UK Investigating Unofficial Chinese Police Outposts

A police officer gestures to a journalist not to photograph in Beijing, on March 5, 2021. Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

British police are investigating reports of three unofficial Chinese police stations operating in the UK, a Home Office minister confirmed on Tuesday.

Security Minister Tom Tugendhat also told MPs that the government is assessing the reports, as well as other actions by Chinese officials that are “incompatible with diplomatic status.”

According to a report published in September by human rights NGO Safeguard Defenders, a Chinese police bureau, Fuzhou Public Security Bureau (PSB), had been operating dozens of overseas police “service stations” including two in London and one in Glasgow, Scotland.

The phone number for the Glasgow station, listed in a Chinese-language news report that was cited in the Safeguard Defenders report, is coupled with an address belonging to a Chinese restaurant while the London stations shared addresses with a Croydon food delivery place and a Hendon estate agent.

Responding to an urgent question about the legal status of overseas Chinese police stations operating in the UK, Tugendhat told MPs that “there is no police force in this country that has jurisdiction except for the police forces of the United Kingdom.”

The minister confirmed that he was assured by the police that officers were “investigating allegations of unlawful activity.”

Tom Tugendhat during the Conservative Party annual conference at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, England, on Oct. 3, 2022. Jacob King/PA Media

It comes after Police Scotland confirmed it was assessing criminality when The Epoch Times asked whether or not the force was investigating the Glasgow station.

Tugendhat said the government is assessing the reports and will update Parliament on the assessment.

He also confirmed that the investigation includes looking into how the individuals working at the unofficial overseas Chinese police stations got their visas.

“The protection of people in the United Kingdom has the utmost importance and any attempt to illegally repatriate any individual will not be tolerated,” the ministers said, referring to allegations that the Chinese police outposts may be involved in pressuring Chinese individuals to return to China.

The “service stations” purport to be providing assistance to Chinese citizens who need to renew their driver’s licenses and report criminality such as fraud by Chinese in China and overseas.

Safeguard Defenders said the programme was set up after the launch of “a massive nationwide campaign to combat the growing issue of fraud and telecommunication fraud by Chinese nationals living abroad” in 2018.

Authorities of the communist regime claimed that 230,000 Chinese nationals had been “persuaded to return” to face criminal proceedings in China between April 2021 and July 2022.

It’s unclear whether the outposts in the UK were involved in pressuring alleged criminals to return to China or intimidating dissidents.

Responding to Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who urged the government to accelerate the investigation into the overseas police stations, “kick them out,” and “do the same with the Confucius Institutes,” Tugendhat said the Home office assessment on the former will “come forward urgently” and referenced Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s campaign pledge on the Confucius Institutes, saying, “he will be looking to close them.”

Hongkongers holding a rally outside the Chinese Consulate in Manchester, UK, were dragged into the consulate and beaten by the staff, on Oct. 16, 2022. Screenshot from Hong Kong Indigenous Defense Force

Asked what is the criteria under which “a so-called diplomat found guilty of a criminal assault would be declared persona non grata,“ referring to the alleged assault of Hong Kong protester Bob Chan at the Consulate General in Manchester, Tugendhat said ”information arising from any inquiry or assessment of the Home Office or police forces or agencies will feed straight into the Foreign Office,” which is responsible for making decisions to expel foreign diplomats.

New Task Force Defending Democratic Integrity

In a statement following the urgent question, Tugendhat announced a new task force to “drive forward work to defend the democratic integrity” of the UK.

The task force, led by Tugendhat, will coordinate parliament departments, security and intelligence agencies, governments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and the private sector, to “look at the full range of threats facing our democratic institutions,” such as physical attacks on MPs, cyber threats, and other domestic and external threats to British democratic institutions and liberties.

The minister said the task force will report to the National Security Council, and more details will be set out in the update of the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy.

The Integrated Review, published in March 2021 by Boris Johnson’s government, described communist-ruled China as a “systemic competitor” while calling Russia “the most acute threat.”

Prime Minister Liz Truss gives her first speech at Downing Street, London, on Sept 6, 2022. Leon Neal/Getty Images

Former Prime Minister Liz Truss in September told U.S. President Joe Biden that she plans to update the strategy to ensure “the UK is fully equipped to tackle the evolving challenge from countries like China and Russia,” Downing Street said at the time.

According to The Guardian, a spokesperson for Downing Street said that Truss had commissioned an update, saying “Russia remains the biggest threat to the UK but China represents the most serious long-term threat to our values and way of life.”

Asked why China wasn’t labeled a threat last year, Tugendhat, who become the security minister under Truss and was reappointed by Sunak, confirmed that China has become a long-term strategic threat.