A 64-year-old New Yorker has been convicted in what prosecutors cast as Beijing's off-the-books law enforcement reach into Manhattan. A Brooklyn federal jury on Wednesday found Lu Jianwang guilty of acting as an unregistered agent for China and obstructing justice, concluding he helped run an unauthorized "police station" out of a Chinatown office without disclosing his work to the US attorney general, per Reuters.
Prosecutors said Lu, a naturalized US citizen, set up the outpost in 2022 after meetings with Chinese officials and later assisted China in tracking down a California-based pro-democracy activist, though there was no allegation the activist was harmed. He was also accused of destroying evidence of communication with Chinese officials. Lu argued that he simply offered document-renewal help to Chinese nationals stranded by COVID-era travel limits and was not directed by Beijing. He faces up to 30 years in prison.
Chen Jinping, a man arrested alongside Lu, pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an unregistered Chinese agent in 2024, per CNN. He faces up to five years in prison at his sentencing, still to come. The cases are part of a broader Justice Department push against what it calls "transnational repression" by governments including China and Iran—an effort China has dismissed as smear tactics, insisting such overseas centers are volunteer-run service hubs, not covert police posts.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
