Report: China has its own police station illegally in Sweden

China's illegal police station in Sweden "not unlikely" 

 

Of: Lukas Jacobson 

 

Published: Very recently 

 

NEWS 

 

China's pursuit of criminals outside the country's borders is taking on a new guise. 

 

Now a report shows that physical "police stations" have been opened. 

 

- You "convince" people to come back, says China connoisseur Oscar Almén. 

 

54 police stations in 30 countries spread all over the world. This is shown in the report from the organisationen Safeguard Defenders.One of the offices is allegedly hidden behind a brick facade in western Stockholm.

 

If overseas Chinese need to renew their driver's license, they can turn to the "Oversea Chinese Sevice Center". Work usually performed at an embassy. 

 

But according to the report, police stations lurk behind the service center. From that side, there should be pressure on exiled Chinese to return home and face trial for alleged crimes. 

 

Silence critics 

Oscar Almén.

The phenomenon of China trying to capture people who are considered to have broken the law is not new, says Oscar Almén, who is a researcher with a focus on China at the Total Defense Research Institute, FOI. 

 

- They have long had a project to catch major criminals and corrupt Chinese who have moved abroad. There is a concept for this called "Operation Foxhunt". And in the search for them, there have been this type of methods, where you "convince" people to come back in different ways, he says. 

 

- They often use the fact that there are relatives back home in China who are threatened in various ways to silence critics of the regime. And this is something that is increasing more and more. 

 

In the report, it is about looking for phone and internet fraudsters. Where the crime victims are in China. 

 

For this activity, economic crime, the prison sentence is relevant. But China has harsh punishments for criminals, including the death penalty in the country. Which means that several countries have no extradition agreement with them. 

 

- Then you try to find other ways instead. To get the people to return, says Oscar Almén. 

 

We do not now know what type of activity is carried out at the alleged Swedish police station. But that it actually exists is "absolutely not improbable", says Oscar Almén. 

 

Not officially the Chinese state 

 

Jing-Jie Chen, researcher for Safeguard Defenders, hears from a busy cafe in Asia. He believes that the Swedish police station is located at a three-star hotel in Stockholm. 

 

- It is inside the Chinese service center, which is registered at the same address, says Jing-Jie Chen. 

 

It is not the Chinese state that should have established the offices, according to the report. Without the regional police of Qingtian and Fuzhou, in cooperation with the Oversea Chinese Association. An association run by the Chinese Communist Party. 

 

According to the report, the office in western Stockholm was established by the Qingtian police. 

 

- Those who manage the stations are not Chinese civil servants or government employees. Without local Chinese. They are often businessmen. But Dutch media(nederländsk media) revealed that some who work at the stations were previously in the security agency or have connections to China's army. 

 

Jing-Jie Chen sends a link to a website that describes the service center in Stockholm. Here it appears that the center has a finance department, a legal department and an emergency department. Also that it must be registered by Swedish authorities. 

 

But when a fake Ministry of Foreign Affairs checks, they find no registered organization under that name. 

 

 

China's alleged police office in Budapest featured in the report. Photo: Anna Szilagyi / AP 

 

There should also be such an office in Rome. Photo: Gregorio Borgia / AP 

 

Foreign Minister Tobias Billström (M) has reacted to the incident. In a picture, which TT writes about, you can see an employment certificate for a person who received a position as "director of Servicecentrum Stockholm under Qingtian's "Police stations for overseas Chinese" (rough translation) for a period of three years". 

 

- We intend to ensure that the issue is handed over from the government's side to the law enforcement authorities, in particular the security police, says the foreign minister to TT. 

Säpo confirms knowledge  

 

The security police, Säpo, confirms that they knew about the police stations from before. But no more information is released about the case.  

 

According to Säpo, several countries conduct security-threatening activities against and in Sweden. 

 

- In that context, we have identified three countries in particular that are the main ones linked to the threats. And then it's Russia, China and Iran we've been talking about, says Fredrik Hultgren-Friberg, press spokesperson at Säpo. 

 

China denies  

 

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin says the information is not correct, writes the Global Times.

 

He that they opened up a service center is correct. Something they did during the pandemic to make it easier for Chinese citizens in other countries to renew their driver's licenses.  

 

However, it does not agree with Safeguard Defender's report. It says that Chinese police stations opened their doors for the first time in 2018. That is, before the pandemic.