Overseas "police stations" meant for renewing driving licenses, other services: China
Nov 03, 2022
Beijing [China], November 2 : China has rejected reports of deployment of overseas "police stations" in foreign nations, saying "police service centers" outside the country only assist Chinese nationals in accessing the online service platform in the respective countries.
Beijing's response came after the Dutch government ordered China to close the "police service stations" in the Netherlands, saying that no permission was sought for the "police service stations" from them.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said these sites mentioned are not "police stations" or "police service centers".
"They assist overseas Chinese nationals who need help in accessing the online service platform to get their driving licenses renewed and receive physical check-ups for that purpose. The venues are provided by local overseas Chinese communities who would like to be helpful, and the people who work on those sites are all volunteers who come from these communities," he said.
"They are not police personnel from China. There is no need to make people nervous about this," Zhao added.
Earlier in September, Madrid-based group Safeguard Defenders' reported about the Chinese police's expanding global policing toolkit after examining a seemingly recent campaign to counter transnational telecom and online fraud by several provinces in China.
Between April 2021 and July 2022, Chinese police "persuaded" 230,000 claimed fugitives to return to China "voluntarily".
The establishment of at least 54 police-run "overseas police service centers" across five continents, some of which are implicated in collaborating with Chinese police in carrying out policing operations on foreign soil, including in Spain.
According to the Safeguard Defenders, China has even adopted a law that establishes full extraterritoriality over Chinese and foreigners globally for certain crimes, including fraud, telecom fraud and online scams.
For this overseas operation, rather than using international police or judicial cooperation mechanisms, official provincial statements and guidelines from the local Ministries of Public Security or Procuratorates highlight the mass use of 'persuasion to return' methods, the report added.
