Earlier this week in federal court in Brooklyn, Bronx resident Lu Jianwang, 64, a U.S. citizen also known as “Harry Lu,” was convicted by a jury of two counts of a superseding indictment charging him with acting as an illegal agent of the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
He allegedly opened and operated an overseas police station in lower Manhattan for the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS), and was charged with obstruction of justice for destroying related evidence.
The verdict was returned following a one-week trial before United States District Judge Nina R. Morrison. When sentenced, the defendant will face up to 30 years in prison. Lu’s co-defendant, Chen Jinping, pleaded guilty in December 2024 to conspiring to act as an agent of the PRC in connection with the overseas police station, and he is awaiting sentencing.
Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; John A. Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s National Security Division; and James C. Barnacle, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the verdict.
“A police station operating in New York City at the direction of the Chinese government has been exposed, its sinister purpose disrupted, and its founder held accountable for blatantly disregarding the law and our country’s sovereignty,” stated United States Attorney Nocella. “Our Office remains resolute in protecting the rights of people seeking freedom from repression and speaking out to bring democracy, reform, and human rights to China.”
As proved at trial, Lu and his co-defendant Chen Jinping acted as illegal agents of the PRC government. Beginning in January 2022, under orders from an MPS official, Lu, Chen and others worked together to establish the first known overseas police station in the United States on behalf of the MPS. The police station—which was searched by the FBI in October 2022—was located in an office building at 107 East Broadway in Manhattan’s Chinatown. A blue banner proclaiming “Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, New York, USA,” was recovered there.
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“Lu Jianwang used a police station in New York City to target PRC dissidents in furtherance of the Chinese government’s political agenda. May today’s verdict send a message to other foreign agents – the FBI maintains its unwavering resolve to reveal and disrupt the clandestine operations of adversarial nations,” stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge Barnacle.
The police station operated at the direction and control of the MPS. The MPS is the PRC’s primary domestic law enforcement and intelligence agency. The MPS routinely monitors Chinese political dissidents and others with views adverse to the Chinese government’s sovereignty who live outside the PRC, including in the United States. The MPS has used cooperative contacts both inside the PRC and around the world to influence, threaten, and coerce political dissidents abroad, including in the United States, in an effort to silence them. The New York police station was part of a global initiative by the MPS to establish overseas police service stations all over the world. None of the participants in the police station scheme in Chinatown informed the U.S. government that they were helping the PRC government open and operate an undeclared MPS police station on U.S. soil.
Lu was tasked by his MPS handler with collecting information on behalf of the Chinese government, such as locating a pro-democracy advocate who had fled from China and moved to the U.S.
In October 2022, the FBI conducted a judicially authorized search of the illegal police station. In connection with the search, FBI agents interviewed Lu and Chen and seized their phones. In reviewing the contents of these phones, FBI agents observed that WeChat messages between the defendants and their MPS handler had been deleted.
The FBI has created a website for victims to report efforts by foreign governments to stalk, intimidate, or assault people in the United States. If you believe that you are or have been a victim of transnational repression, please visit https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/transnational-repression.
The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s National Security and Cybercrime Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Antoinette N. Rangel and Lindsey R. Oken are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Paralegal Specialists Magdalena St. Surin and Danielle Barber. Assistant United States Attorney Alexander A. Solomon played a critical role in the underlying investigation.
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