After a report revealed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has established police service
stations and conducted police operations in foreign countries, some of these countries started
conducting investigations. In some other countries politicians have put on pressure for action
to be taken. Safeguard Defenders, a human rights organization in Spain, reported in September
that the CCP has extended its police operations overseas. It has set up at least 54 police service
stations in 30 countries, including the U.S. (New York), France (Paris), Canada (Toronto),
Spain (Madrid), and elsewhere. Their main mission is to hunt for those Chinese who stole
money and went overseas. “Rather than using legal forms of international cooperation, they have resorted to pressuring targets to return. In fact some 230,000 people have been involved
for a little over year.” These police service stations have physical locations and phone numbers
so that people can call and provide information. Beijing claimed that its purpose was to provide
ID services or China’s driver’s license renewal to Chinese citizens overseas. However, some
countries where Beijing has conducted these police operations, feel this is a violation of their
sovereignty. Ireland’s Foreign Affairs Ministry officials have expressed concern to the Chinese
Embassy and are consulting within the entire government as to how to resolve this issue. The
Ministry of Interior in Spain started its investigation. In the U.S., Jim Bank (R), Chairman of
the Republican Study Committee, Michael Waltz (R), Mike Gallagher (R), along with 18 other
House Representatives, wrote a letter to Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Justice
Garland, stating, “There should be no room for the Chinese government to exercise
extraterritorial law enforcement unilaterally on U.S. soil.” On October 4, the Canadian House
of Commons committee on relations between Canada and the People’s Republic of China held
a hearing on this issue. Weldon Epp, a China lead with Global Affairs Canada, stated at the
hearing, “The activity that’s being alleged (about the police service stations) would be entirely
illegal, totally inappropriate and would be the subject of very serious representations.”
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