MANHATTAN, United States — A Manhattan resident recently pleaded guilty to operating a secret police station in New York on behalf of the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Chen Jinping now faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty on Tuesday, December 17, 2024 to conspiring to act as an agent of the PRC government.

Prosecutors say he was working for the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS). Reportedly, while acting under the direction and control of an MPS Official, Jinping and a co-defendant worked together to establish the first known overseas police station in the United States on behalf of the Fuzhou branch of the MPS.

The police station, which closed in the fall of 2022, allegedly occupied an entire floor in an office building in Manhattan’s Chinatown.

Commenting on the plea, Matthew G Olsen, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said, “Today’s guilty plea holds the defendant accountable for his brazen efforts to operate an undeclared overseas police station on behalf of the PRC’s national police force — a clear affront to American sovereignty and danger to our community that will not be tolerated.”

“The Department of Justice will continue to pursue anyone who attempts to aid the PRC’s efforts to extend their repressive reach into the United States,” he added.