China operates more than 100 secret 'police stations' in dozens of countries to monitor its citizens in exile, report says

• China has more than 100 "police stations" globally to monitor its citizens in exile, a report said.
• Some of these facilities are set up with the help of the host nations, Safeguard Defenders alleged.

China operates more than 100 so-called police stations worldwide to monitor, harass and repatriate its citizens in exile, according to a report from Madrid-based human rights campaign group Safeguard Defenders quoted by CNN.

Many of these stations are set up through bilateral security agreements with host countries in Europe and Africa, the report alleged.

Safeguard Defenders tracked forced disappearances in China by looking through open-source, official Chinese documents for evidence of alleged human rights abuses.

It first revealed the existence of 54 such stations in September, and said it had now found evidence of 48 more.

The organization cited specific examples of a Chinese national being coerced into returning to China from France and other instances of Chinese nationals being forcibly returned from countries including Serbia and Spain.

Safeguard Defenders said it had found four separate police jurisdictions of China's Ministry of Public Security active in at least 53 countries, per CNN.

China has denied running undeclared police forces overseas, with its Ministry of Foreign Affairs telling CNN in November: "We hope that relevant parties stop hyping it up to create tensions. Using this as a pretext to smear China is unacceptable."

China has claimed that the facilities are simply for expatriates who need help with administrative tasks like renewing documents.

They have also claimed that some of the stations were set up in response to the pandemic, but the Safeguard Defenders report claimed that the offices were opened several years before.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told a Homeland Security Committee last month he was "very concerned" about possible unauthorized Chinese police stations in US cities.

"It is outrageous to think that the Chinese police would attempt to set up shop, you know, in New York, let's say, without proper coordination. It violates sovereignty and circumvents standard judicial and law enforcement cooperation processes," he said.

The revelations about the police stations have sparked investigations in at least 13 countries, CNN said.

Ireland ordered a Chinese police station found on its territory to shut down, as has the Netherlands. Canada has issued "cease and desist" warning to China over police stations.