UK urged to act after Dutch order China to shut alleged secret 'police stations'
Secret "overseas police stations" reports have claimed are operated by the Chinese Communist Party have been ordered to close by the Dutch government.
The move comes a day after British MPs called for an investigation after reports claimed the existence of a worldwide network of Chinese police stations - including three said to be operating in Croydon, Hendon and Glasgow.
A report by Spanish-based non-government group Safeguard Defenders published allegations last week of findings of at least 54 such police service stations operating outside of China.
These stations are ostensibly administrative centres for Chinese nationals, but reports suggest the outposts could be used to track and harass dissidents and pressure Chinese nationals to return home to face criminal charges.
There are also concerns they could be used to undermine democratic institutions and risking theft of economic and political secrets by bodies affiliated with the one-party state.
On Monday, former Tory party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith urged the government to investigate claims of police stations in the UK and to kick them out if found to be operating.
"Otherwise we look like we’re dragging our feet compared to our neighbours,” he told the Commons.
The Dutch government said last week it was looking into whether two police stations - one a virtual office in Amsterdam and the other at a physical address in Rotterdam - were established in the Netherlands.
On Tuesday, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said on Twitter: "Because no permission was sought from the Netherlands" (for the stations) "the ministry informed the (Chinese) ambassador that the stations must close immediately."
The Irish government has already ordered China to close a Fuzhou police overseas service station in Dublin which the Department of Foreign Affairs said Chinese authorities had not requested permission for.
China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, said the overseas outposts identified by Safeguard Defenders were service stations for Chinese people living abroad who were in need of help with, for example, renewing their driver's licenses.
In its report, Safeguard Defenders highlighted Chinese media accounts about people suspected of alleged crimes in China being interrogated by video link from some of the locations in other countries that Beijing allegedly did not declare to other governments.
In one instance, according to the group, a Chinese man accused of environmental crimes was persuaded in 2020 to return from Madrid to Qingtian, in Zhejiang province, where he turned himself in to authorities.
Some of the locations identified by Safeguard Defenders in Rome, Madrid and Barcelona were found by The Associated Press news agency to be respectively: a massage parlour, the Spanish headquarters of an association of citizens from Qingtian, and a firm providing legal translation services. There was no indication of police stations or other activity directly related to the Chinese government, it said.
Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...
Beijing keeps tight links with the Chinese diaspora through its embassies and associations of overseas Chinese, but the unregistered police service points allegedly operated physically outside of Beijing's diplomatic premises abroad.
According to Safeguard Defenders, China claims 230,000 suspects of fraud were “persuaded to return” to China from April 2021 to July 2022.
The European Union's executive arm said last Thursday it was up to member countries to investigate such allegations since it would be a matter of national sovereignty.