New York man convicted of running secret Chinese 'police station' in Manhattan

A New York man was convicted Wednesday of illegally acting as a foreign agent by secretly running a Chinese police station in lower Manhattan. 

“Harry” Lu Jianwang was convicted after evidence showed his dealings with China’s Ministry of Public Security, which had instructed him to hang a banner inside a glass building that declared it was a “Police Overseas Service Station” for China’s Fujian province.

Lu now faces up to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of acting as a foreign agent and obstructing justice by deleting some of his messages with Chinese officials, according to the New York Post.

He was acquitted of a third charge of “conspiring” with others to act as a Chinese agent.

“A police station operating in New York City at the direction of the Chinese government has been exposed, its sinister purpose disrupted, and its founder held accountable for blatantly disregarding the law and our country’s sovereignty,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Joe Nocella said in a statement.

The verdict comes after jurors got a glimpse inside the six-story building, where the feds claimed Lu opened the “station” in February 2022 after attending a ceremony in China.

Lu's attorneys argued their client used the building to help Fujian natives renew their Chinese driver’s licenses remotely and therefore he cared more about his neighbors than China.

“I think if you’re a member of a community that originated in another country, you have to be very, very, very careful how you deal with people from your home country,” Lu’s attorney John Carman said. “That should make everybody very nervous about reaching out and doing good things when there’s somebody who’s a government official from another country.”

Carman said the defense team will be appealing Lu's verdict.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.