Chamber of Industry and Commerce, which the official Wenzhou police WeChat account refers people to when seeking the Sydney contact point, claimed it did not have links to the group and the contact point had closed.

However, when the ABC contacted Wenzhou police in China, they said the contact point should still be open and referred the ABC back to Australia Wenzhou Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

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Safeguard Defenders has accused China of using police presence overseas to spy on the Chinese diaspora. Picture: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Safeguard Defenders’ campaign director Laura Harth said “every country is using different names” for the presence of Chinese police.

“For Australian people, I would say, especially for overseas Chinese people that have fled China — dissidents, ethnic and religious minorities — obviously these organisations can be used, potentially, to go after them or to go after their families,” she told ABC.

news.com.au contacted Safeguard Defenders, the Chinese embassy in Australia and the Chinese consulate-general for further comment.

The Australian Federal Police would not say whether it was aware of China’s police contact point in Sydney or the activities it carries out.

The Australian Federal Police had “no comment” when news.com.au asked if it was aware of the Sydney “contact point” or the activities it carries out.

‘I do not see what is wrong’

Following the release of Safeguard Defenders’ report, an anonymous official from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Shanghai confirmed overseas policing operations were being used to “convince” alleged criminals to return to China, according to Spanish newspaper El Correo.

“Bilateral treaties are very cumbersome and Europe is reluctant to extradite to China. I do not see what is wrong in pressuring criminals to face justice with all the guarantees contained in Chinese law,” the official said, according to an English translation.

In Dublin, Ireland, the signage for a Chinese police service station was removed from the front of its building last week, The Irish Times reported.

The New York Post discovered a Chinese police service station in Manhattan was run by a US charity that is on an Internal Revenue Service blacklist.

The news of the station had been greeted with outrage from Republican politicians, who sent a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding an explanation.