China Alleged to Have Been Using Overseas Police Stations To Coerce Chinese Nationals Abroad To Return To China

Theresa Erna Jürgenssen

East Asia Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

Safeguard Defenders, a Spanish NGO, conducted an investigation into Chinese Overseas police stations. As a result of said investigation, Safeguard Defenders alleged that China has been using their police stations to illegally coerce Chinese nationals living abroad to return to China in order to stand trial. 

According to the report, China has 54 Overseas offices in 30 countries over four continents. The stations were legally set up in order to provide consular services to Chinese nationals abroad. However, Safeguard Defenders alleges that they are being used for illegal and secret transnational policing activities. In fact, using these offices, China has "persuaded” 230,000 people to return to China between April 2021 and August 2022 (Safeguard Defenders, 2022). 

While China has claimed that it is simply “persuading” “fugitives” to return to China “voluntarily”, it has also admitted that not all of the targets have actually committed any crimes (Safeguard Defenders, 2022). Additionally, according to the Spanish newspaper El Correo, an official from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Shanghai – who asked to be kept anonymous – has corroborated the findings made by Safeguard Defenders. The official further made the following comments: “The bilateral treaties are very cumbersome and Europe is reluctant to extradite to China. I do not see what is wrong in pressuring criminals to face justice with all the guarantees contained in Chinese law”, whereby the official insisted that only legal means were being used (El Correo, 2022). 

According to Safeguard Defenders the methods used to “persuade” the nationals to return to China are “in evident breach of international human rights law and the territorial sovereignty of individual countries” (Safeguard Defenders, 2022). These methods of persuasion often target either the emigrants themselves or their relatives still living in China by threatening criminal investigations, the denial of their children’s education, or other limitations  (Safeguard Defenders, 2022).

Additionally, China has passed the new Anti-Telecom and Online Fraud Law on September 02, 2022, coming into force on December 01, 2022, which provides for Chinese extraterritorial jurisdiction over “telecom and online fraud overseas committed by Chinese citizens” as well as “overseas organizations or individual engaging in or assisting in telecom and online fraud against people in China’s territory” (Article 3). 

In response, several countries have launched investigations into the allegations made by Safeguard Defenders: the Dutch and Irish governments, in particular, have already made orders to shut down the Chinese police stations in their respective countries. 

Sources and further reading:

Aldama, Z. (2022, October 17). Las operaciones ‘secretas’ de la policía china en España. El Correo. Accessed on November 08, 2022, from https://www.elcorreo.com/internacional/asia/operaciones-secretas-policia-20221009175227-ntrc.html. 

RFA. (2022, November 07). International concern grows over Chinese ‘police service stations’. Radio Free Asia. Accessed on November 08, 2022, from https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/police-service-station-concern-11072022041158.html. 

Safeguard Defenders. (2022, September). 110 OVERSEAS: Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild. Safeguard Defenders Investigations and Briefings Series. Accessed on November 08, 2022, from https://safeguarddefenders.com/sites/default/files/pdf/110%20Overseas%20%284%29.pdf. 

Safeguard Defenders. (2022, September 12). 230,000 Chinese “persuaded to return” from abroad, China to establish Extraterritoriality. Safeguard Defenders Investigations. Accessed on November 08, 2022, from https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/blog/230000-policing-expands. 

Safeguard Defenders. (2022, October 09). Breaking: Chinese official corroborates 110 Overseas findings. Safeguard Defenders News. Accessed on November 08, 2022, from https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/blog/breaking-chinese-offical-corroborates-110-overseas-findings. 

Safeguard Defenders. (2022, September 15). Chinese overseas police service stations tied to illegal policing in Madrid and Belgrade. Safeguard Defenders Investigations. Accessed on November 08, 2022, from https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/blog/chinese-overseas-police-service-stations-tied-illegal-policing-madrid-and-belgrade.