In a high-stakes federal trial that underscores growing tensions over cross-border law enforcement activities on US soil, a 64-year-old US resident has been found guilty of running what federal prosecutors describe as the first proven secret Chinese police station operating on American territory.
Following a seven-day jury trial in New York’s Southern District Federal Court, Lu Jianwang, also known by the name Harry Lu, was convicted on two core charges: conspiring to act as an unregistered illegal agent for China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS), and obstruction of justice for destroying evidence related to the operation once an investigation was launched. Prosecutors confirmed that Lu now faces a maximum sentence of 30 years behind bars when he is sentenced at a later date.
Court documents and trial testimony laid out that Lu launched the outpost in early 2022, taking over an entire floor above a ramen shop in Manhattan’s bustling Chinatown neighborhood to house the operation. His co-defendant, Chen Jinping, already pleaded guilty to the same conspiracy charge in December 2024 and is currently awaiting his own sentencing. When the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched a formal probe into the station in 2022, Lu and Chen deliberately deleted text communications exchanged with a senior MPS official to cover up their activities, according to prosecution arguments. The Chinatown station was ultimately shut down later that same year after the investigation became public.
Lu’s conviction arrives the same week that a California municipal mayor resigned from office after being hit with separate charges of acting as an unregistered illegal agent for the Chinese government, marking two high-profile legal actions connected to alleged Chinese influence operations in the US within days of one another.
James C. Barnacle Jr., assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office, said in a statement following the verdict that Lu deliberately used the New York station to target Chinese dissidents living in the United States to advance the Chinese government’s political priorities.
Rights groups have documented more than 100 similar unauthorised outposts linked to Chinese authorities across 53 countries around the world. These organizations allege that the stations are used to monitor, threaten, and intimidate Chinese nationals living overseas, including pro-democracy activists who have relocated to the United States to escape political persecution.
Chinese government officials have repeatedly pushed back against these accusations, insisting that the facilities are innocuous “service stations” created to provide routine administrative support to Chinese citizens living abroad. Beijing says the services offered include pandemic-related support and processing driver’s license renewals, rather than political surveillance or harassment.