Following the international exposure of unlawful Chinese police service stations, the Irish government was the first to request the closure of a Chinese foreign police station. Now, others seem to be following, as Netherlands orders closure of 2 illegal Chinese police stations.
The Netherlands has asked that two unauthorized Chinese police “service stations” in the country be closed down.
Wopke Hoekstra, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced on Twitter on November 2 that the government has told the Chinese ambassador that the stations must shut promptly.
In its September report (read below), the human rights organization Safeguard Defenders disclosed that China had established at least 38 Chinese police “service stations” in dozens of nations on five continents.
Such stations can be located in both Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Hoekstra claims that the Netherlands has not been asked for permission to put up either station. “The Netherlands has asked the Chinese ambassador for full clarification … conducts research into the stations in order to find out their precise activities,” said Hoekstra.
Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, claimed that the stations were manned by volunteer groups from the Chinese community, not Chinese police, in response to the request from the Netherlands.
Transnational Repression
On Oct. 26, Chinese spokesperson Wang Wenbin reacted to the accusation of foreign police service stations.
He stated that there were service centers, with the goal “to help overseas Chinese nationals in need access the platform to have their driving licenses renewed and receive physical examinations.”
Chinese dissident Wang Jingyu, who lives in Rotterdam, refuted Wang’s assertion.
Jingyu said, “I have solid and clear evidence to prove it’s a Chinese overseas police station in Rotterdam.”
Jingyu claims that a representative of the Chinese police service post in Rotterdam has been phoning him numerous times every day with an official phone number, “He wanted me to turn myself in, to go back to China … threatened me with an officially registered Telegram text.”
“It’s exactly opposite from the Chinese foreign ministry’s claim,” he told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times on Oct. 30.
The offshore policing effort, according to the Safeguard Defenders report, was connected to a Beijing initiative to bring Chinese people home for fraud and telecommunication fraud investigations.
In the past, Chinese media said that between April 2021 and July 2022, the overseas police effectively “persuaded to return” about 230,000 fraud suspects to China.
Yet, according to the Safeguard Defenders assessment, those who had been successfully persuaded claimed that “most involved dissidents or individuals that had fled religious and/or ethnic persecution.”
Following the international exposure of unlawful Chinese police service stations, the Irish government was the first to request the closure of a Chinese foreign police station.
Read the document below:
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