Chen Jinping, a 60-year-old U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty on Dec. 18 in front of U.S. District Judge Nina Morrison, a development that prosecutors lauded as the latest progress in countering the Chinese regime's transnational repression scheme.

Chen was one of two individuals the FBI arrested in April 2023 over the illegal police station, one of more than 100 identified overseas Chinese police outposts Beijing had operated globally.

He faces up to five years in prison.

The New York site runs under the cover of a Chinese organization called the American ChangLe Association in Manhattan's Chinatown. The association ostensibly serves as a mingling place for immigrants from China's southeastern Fujian Province, where the namesake district, ChangLe, is based.

Chen was the secretary general of the association at the time of the arrest, while the other man, Lu Jianwang, was the former president. Lu, also known as "Harry Lu," has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is awaiting trial.

The station was set up in mid-February 2022 and had since assisted an official from China's Ministry of Public Security, the country's police apparatus, to locate a person of interest, a California pro-democracy advocate who had served as an advisor to a 2022 congressional candidate from New York State, the federal complaint states.

Weeks before the station came into being, Lu forwarded a notice to Chen that stated: "in order to establish a smooth connection to the remote checkup identification renewal system every overseas service station has to grant access privileges to the 110 system," according to the court document.

The number 110 is synonymous with police in China.

The notice instructed recipients to provide the service station IP address to a designated email address.

Xi Jinping's Visit

Federal prosecutors said their investigation found Lu had a longstanding relationship of trust with Chinese authorities.

In 2015, during Chinese leader Xi Jinping's trip to Washington, Lu, along with other local Chinese association leaders, dispatched members of their organizations to participate in counter-protests against public demonstrations by practitioners of Falun Gong. The faith group, persecuted in China since 1999, was attempting to protest the regime's ongoing suppression.

The court document included a photo showing Lu holding a plaque with a Chinese police official celebrating his work "in ensuring that members of the Falun Gong religion did not disturb President Xi's visit."