Mystery surrounds an official “contact point” in Sydney established by Chinese cops about four years ago after a new whistleblower report claimed Chinese “police service stations” in countries around the world were being used for “sinister” purposes.
It has been revealed this week that a web of police “service stations” have been set up around the world by the People’s Republic of China, ostensibly to help Chinese nationals renew their government-issued identification and drivers’ licenses.
But according to Safeguard Defenders, a human rights group that documents Chinese repression around the world, the stations have been used to spy on the Chinese diaspora for the Chinese Communist Party.
“Openly labelled as overseas police service stations … they contribute to ‘resolutely cracking down on all kinds of illegal and criminal activities involving overseas Chinese,’” the group said in a September report.
The report accuses stations overseas of involvement in forcibly “returning” more than 200,000 overseas nationals to China.
The method is called “persuasion to return” and “collateral punishment” is a key tactic, where relatives back in China risk punishment if they don’t convince the person to return.
Authorities track down the wanted person’s family and use “intimidation, harassment, detention or imprisonment” to pressure them into returning “voluntarily”, according to the report.
While there is no complete list of service stations, also called “110 Overseas Stations” named...
You are reading the second issue of the Disinformation Monitor. It is published on a monthly basis and provides an overview of developments on the disinformation scenes on NATO’s eastern frontier....