A Chinese national admitted Wednesday to operating a covert “police station” in Manhattan, New York, to assist Beijing in targeting dissidents living in the United States, federal prosecutors said. Chen Jinping, 60, pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court to acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the People’s Republic of China.
Chen, who faces up to five years in prison, confessed to conspiring with Chinese authorities to suppress criticism of Beijing. He admitted to removing an online article in September 2022 about the alleged police station, which prosecutors say occupied an entire floor of a Chinatown building near the Manhattan Bridge.
“I knowingly agreed to act as a foreign agent for a foreign government,” Chen told Judge Nina Morrison through an interpreter. Initially evasive, he acknowledged working for China only after being pressed by the court.
Chen and co-defendant Lu Jianwang, 61, were arrested in April 2023. Lu, whose case is still pending, allegedly collaborated with Chinese security officials to track down dissidents in the U.S., according to court filings.
Prosecutors allege Chen and Lu attempted to conceal their activities by deleting communications with a Chinese Ministry of Public Security official after learning of the federal investigation.
The arrests were part of a broader crackdown on Beijing’s influence operations in the United States. “This prosecution reveals the Chinese government’s flagrant violation of our nation’s sovereignty,” said Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Peace emphasized that Chen’s guilty plea underscores the priority of countering malign foreign activities that threaten U.S. sovereignty.
Chen is scheduled to be sentenced on May 30, 2025.
