Vancouver Sun ePaper

Secret Chinese police station in city, rights group says

NONO SHEN

A Spanish civil rights group says Vancouver has at least one secret police station operated by Chinese authorities.

The group Safeguard Defenders said in a report in September that there were Chinese police operations around the world, including three in Toronto, and an updated report names another 48 locations.

Safeguard Defenders, a not-forprofit human rights group, said two of the new locations are in Canada: one in Vancouver and the second unknown. It did not give a location for the Vancouver station.

The group's previous investigation looked into the expansion of “long-arm policing” and transnational repression imposed by the Chinese government. Its latest report, titled “Patrol and Persuade,” gathered more evidence on how these police stations function and their “persuasions of return” strategies, the group said in its report.

“Patrol and Persuade also documents the silent complicity of a number of host countries, instilling a further sense of fear into targeted communities and severely undermining the international rules-based order,” Safeguard Defenders said in an online statement. Its previous report alleged employees from the overseas police system use intimidation and threats to enforce the “involuntary” return of immigrants to China for persecution.

The group said that between April 2021 and July 2022, Chinese police “persuaded” 230,000 claimed fugitives to return to China. No one from the Chinese Embassy was immediately available for comment on the new information, but it has previously described the offices as volunteer-run service stations to process things like driver's licences.

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2022-12-07T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-07T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://vancouversun.pressreader.com/article/281582359663917

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