There are three “informal Chinese squads” in Portugal, which are “monitoring, investigating and forcibly repatriating” citizens of Chinese origin. The denunciation was made by the leader of the Liberal Initiative (IL) party, João Cotrim de Figueiredo, in Parliament last week and left the Portuguese with ‘mouth open’. Portuguese government, Chinese entities in Portuguese territory, Amnesty International say they are unaware of this situation, unlike the police in Portugal. For now, however, there will be no “illegalities”.
António Costa, Prime Minister of Portugal, was then confronted by the Liberal Initiative on the alleged existence of informal Chinese police stations in three Portuguese locations, based on a report by an NGO, Safeguard Defenders, which identified three “police service stations”, in Portugal, namely in Porto, Lisbon and Madeira.
The leader of the Portuguese Government revealed that he was not aware of such a situation, stressing that not even the secret services would have any data, “otherwise they would have informed me”.
“The answer is very easy: I don’t have any knowledge and certainly neither do the services. But I recommended that he transmit this to the Attorney General of the Republic”.
Contacted by PLATAFORMA, Amnesty International Portugal was not surprised by the possibility of the existence of such Chinese squadrons, although they admit that they also have no knowledge.
“This methodology of intimidation does not surprise us. Unfortunately, these are practices that are being used. People who are threatened with personal constraints and suffering inflicted on their family members is not a new practice”, began by revealing the director of Amnesty, Pedro Neto, who, even so, admits to not having knowledge of specific cases in Portugal.
“We are not aware that they act the way they were told, from persecuting to forcibly repatriated. The NGO report does not mention that there are specific cases, what it does mention is that there are three groups in Portugal. It will be squadrons that will be here, but report to squadrons in China,” he confirmed.
More outraged by the statement by the leader of the Liberal Initiative was Y Ping Chow, president of the League of Chinese in Portugal. The businessman denies any possibility of the existence of such squads on Portuguese soil and attacks the Portuguese politician.
“This is fake. The purpose of this complaint is to harm China. It was fake news spread by someone, in this case a politician, who doesn’t have much experience, and who wants to gain notoriety”, Y Ping Chow told our newspaper, also mentioning that if there is “concrete evidence”, it will have to be delivered to the authorities.
“First of all, we cannot rely on reports that do not disclose evidence. First you have to get them and if you get them, they have to be handed over to the competent authorities. I have lived in Portugal for over 60 years and I have never been aware of any police station, nor of any Chinese citizen who has been repatriated”, said the leader of the Chinese community in Portugal. Unlike the Government, Amnesty and League of Chinese, the truth is that the Portuguese authorities are aware of these informal police stations, as a police source revealed to PLATAFORMA.
“We are attentive to what is happening in Portugal. But, for now, there is no move to take a person against his will, which would be a serious diplomatic problem”, they stress, without wanting to address details of this matter.
NGO GUARANTEES RELIABILITY
Regardless of denials or ignorance, the NGO Safeguard Defenders has no doubts about the existence of police stations in Portugal and their operation.
“There are and are organizations behind this. As in Madrid or Belgrade, there is also this activity in Portugal” said Peter Dahlin, president of the NGO, to Rádio Renascença, explaining how the police stations operate.
“They get in touch with Chinese citizens, invite them to a kind of office, have a video conference with the Chinese police that describes all the things that can happen if they don’t voluntarily return to China. There are official Chinese government documents that report that in the last 50 months 230,000 Chinese citizens abroad were persuaded to return to China on criminal charges. Persuading them to come back, in practice they are threatening their children and family who are in China”, he stressed.
Peter Dahlin also learned of the words of António Costa, Prime Minister of Portugal, who was unaware of the existence, revealing himself willing to collaborate with the authorities to investigate this case.
“From what we have been able to understand in the Portuguese Parliament, the Government claims that it does not know about these cases and that probably means that the Portuguese Police do not know about it. Therefore, we hope to provide as much information as possible and for the Police to look at the three specific police stations, in Porto, Lisbon and Madeira, to collect all the relevant information so that they can be properly escorted”, he concluded.
What are chinese squadrons
This type of squadron, called by the Chinese government as “110 Overseas”, or the 100-day battle, will have been created in 2018.
The aim would be to repatriate Chinese nationals to China in the absence of the host country’s authorities. The document published by Safeguard Defenders says that between April 2021 and July 2022, 230,000 Chinese around the world were “forced” to return to China and that not all were charged with any crime. To “force” the return, they use mechanisms such as denying the children of the targets, who still reside in China, the right to education, limiting or punishing family members “by association”.
The NGO even gives the example of one of the first Chinese citizens to be investigated by police stations. Living in Belgrade, a Chinese surname Xia, accused of theft, was persuaded to return to his country. Initially, he did not intend to return to China, but “after a week of talks with the Chinese police and the service station in Serbia”, which included video and audio conversations through WeChat, the Chinese WhatsApp, the man agreed to return to his home country, to answer for the charges.
According to the NGO, numerous official documents specify that family members of expatriates who refuse to help the police “persuade” suspects can be punished in China. Common punishments include the exclusion of children from the education system, and the threat of being considered accomplices if the suspect does not agree to return to answer the charges.
These operations, considered illegal, are carried out through alternative channels, “alongside judicial cooperation agreements between countries and violate international law, and may also violate the territorial integrity of third countries”, warns Safeguard.
