A federal jury in Brooklyn just convicted a 64-year-old Bronx man named Lu Jianwang — also known as "Harry Lu" — for running a secret police station in Manhattan's Chinatown on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party's Ministry of Public Security. Not a metaphorical police station. Not a "suspected outpost." An actual office with a blue banner on the wall that read "Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, New York, USA."
Subtle.
Lu was found guilty on two counts related to operating the overseas police station and one count of obstruction of justice for destroying evidence — specifically, deleting WeChat messages between himself, his co-defendant Chen Jinping, and their Chinese government handler. He was acquitted on a conspiracy charge, which is a nice consolation prize when you're staring down up to 30 years in federal prison.
Here's how brazen this operation was. According to prosecutors, Lu attended a ceremony in his native Fujian province back in 2022 where China's Ministry of Public Security announced it was opening 30 secret police stations around the world. Thirty. Lu came back to New York and set one up inside the offices of the America ChangLe Association in Chinatown. The purpose wasn't helping grandma with her visa paperwork. It was monitoring, harassing, and intimidating pro-democracy dissidents who had fled China to the United States.
Let that sink in. A foreign communist government was running a police station inside an American city to hunt down people who dared to want freedom. And it took until October 3, 2022 for the FBI to finally raid the place.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. of the Eastern District of New York didn't mince words after 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," Nocella said. He added, "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."
FBI Assistant Director James C. Barnacle Jr. piled on: "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."
Good. It's about time somebody sent a message, because the Chinese Communist Party has been treating American soil like an extension of Beijing for years.
Now, Lu's defense attorney John Carman tried the predictable play. "This is not espionage. This is not spying. This is not intelligence gathering. He wasn't charged with any of that," Carman told reporters. Right. He was just running a foreign government's police station on American soil, deleting evidence of communications with his handlers in Beijing, and helping locate dissidents who fled communist persecution. Totally normal community center stuff.
That was actually the defense's argument — that the Chinatown outpost was just a friendly community center where people could renew their Chinese driver's licenses and socialize. A community center with a government banner on the wall and encrypted messages to Communist Party handlers. We all have those, right?
Chen Jinping, Lu's co-defendant, apparently saw the writing on the wall and pleaded guilty back in December 2024 to conspiring to act as an agent of the People's Republic of China. Smart move. Lu decided to roll the dice with a jury trial instead.
The jury wasn't buying the driver's license story.
Here's what should keep every American up at night: China announced 30 of these stations worldwide. We found one in Manhattan. Where are the other 29? How many are operating inside the United States right now, hunting down Chinese dissidents who came here because they believed America would protect them?
Lu remains free on bail pending sentencing, which hasn't been scheduled yet. But the conviction itself is the win. This is what actual counterintelligence enforcement looks like — not hand-wringing Senate hearings, not sternly worded letters, but a federal jury looking at the evidence and saying guilty.
We spent years watching politicians from both parties talk tough on China while the CCP literally opened police stations in our cities. Now at least one of them is shut down, and the guy who ran it is going to prison. Twenty-nine more to go.
As reported by the Daily Caller and Fox News.
