Bronx Man Convicted of Running Chinese Government Police Station in Manhattan

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A federal jury convicted Bronx resident Lu Jianwang on May 13 of two counts for acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government and for obstruction of justice.

Lu, a U.S. citizen also known as Harry Lu, opened and operated an overseas police station in lower Manhattan on behalf of the People's Republic of China's Ministry of Public Security. The station functioned as an undeclared outpost to monitor, intimidate and repatriate Chinese nationals living in the New York City area.

The jury found that Lu's actions violated U.S. law prohibiting unregistered foreign agent activity.

The conviction covers one individual but forms part of a documented pattern of at least three such unofficial stations identified by federal investigators in the New York metropolitan region. The Ministry of Public Security used these locations to bypass formal diplomatic channels and directly pressure Chinese diaspora members, according to the Department of Justice prosecution.

The verdict changes the legal status for Lu from defendant to convicted felon. Sentencing will occur in the coming months in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The obstruction-of-justice count stems from Lu destroying evidence tied to the station's operations after federal authorities began their investigation.

Downstream, the conviction requires the Justice Department to complete its sentencing memorandum and present it to the court. It also obliges the department to notify Congress of the outcome under standard reporting protocols for foreign-agent cases.

The ruling supplies precedent that federal prosecutors can use in at least two related pending cases involving similar PRC overseas police activities. Courts in other districts will now treat evidence of undeclared Ministry of Public Security stations as presumptively illegal absent formal notification to the U.S. government.

This marks the first time a U.S. jury has returned a guilty verdict against an operator of one of the PRC's overseas police stations. The original charges were filed in 2023 after FBI agents raided the Manhattan location and recovered documents listing targets for repatriation to China.

The superseding indictment added the obstruction count after investigators determined Lu had deleted digital records once he learned of the probe. The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.