“I am very worried about this. We are aware of the existence of these stations,” Wray told a hearing of the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, acknowledging the FBI’s investigative work on the matter but declining to elaborate. “But to me, it’s outrageous to think that the Chinese police would attempt to set up shop in, you know, New York, say, without proper coordination. It violates sovereignty and bypasses the formal procedures of judicial cooperation and law enforcement cooperation.” Wray, asked by Republican Sen. Rick Scott whether such stations violate US law, said the FBI is “looking into the legal parameters.” Safeguard Defenders, a European human rights organization, published a report in September revealing the presence of dozens of Chinese police “service stations” in major cities around the world, including New York. The report said the stations were an extension of Beijing’s efforts to pressure some Chinese nationals or their relatives abroad to return to China to face criminal charges. He also linked them to the activities of China’s United Front Labor Department, a Communist Party body tasked with spreading its influence and propaganda abroad. House Republicans, including Greg Murphy and Mike Waltz, sent letters to the Justice Department in October asking whether President Joe Biden’s administration was investigating such stations and arguing they could be used to intimidate US residents of Chinese descent. China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier this month, China’s foreign ministry denied having such stations in the Netherlands following an investigation by Dutch authorities. China said they were offices to help Chinese citizens renew documents. Wray said the United States had made a series of accusations that the Chinese government harassed, stalked, monitored and blackmailed people in the United States who disagreed with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. “It’s a real problem and something we’re also discussing with our foreign partners because we’re not the only country where this has happened,” he said. The United States unsealed criminal charges in October against seven Chinese nationals accused of conducting a campaign of surveillance and harassment against a US resident and his family in an attempt by the Chinese government to repatriate one of them back to China. It was the latest Justice Department case aimed at China’s effort to track down people abroad who Beijing calls criminal suspects, known as “Operation Foxhunt.”
