
Canada’s federal police said Thursday it is investigating reports that China has set up police stations and harassed Chinese expatriates in Canada, AFP reported.
“The concern is currently investigating reports of criminal activity involving so-called police stations,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.
In particular, he added that he “is aware that foreign countries may seek to intimidate or harm communities or individuals in Canada.
The announcement follows a September investigation by the rights group Safeguard Defenders, which found there are 54 such police stations worldwide, including three in Greater Toronto, Canada’s largest city.
According to a Spanish non-governmental organization, some of these stations work with Chinese police to conduct “law enforcement operations in foreign territory.”
For his part, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin described these reports as “completely false” at a regular briefing, assuring that Beijing “fully” respects the sovereignty of other countries.
“The main purpose of the overseas service station is to provide free assistance to Chinese nationals” around the world for the renewal of driver’s licenses and other services, the Chinese embassy in Canada told AFP.
The agency said the people working at the stations were “local volunteers” and not “Chinese police officers”, adding that they were not involved in any “criminal investigation”.
However, Safeguard Defenders says it has more evidence that people associated with these stations have tried to persuade citizens suspected of crimes to return to China to face criminal charges.
A court document released in the United States outlines, among other things, a foreign interference case against seven Chinese nationals.
It describes the example of a Canadian-based embezzler who was pressured in 2018 to return to China, which he eventually did, “although he initially did not want to return,” the document said.
The Chinese government is also said to have coordinated some of these activities from Toronto.
For its part, Canadian public television quoted a Chinese journalist and activist as saying that after moving from China to Canada in 1989, she was repeatedly harassed online by Chinese officials.
“Now, the Chinese police station (is) here, a few kilometers away from my house, so I’m thinking where to run,” Shen Xue told CBC.
Dutch authorities also announced on Wednesday that they were investigating similar “illegal police stations” in the Netherlands.
Source: Hot News RO

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