1 month ago
26
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
Chen Jinping used the office in Lower Manhattan to quash dissent against the Chinese government. The Justice Department is fighting Beijing’s efforts to wield its influence secretly.
Dec. 18, 2024, 3:56 p.m. ET
A man pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday to charges that he had worked as an unauthorized agent of the Chinese government, running a police outpost in Lower Manhattan as part of an effort to quash criticism of Beijing.
The man, Chen Jinping, was accused last year of helping to run the unauthorized Chinese police outpost and of hiding his activities from the federal government by not registering as a foreign agent. Mr. Chen was charged along another man, Lu Jianwang, also known as Harry Lu.
Federal prosecutors said that when the men learned of an investigation into the outpost, they destroyed text messages they had exchanged with their handler at China’s Ministry of Public Security in October 2022, around the time that the F.B.I. searched the six-story building in Chinatown that housed the operation.
In court, Mr. Chen admitted through an interpreter that he had “agreed with others to act as an agent of a foreign government” and that he was not registered as a foreign agent, as legally required. Mr. Lu has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. Both men are American citizens.
As Mr. Chen spoke to the court, his son and daughter sat in the front row of the gallery watching.
The pleading on Wednesday is the latest in the Justice Department’s initiative to stop efforts by the Chinese government to wield its influence secretly across the United States. The efforts have been driven especially in recent years by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, which has been headed by Breon Peace.
“A priority of my office has been to counteract the malign activities of foreign governments that violate our nation’s sovereignty by targeting local diaspora communities,” Mr. Peace said in a news release.
