“The Government has sought answers from the Chinese embassy about the **presence of a Chinese “police service station” in Dublin.**
The **Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station opened in Dublin earlier this year in an office building on Capel Street which it shares with other Chinese organisations.**
**Signage for the station was removed from the front of the building last week and it is not known if it remains operational. Queries to the the embassy and a phone number associated with the station went unanswered this week.**
The embassy previously said the station offers administrative assistance to Chinese nationals living in Ireland, such as facilitating drivers’ licence renewals. **It rejected reports the station was involved in law enforcement activity.**
But a recent **report from human rights group Safeguard Defenders** said the station is part of a **worldwide network of overseas Chinese law enforcement offices, some of which have been known to “persuade” Chinese residents to return home to face criminal charges.**
**Some of these stations are accused of pressurising or threatening emigrants and their family members to force them to return home.**
Government Ministers faced several parliamentary questions about the station’s activities this week. Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said **the presence of the office has been raised by officials in his department with the embassy and that “discussions are ongoing”.**
He said **officials are consulting “across Government” to address the issue and “to ensure the appropriate application of relevant international and domestic law”.**
The Fuzhou police says it has already opened **30 such stations in 21 countries**. Other Chinese cities and provinces also operate their own stations.”
From a report by the Safeguard Defenders, a human rights watchdog on the chinese police stations:
“These operations **eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate the international rule of law**, and **may violate the territorial integrity in third countries involved in setting up a parallel policing mechanism using illegal methods**.
Europe is home to most of the police stations, with locations spread across the continent in places such as **London, Amsterdam, Prague, Budapest, Athens, Paris, Madrid and Frankfurt.”**
This is an insult by China to every nation they opened a “police station” in. The CCP and, in particular, Xi Jin Ping, are an affront to the nations of the world. (That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it.)
they have no right running an operation here without permission of the local police services, if they want to catch chinese criminals they can operate alongside local police services with complete tranparency to the government and in complete compliance with local laws. this is sneaky and should not go unpunished, the fact the embassy won’t even answer media questions makes me wonder what they were doing in the station that they couldn’t even answer basic questions
I would not be surprised if CCP increasingly tries to apply Chinese laws and policies outside its own jurisdiction to it citizens, it’s diaspora and also to foreign nationals where it can get away with it. A new type of empire.
The question is how on earth this was allowed to open in the first place.
In China foreigners are lucky to get all the paperwork in order to be allowed to convert local currency to send it out of the country. My Overseas Chinese friend was held and interrogated by the military in Yunnan for a day while visiting China, because in passing he took a few snapshots of a military installation from far away. 老外 gets in trouble with the regime, they already lost.
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From the article:
“The Government has sought answers from the Chinese embassy about the **presence of a Chinese “police service station” in Dublin.**
The **Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station opened in Dublin earlier this year in an office building on Capel Street which it shares with other Chinese organisations.**
**Signage for the station was removed from the front of the building last week and it is not known if it remains operational. Queries to the the embassy and a phone number associated with the station went unanswered this week.**
The embassy previously said the station offers administrative assistance to Chinese nationals living in Ireland, such as facilitating drivers’ licence renewals. **It rejected reports the station was involved in law enforcement activity.**
But a recent **report from human rights group Safeguard Defenders** said the station is part of a **worldwide network of overseas Chinese law enforcement offices, some of which have been known to “persuade” Chinese residents to return home to face criminal charges.**
**Some of these stations are accused of pressurising or threatening emigrants and their family members to force them to return home.**
Government Ministers faced several parliamentary questions about the station’s activities this week. Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said **the presence of the office has been raised by officials in his department with the embassy and that “discussions are ongoing”.**
He said **officials are consulting “across Government” to address the issue and “to ensure the appropriate application of relevant international and domestic law”.**
The Fuzhou police says it has already opened **30 such stations in 21 countries**. Other Chinese cities and provinces also operate their own stations.”
From a report by the Safeguard Defenders, a human rights watchdog on the chinese police stations:
“These operations **eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate the international rule of law**, and **may violate the territorial integrity in third countries involved in setting up a parallel policing mechanism using illegal methods**.
Europe is home to most of the police stations, with locations spread across the continent in places such as **London, Amsterdam, Prague, Budapest, Athens, Paris, Madrid and Frankfurt.”**
This is an insult by China to every nation they opened a “police station” in. The CCP and, in particular, Xi Jin Ping, are an affront to the nations of the world. (That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it.)
they have no right running an operation here without permission of the local police services, if they want to catch chinese criminals they can operate alongside local police services with complete tranparency to the government and in complete compliance with local laws. this is sneaky and should not go unpunished, the fact the embassy won’t even answer media questions makes me wonder what they were doing in the station that they couldn’t even answer basic questions
I would not be surprised if CCP increasingly tries to apply Chinese laws and policies outside its own jurisdiction to it citizens, it’s diaspora and also to foreign nationals where it can get away with it. A new type of empire.
The question is how on earth this was allowed to open in the first place.
In China foreigners are lucky to get all the paperwork in order to be allowed to convert local currency to send it out of the country. My Overseas Chinese friend was held and interrogated by the military in Yunnan for a day while visiting China, because in passing he took a few snapshots of a military installation from far away. 老外 gets in trouble with the regime, they already lost.
Meanwhile in the West:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAwGHqqI4Nc
https://twitter.com/badiucao/status/1190496734331334656