Bucharest, December 5 2022 Parliamentarians from 30 countries representing the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) express grave concern and demand an official explanation from the Beijing government for the existence of 48 more so-called clandestine Chinese "overseas police stations" set up in several countries around the world, which go beyond the legal framework for bilateral police and judicial cooperation to monitor, harass and sometimes repatriate Chinese citizens in exile, using bilateral security agreements with countries in Europe and Africa. We are talking about a total of over 100 such 'overseas police stations' set up around the world.
In Romania, the Ministry of Internal Affairs must also give explanations, asks REPER MEP Cătălin Teniță, co-chair of IPAC Romania.
A report by the Madrid-based human rights organization Safeguard Defenders presents new evidence that Beijing is running an additional 48 police stations abroad (the NGO had initially revealed the existence of 54 such stations in September), as well as evidence of joint police initiatives between China and several European countries, including Romania, are being used as a "test programme" for an expansion of Chinese "overseas police stations".
Inter-Parliamentary Alliance for China IPAC Romania strongly calls for a clear position from the Chinese government on this issue that undermines both human rights across the world and Romania's sovereignty. IPAC Romania Co-President, MEP Cătălin Teniță (REPER), demands explanation from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and from its Ministry de resort Lucian Nicolae Bode:
"We ask the Minister of Internal Affairs Lucian Nicolae Bode for written explanations and invite him to attend an informal parliamentary meeting to establish together the ways to counter these possible operations that could undermine the principles of democracy, human rights and the sovereignty of the Romanian state. I have already sent a letter to this effect, together with my colleagues, REPER MEPs Andrei Lupu and Daniel Toda", said MEP Cătălin Teniță, co-president of the Interparliamentary Alliance for China (IPAC) Romania.
"We also believe that the representatives of the People's Republic of China in Bucharest owe explanations, given the existence of these suspicions regarding serious operations carried out through the embassy", the MEP said Cătălin Teniță.
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China signs and transmits the following joint statement by elected representatives of 13 states concerned about China's potential role in destabilizing and undermining human rights and state sovereignty:
STATEMENT ON THE DOCUMENTATION OF 48 FURTHER 'CLANDESTINE OVERSEAS PRC POLICE SERVICE STATIONS'
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China is gravely concerned about the findings of the latest investigation "Patrol and Persuade" by Safeguard Defenders, as reported today by CNN.
The report documents the existence of at least 48 more clandestine Chinese overseas police service stations set up by local PRC law enforcement authorities in close cooperation with the United Front Work Department. Impacting at least 53 countries worldwide, these stations come in addition to the 54 documented in the organisation's September 2022 report '110 overseas', released to coincide with IPAC's Washington Summit.
The report also sets out the involvement of such service stations in illegal 'persuasion to return' operations, which employ methods such as threat and harassment - or even detention of family members back home, the deployment of covert operations on foreign soil to intimidate the target directly, and even kidnappings.
Part of the PRC's rapidly growing transnational repression efforts, these operations gravely violate international norms and the judicial sovereignty of the foreign jurisdictions.
IPAC applauds the actions undertaken by a growing number of democratic Governments since the existence of the Chinese overseas police service stations was first unveiled. Such transnational repression is intolerable, and must be stopped.
Our governments must:
- Urgently investigate the Chinese "Overseas Police Service Stations" and United Front network which underpins them;
- Instate dedicated reporting and protection mechanisms for those targeted or at risk of such activities;
- Firmly denounce any and all transnational repression efforts by the PRC and impose concrete costs on the entities and individuals involved, including, but not limited to, the imposition of coordinated targeted sanctions;
- Review and suspend cooperation agreements with the institutions leading these efforts, in particular the Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection/National Commission of Supervision and the Ministry for Public Security;
- Uphold the most recent European Court of Human Rights' judgment barring the extradition of individuals to the PRC owing to the "general situation of violence" in its judicial and penitentiary system. To that end: suspend all bilateral extradition treaties with the PRC and Hong Kong.
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