Boss of NYC’s ‘secret Chinese police station’ convicted of acting as illegal ‘agent’
A Big Apple Chinatown community leader who the feds say ran a secret Chinese "police station" out of a nondescript office building was found guilty Wednesday of acting as an illegal foreign agent.
3 sources·May 13, 4:28 PM(52 days ago)·7m read
New York Post
Audio version
Tap play to generate a narrated version.
[New York Post] Boss of NYC’s ‘secret Chinese police station’ convicted of acting as illegal ‘agent’ A Big Apple Chinatown community leader who the feds say ran a secret Chinese "police station" out of a nondescript office building was found guilty Wednesday of acting as an illegal foreign agent.
---
[ABC News] Southern California mayor resigns, will plead guilty to acting as agent for Chinese government A Southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position
---
[FDD] Arcadia, California mayor to plead guilty to acting as Chinese agent The post Arcadia, California mayor to plead guilty to acting as Chinese agent appeared first on FDD .
--- FULL TEXT (New York Post) ---
A local Chinatown community leader who the feds say ran a secret Chinese “police station” out of a nondescript Manhattan office building was found guilty Wednesday of acting as an illegal foreign agent. “Harry” Lu Jianwang was convicted after evidence revealed his dealings with China’s Ministry of Public Security — which ordered him to hang a banner inside the glass-clad building at 107 East Broadway proudly announcing that the site was a “Police Overseas Service Station” for China’s Fujian province.
A Chinese security official also urged Lu, 64, to help track a prominent US-based pro-democracy dissident in March 2022, just a month after Lu established the “station” inside the Manhattan headquarters of the America Changle Association, which advocates for Fujian immigrants.
“Harry” Lu Jianwang was found guilty of acting as an illegal foreign agent for China. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post “Just help me verify if this person exists,” wrote Liu Rongyan, a Fujian security officer, of Xu Jie, a longtime critic of China’s government who fled the country in 2013 and lives in California.
“A friend is looking for him for a personal matter,” Rongyan added — punctuating her text with a sheepish grin emoji — in a chat with Lu on the Chinese messaging platform WeChat. Lu then messaged Keith Cheng, the leader of a separate Big Apple-based Fujian group, asking for details about the outspoken Beijing regime critic.
” Lu texted, in an exchange recovered by the FBI. Lu faces up to five years in prison after a Brooklyn federal jury convicted him of acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Beijing and obstructing justice by deleting some of his messages with Chinese officials when approached by the feds.
He was acquitted of a separate charge of “conspiring” to act as an unregistered Chinese agent. The verdict came after jurors got a glimpse inside the drab six-story building at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge, where the feds claimed Lu opened the “station” in February 2022 after attending a ceremony in China where officials announced that they’d be opening 30 such outposts at sites all over the world.
Jurors saw evidence of Officer Rongyan instructing Lu on how to hang the blue “police station” banner, which was displayed above a conference table in the site’s drab office. Lu also had more than 50 contacts in his phone for officials in Chinese political and security officials, according to trial testimony.
Lu Jianwang (far right) seen in China. U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of NY But prosecutors with the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District did not reveal any further details on Lu or his partner, Chen Jinping, using the site to surveil enemies of the Chinese government.
Trial evidence instead largely showed that the “station” — where the FBI discovered a handful of computer monitors, the conference table and banner, and a ping-pong table covered in a red tablecloth — helped Fujian natives renew their Chinese driver’s licenses remotely.
Lu’s lawyer, John Carman, described the license setup — which prosecutors dismissed as a “front” — as evidence that Lu answered more to his neighbors than the Chinese government. “If Harry Lu is an ‘agent,’ he is the worst agent ever,” Carman told jurors in his closing statement.
Lu was arrested at his Bronx home in 2023 , along with Jinping, in what the US government had touted as part of a sweeping crackdown on China’s efforts to silence regime dissenters across the globe. Chen pleaded guilty in December 2024 to a charge of conspiring to act on China’s behalf without telling US authorities.
