A federal jury in Brooklyn has convicted Lu Jianwang, a 64-year-old U.S. citizen, for acting as an unregistered foreign agent of the Chinese government while operating an illegal police outpost in Manhattan’s Chinatown.
In addition to the foreign agent charge, Lu was found guilty of obstruction of justice for deleting text messages that prosecutors proved contained direct orders from Beijing. These communications reportedly directed Lu to locate, harass, and intimidate pro-democracy dissidents living within the United States.
While the jury convicted Lu on these significant counts, he was acquitted of a separate, related conspiracy charge on Wednesday. Prosecutor Joseph Nocella Jr. praised the verdict, stating that a “sinister” operation conducted under the direction of the Chinese government had been exposed and its founder held accountable for a flagrant disregard of U.S. law and national sovereignty.
Prosecutors argued that Lu and co-defendant Chen Jinping established the station in 2022 after Lu attended a ceremony in China’s Fujian province where officials announced a global network of such covert facilities.
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During the week-long trial, Lu’s defense attorney, John Carman, attempted to frame the case as a “banal bureaucratic matter” rather than an international espionage thriller. The defense argued that Lu was a well-intentioned community leader who was simply assisting members of the Chinese diaspora with administrative tasks, such as renewing Chinese driver’s licenses.
They claimed the federal government had distorted a minor paperwork slip-up into a criminal offense, a narrative the jury ultimately rejected regarding the primary charges.
The Manhattan outpost is part of a broader international controversy first brought to light by the NGO Safeguard Defenders, which identified over 50 similar “police service centers” globally, including in countries like Portugal, Canada, and the Netherlands.
The organization estimates that thousands of Chinese nationals have been coerced into returning to China through these unofficial channels. Lu, who remains free on bail pending sentencing, faces up to 10 years in prison for acting as a foreign agent and an additional 20 years for the obstruction conviction.
