Chinese ‘using overseas police stations to harass citizens’

European countries are investigating claims that China has set up more than 100 quasi police stations to harass Chinese citizens and repatriate them back to China.

China is accused of harassing citizens in foreign countries.

European countries are investigating claims that China has set up more than 100 quasi police stations to harass Chinese citizens and repatriate them to China.

A Spanish-based human rights group Safeguard Defenders uncovered the existence of the police stations on foreign soil over the past few months. It says the Chinese program is called 110 Overseas in reference to the emergency number 110 used within China.

The group told CNN on the weekend that it had found more than 100 of the police stations that have been set up around the world after China had experienced early success in countries such as Italy, Croatia, Serbia and Romania.

In its report, Safeguard ­Defenders says that the existence of the police stations is an expansion of the long arm policing and transnational repression by the Chinese government.

“Documents identified by Safeguard Defenders show such overseas police stations have been used by police back in China to carry out persuasion to return operations on foreign soil including in Europe,’’ it said.

Safeguard Defenders said that the police stations were set up in countries by at least two Public Security Bureaus from Zhejiang and Fuzhou province in apparent close co-operation with the local United Front Work Department “to resolutely crack down on all kinds of overseas Chinese-related illegal and criminal activities’’.

It says the police jurisdictions of China’s Ministry of Public ­Security are active in at least 53 countries, with China claiming they are to help expatriates with administrative needs.

But Safeguard Defenders said the police stations in their online and physical overseas form “also serve a more sinister goal” contributing to cracking down on overseas Chinese who may be ­involved in illegal and criminal activities as well as extending prosecutorial functions.

The report has been seized upon by foreign affairs departments across Europe.

The Irish Times reported that Chinese authorities had not sought permission to set up a police station and that it had ­demanded the immediate closure of the office in Dublin.

“The (foreign affairs) department noted that actions of all foreign states on Irish territory must be in compliance with international law and domestic law requirements,” a spokesman told the Irish Times.

“On this basis, the Department informed the Embassy that the office on Capel Street should close and cease operations.”

Austria’s interior ministry has ordered a report, telling APA news agency that “under no circumstances will we tolerate ­illegal activities by foreign intelligence services or police authorities”.

Handelsblatt reported that the German government was ensuring the Chinese diplomatic missions operated within the framework of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

“The federal government does not tolerate the exercise of foreign state authority and accordingly Chinese authorities have no executive powers on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany,” an interior ministry spokesperson said.

But Safeguard Defenders says it knows of one Chinese person who was coerced to ­return to China by undercover operatives working from one of the Chinese police stations set up in Paris, while others have been returned from Serbia and Spain.

“The disregard for the use of proper channels and processes in international relations is blatant,’’ the report says’, adding that the alternative policing and judicial system within third countries allows China to circumvent various international protocols.