Literally spy balloon 2.0. This time a community center for helping immigrants with government paperwork is actually a secret spy agency.

He clarified that it was a police overseas service station, which was different from an actual police station. According to him, no police officers from China had visited their office and the association was focused on helping Chinese citizens renew and complete forms.

Jimmy Lu explained that during the pandemic, many Chinese immigrants were unable to travel back to China due to restrictions. To aid them, the association collaborated with the local police station in Fuzhou to remotely assist immigrants in renewing their Chinese driver’s licenses, as well as other necessary documents.

Jimmy Lu said that the association offered its office as a venue for Chinese immigrants to have virtual meetings with police officers in China. The staff at the association also assisted in measuring the applicants’ vision and weight to ensure their driver’s license information was up-to-date. The association informed Chinese-language media in NYC when establishing the police service station in 2022. In a picture the association shared with the press, Harry Lu, Jinping Chen and other leaders of the organization sat in front of a desk with a banner hanging on the wall that said, “Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station.”

To coincide with the time zone in China, the office operated at 9:30 p.m. every Thursday from February to September 2022, helping more than 120 Chinese immigrants renew their driver’s licenses, Jimmy Lu said. Federal prosecutors say the police station was closed in the fall of 2022 after those operating it became aware of the FBI’s investigation.

I also absolutely love that part, the super duper secret police station is so secret that they checks notes gave the media a photo of them in front of a sign that says "Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station".

  • wifom [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    This definitely feels like a lost in translation moment. In many countries (like China), police are involved with administrative stuff like driver license registration and such. But in America, police are only associated with brutal violence, extortion, and property theft. Easy mistake for the FBI to make