They are hidden behind simple offices, buildings with an innocuous appearance. According to the Spanish NGO Saveguard Defenders, which published a detailed report on the subject in September, China has established in Paris, and in several other capitals, clandestine or “unofficial” Chinese police stations, responsible for forcing nationals and Chinese nationals to return home to face justice. About fifty are open on five continents, and three in Paris in particular, according to the NGO’s survey.
In detail, two police offices linked to the city of Fuzhou and one office linked to the city of Qingtian officiate in the French capital, officially to help renew a driver’s license or carry out consulate duties abroad. But in fact, these pharmacies are used to “suppress illegal or criminal activities involving Chinese people abroad”, according to the report consulted by 20 minutes.
230,000 people forced to return home
Some of these clandestine police stations are said to collaborate with the Chinese police to carry out “policing operations on foreign soil”. Safeguard Defenders maintains that it has several pieces of evidence indicating that individuals linked to these stations have sought to persuade nationals suspected of having committed crimes to return to China to face criminal proceedings.
These clandestine police operations were supported according to the NGO by a law adopted on September 2 by China which “establishes full extraterritoriality for Chinese citizens” concerning certain crimes. Between April 2021 and July 2022, around 230,000 people were persuaded to return to China to face Chinese justice, according to the NGO.
Investigations opened in the United States, the Netherlands, Canada
The France 3 television channel succeeded in contacting a person in charge of one of these clandestine police forces established in Paris, who indicated that he worked for “the police headquarters of China” for “health examinations” or “renewals of permits To drive “. But a foreign ministry official in Shanghai, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the facts to the Spanish newspaper. El Correoclaiming “to not find it problematic to put pressure on criminals to bring them to justice”.
Investigations have been opened overseas by the Netherlands and Canadian federal police, where a person accused of embezzlement and living in Canada has been pressured to return to China, according to a court document. According to Dutch media, a man claims to have received threatening calls and messages after protesting in June outside the Chinese embassy. American justice also indicted last week seven Chinese accused of having tried to force one of their compatriots, residing in the United States, to return to China.
Contacted by 20 minutesthe Ministry of the Interior stated that it could not “go into the details of what the specialized services monitor”, while adding: “The DGSI [Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure] deploys very significant (and increasing) resources to monitor the action of foreign state services or structures likely to come into conflict with our own sovereignty; and that each time an initiative likely to be in contradiction with our laws is detected, the minister has given instructions that it gives rise to an immediate reaction. We will not tolerate such practices taking place on national territory.”