He’s out on bond and will be sentenced at a later date. Lu, a Bronx resident and naturalized US citizen, cooly observed closing statements from the defense table, where he sat in a dark suit with an American flag pin affixed to its lapel.
--- FULL TEXT (ABC News) ---
Southern California mayor resigns, will plead guilty to acting as agent for Chinese government A Southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position By JAIMIE DING Associated Press May 11, 2026, 7:18 PM LOS ANGELES -- A Southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government, and has resigned from her city position, officials said Monday.
Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, was charged in April with one count of acting in the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the U.S. government as required by law.
The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected on a rotating basis. City manager Dominic Lazzaretto said in a news release that no city finances or staff were involved. “We want to be clear: this investigation concerns individual conduct, and the charges are for conduct that ceased after Ms.
Wang was sworn into office in December 2022,” he said. Federal officials said she has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. ” “She apologizes and is sorry for the mistakes she has made in her personal life,” Wang's attorneys Jason Liang and Brian Sun said in a statement.
” According to her plea agreement, Wang and a colleague, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, worked on behalf of government officials for the People's Republic of China from the end of 2020 to 2022 to promote their interests by promoting pro-PRC propaganda in the U.S. Sun is serving a four-year sentence after he pleaded guilty to the same charge last October.
He was also listed in campaign filings as the treasurer for Wang’s 2022 election campaign. Wang and Sun operated the news website U.S. News Center, aimed at the Chinese American community, and were instructed by Chinese government officials to post pro-PRC content on it.
In one instance in June 2021, a government official sent Wang a link to a letter to the editor published in the Los Angeles Times written by the the consul general of the People’s Republic of China in Los Angeles. ” Within minutes, Wang shared the link on her news site.
The U.S. and several other countries have declared that Beijing’s policies against the Uyghurs amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity. At the time, Wang was engaged to Sun, her attorneys said. She has said that relationship ended in spring 2024.
” Wang has also communicated with John Chen, who also pleaded guilty to being an agent for the Chinese government and was sentenced to 20 months in prison. Wang is expected to appear in federal court Monday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles and plead guilty in the coming weeks.
Arcadia is located about 13 miles (21 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles. The city of about 53,000 is majority Asian and has a high concentration of Chinese residents.
--- FULL TEXT (FDD) ---
Arcadia, California mayor to plead guilty to acting as Chinese agent Skip to main content May 13, 2026 | Newsmax Arcadia, California mayor to plead guilty to acting as Chinese agent Jack Burnham Senior Research Analyst May 13, 2026 | Newsmax Arcadia, California mayor to plead guilty to acting as Chinese agent Jack Burnham Senior Research Analyst Watch Jack joins Newsmax to react to the former mayor of Arcadia, CA agreeing to plead guilty to acting as illegal Chinese agent.
Transparency
How sources framed this
New York PostBoss of NYC’s ‘secret Chinese police station’ convicted of acting as illegal ‘agent’ABC NewsSouthern California mayor resigns, will plead guilty to acting as agent for Chinese governmentFDDArcadia, California mayor to plead guilty to acting as Chinese agent
New York PostBoss of NYC’s ‘secret Chinese police station’ convicted of acting as illegal ‘agent’ABC NewsSouthern California mayor resigns, will plead guilty to acting as agent for Chinese governmentFDDArcadia, California mayor to plead guilty to acting as Chinese agent
These outlets didn't split into competing frames — coverage was uniform.
A Ukrainian drone attack struck an oil terminal in St. Petersburg on Saturday. Ukrainian forces also hit a military site on the nearby island of Kronstadt. Russian officials reported shooting down 72 drones over the city and surrounding region.
Daniyar Kessikbayev acquired the 17,150-square-foot property for $10. The home had sold for $20 million in 2012 to a shell company linked to him and carries a 2026 tax assessment of $35.5 million.
President Donald Trump stated that extreme heat affecting Fourth of July events in Washington, D.C., was not as severe as predicted. Organizers adjusted schedules and added cooling resources while a thunderstorm watch remained in effect.
New York Post
