Canada has done a complete mapping of what it says are covert Chinese police operations within its borders and wants to discover a response with Group of Seven allies to a challenge faced by many countries. The problem of Beijing allegedly setting up unofficial police stations in Western democracies to monitor and intimidate members of the Chinese diaspora has become a fear. Canada, the U.S., Italy, Germany, and the U.K. have all faced with the issue.
Ottawa is expected to share its findings with the G7 in the coming weeks and wants to explore a coordinated response, according to two people who were familiar with the matter and a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Ottawa said in a statement that there are no so-called overseas police stations.
One of the officials said the U.K. is very excited to coordinate along with Canada and other G7 members. However, harmonizing a response could be difficult because many countries have challenged the issue at a law-enforcement level, and countries within the bloc have different legal systems. The Madrid-based human-rights group Safeguard Defenders said in a 2022 report that China operates a minimum of 54 such stations across five continents. China has said the centers which are run by local volunteers, not police officers, help Chinese citizens renew documents and offer other services. China strictly follows the rules of non-interference in other nations’ internal affairs. Last year,the U.K. government reacted with alarm to reports of alleged Chinese police stations in the country, calling it egregious. In June 2023, it said China had closed the centers, and that an investigation hadn’t discovered illegal activity by the Chinese state at the sites, citing the suppressive impact of police and public scrutiny.
Last year, U.S. authorities charged two people in New York on allegations of operating an illegal police operation in lower Manhattan for a branch of China’s Ministry of Public Security, to monitor and intimidate dissidents and those critical of the government in Beijing. Italy began probing China’s alleged operations after Safeguard Defenders reported it was home to the highest number of the so-called stations. Germany’s government has said there are two such sites in the country. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has faced accusations of not responding swiftly enough to foreign interference, prompting his government to call an independent inquiry into overseas meddling in its recent federal elections. In March in an interim report, the inquiry discovered that China tried to interfere in the elections but the overall result didn’t get affected
