An area Chinatown group chief who the feds say ran a secret Chinese language “police station” out of a nondescript Manhattan workplace constructing was discovered responsible Wednesday of appearing as an unlawful international agent.
“Harry” Lu Jianwang was convicted after proof revealed his dealings with China’s Ministry of Public Safety — which ordered him to hold a banner contained in the glass-clad constructing at 107 East Broadway proudly asserting that the location was a “Police Abroad Service Station” for China’s Fujian province.
A Chinese language safety official additionally urged Lu, 64, to assist monitor a distinguished US-based pro-democracy dissident in March 2022, only a month after Lu established the “station” contained in the Manhattan headquarters of the America Changle Affiliation, which advocates for Fujian immigrants.
“Simply assist me confirm if this particular person exists,” wrote Liu Rongyan, a Fujian safety officer, of Xu Jie, a longtime critic of China’s authorities who fled the nation in 2013 and lives in California.
“A pal is in search of him for a private matter,” Rongyan added — punctuating her textual content with a sheepish grin emoji — in a chat with Lu on the Chinese language messaging platform WeChat.
Lu then messaged Keith Cheng, the chief of a separate Massive Apple-based Fujian group, asking for particulars in regards to the outspoken Beijing regime critic.
“Once you get an opportunity, please see if anybody there is aware of him nicely… anybody is aware of him
nicely who can assist me with this, alright?” Lu texted, in an trade recovered by the FBI.
Lu faces as much as 5 years in jail after a Brooklyn federal jury convicted him of appearing as an unregistered international agent of Beijing and obstructing justice by deleting a few of his messages with Chinese language officers when approached by the feds.
He was acquitted of a separate cost of “conspiring” to behave as an unregistered Chinese language agent.
The decision got here after jurors acquired a glimpse contained in the drab six-story constructing on the foot of the Manhattan Bridge, the place the feds claimed Lu opened the “station” in February 2022 after attending a ceremony in China the place officers introduced that they’d be opening 30 such outposts at websites everywhere in the world.
Jurors noticed proof of Officer Rongyan instructing Lu on easy methods to cling the blue “police station” banner, which was displayed above a convention desk within the web site’s drab workplace. Lu additionally had greater than 50 contacts in his telephone for officers in Chinese language political and safety officers, in line with trial testimony.
However prosecutors with the US Legal professional’s Workplace for the Jap District didn’t reveal any additional particulars on Lu or his accomplice, Chen Jinping, utilizing the location to surveil enemies of the Chinese language authorities.
Trial proof as an alternative largely confirmed that the “station” — the place the FBI found a handful of pc screens, the convention desk and banner, and a ping-pong desk lined in a purple tablecloth — helped Fujian natives renew their Chinese language driver’s licenses remotely.
Lu’s lawyer, John Carman, described the license setup — which prosecutors dismissed as a “entrance” — as proof that Lu answered extra to his neighbors than the Chinese language authorities.
“If Harry Lu is an ‘agent,’ he’s the worst agent ever,” Carman instructed jurors in his closing assertion.
Lu was arrested at his Bronx house in 2023, together with Jinping, in what the US authorities had touted as a part of a sweeping crackdown on China’s efforts to silence regime dissenters throughout the globe.
Chen pleaded responsible in December 2024 to a cost of conspiring to behave on China’s behalf with out telling US authorities. He’s out on bond and shall be sentenced at a later date.
Lu, a Bronx resident and naturalized US citizen, cooly noticed closing statements from the protection desk, the place he sat in a darkish swimsuit with an American flag pin affixed to its lapel.
