Chinese agents convicted in US for running overseas police station and spreading propaganda

A glass-fronted office above a ramen shop in Manhattan's Chinatown looked like any other community space until federal agents raided it in 2022. Lu Jianwang, 64, president of the American Changle Association, had told his lawyers he planned to help Chinese expats renew driver's licenses and host ping-pong and mahjong nights.

Prosecutors said the office served another purpose. They charged Lu with running the first known overseas Chinese police station in the United States. This week a Brooklyn jury found him guilty of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for China. He faces up to 30 years in prison.

Days earlier, Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang pleaded guilty in California to a similar charge. Prosecutors said she published pro-China essays on a community website at the direction of Chinese officials, including one that denied genocide and forced labor in Xinjiang.

The two convictions came as President Donald Trump traveled to Beijing for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The leaders focused on trade and avoided public mention of espionage.

China has been accused of opening more than 100 such stations in 53 countries. Beijing has described them as volunteer centers that help citizens with paperwork. A UK immigration officer was convicted last week of working for Chinese intelligence in a similar operation.

Lu's lawyer told the court the office was only for license renewals and social events. Prosecutors said Lu and co-defendant Chen Jinping, who already pleaded guilty, used it to monitor critics of China, including one dissident who fled in 2013.

Experts say the cases fit a wider pattern. China has expanded efforts to track dissidents abroad, recruit informants and shape overseas narratives, according to analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Asia Society Policy Institute. The work often involves harassment of families still in China and pressure on overseas Chinese communities.