It is reported that at least two Chinese police forces have set up so-called “foreign service offices” Report from Advocates for Spanish Non-Profit Safeguards. These are 54 unofficial stations in 21 different countries across five continents, BBC reports. Most of them are found in Europe – including nine in Spain, four in Italy, two in the Netherlands, and one in Sweden.
The stations work externally with consular missions, such as registering changes in marital status and renewing Chinese driver’s licenses for citizens living abroad. But according to the report – which it calls “Chinese transnational police” – they are in fact operating through “persuasions” in which outspoken Chinese critics of the regime are forced back home to face prosecution.
Find critics
Dutch RTL News He spoke to Wang Jingyu, who said that so-called Chinese police stations are looking for regime critics in the Netherlands to silence them – even though they are far from China’s border.
– I thought I was safe here, but they follow me everywhere, Wang told the newspaper.
Earlier this year, he was contacted by the Chinese “police station” in Rotterdam, urging him to return to China to “solve his problems” and “think of his parents” back home in China.
According to the Dutch Foreign Ministry, this is an illegal activity, RTL News reports.
The report states that between April 2021 and July 2022, Chinese authorities allegedly “convinced” 230,000 Chinese to return to China for prosecution.
Read also: Chinese influence divides the German government
Read also: The United States accuses China of espionage
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