The Chinese Communist Party are using illegal unofficial “police stations” set up in the Netherlands to target and harass dissidents, a media investigation has found.
An investigation by journalists in the Netherlands has found that Communist China has been using illegal “police stations” to target and harass critics abroad.
The alleged existence of such police stations across the west came to public attention last month after it was revealed that the unofficial arms of the Chinese state were operating in the UK, U.S. and Europe for the supposed purpose of intimidating critics of the Xi regime.
A joint report by Dutch news agencies RTL Nieuws and Follow the Money has now found that two of these so-called “police stations” are operating illegally in the Netherlands, with the two externally unmarked buildings reportedly being operated by former police officers from China, as well as at least one former soldier.
While Chinese propaganda has claimed that the purposes of these stations are to tackle crime gangs operating abroad, Dutch journalists claim that there are “strong indications” that the outposts are being used to “put pressure on critical Chinese”.
The report in particular raises the plight of Wang Jingyu, who is said to have been “hunted down” by Chinese authorities for daring to critique the government.
Supposedly accused of “insulting war heroes”, Wang claims to have received a call from one of the illegal police stations ordering him to return to China to “solve” his problems with the government, and that he needed to think about his parents who were still stuck in the Communist nation.
Wang has since received numerous threats to his life, and has also been repeatedly harassed in public, with Dutch authorities even once suggesting that they could jail Wang as a surefire way of protecting him from the Chinese regime, though law enforcement officials have since reportedly admitted that such a suggestion was “stupid”.
In a statement on the report, a spokesman for the Dutch government has denounced the presence of the Chinese police stations, describing them as being illegal, before saying that all foreign business such as the renewal of passports should only be done through official embassies.
“These agencies are illegal,” the spokesman from the Foreign Affairs department said. “We will investigate exactly what they are doing here and then take appropriate action.”
However, such police stations are not just present in the Netherlands, with it being reported last month that such often-unmarked Chinese government outposts are operating across the UK, U.S. and Europe, with the media reporting on foreign police offices in Dublin, London and New York.
Overall, there are thought to be over 50 overseas police stations operated by the Chinese state worldwide, many of which are alleged to have been involved in pressuring Chinese nationals abroad to tow the party line on a variety of issues.
CCP agents are even alleged to have threatened individuals abroad who are deemed problematic using their own children, with those who fall foul of authorities running the risk of having their offspring at home denied access to education.
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