China has set up more than 100 police stations abroad, mainly in Europe and Africa. Their goal is to monitor their citizens, persecute them and, in some cases, deport them. CNN writes about this with reference to a report by the human rights organization Safeguard Defenders.
This network operates on the basis of bilateral security agreements concluded between China and other countries. In September, Safeguard Defenders reported that it had located 48 police stations in China, and now they have added 54 more, covering a total of 53 countries. According to human rights activists, Chinese police officers working in foreign branches, through threats and blackmail, force their compatriots to return home. At least three such returns are known: from France, Serbia and Spain.
China denies that these are its police units. Beijing calls them administrative centers set up to help Chinese migrants with tasks such as renewing their driver's licenses. The Chinese authorities claim that these centers were created during the outbreak of the coronavirus to help its citizens solve bureaucratic issues in exile during the lockdown.
China's Foreign Ministry said the centers are staffed exclusively by volunteers. However, Safeguard Defenders says one of the Chinese police networks has hired 135 people for 21 of its sites. Human rights activists have found a copy of the employment contract in the police department in Stockholm for a period of three years.