U.S. Citizen Convicted of Acting as Unregistered Agent for China After Running Chinatown Service Center

A federal jury convicted Lu Jianwang on Tuesday of acting as an illegal foreign agent and obstructing justice for deleting online messages. U.S. citizen, who also goes by the name Harry Lu, established a Chinese police station in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood in 2022 with co-defendant Chen Jinping.

Lu Jianwang set up the station after attending a Fujian province event where China’s Ministry of Public Security announced it was opening 30 secret police stations globally. The location shared offices with the America ChangLe Association, which Lu Jianwang ran with his brother.

A banner at the location read “Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, New York USA”. The trial lasted one week in Brooklyn federal court. Chinese dissident Xu Jie testified at the trial. The FBI raided the location on Oct.

3, 2022. On Oct. 4, 2022, Lu Jianwang told agents he had launched the outpost and communicated with his handler via WeChat but had deleted the messages. Some deleted messages were recovered through screenshots on Lu Jianwang’s phone.

Prosecutors said the deleted messages featured orders from Beijing to silence, harass, and intimidate dissidents. U.S. Attorney Antoinette Rangel said the CCP uses the outpost to monitor the activities of its perceived enemies.

U.S. ” Lu Jianwang faces up to 10 years in prison for acting as an illegal foreign agent and up to 20 years in prison for obstruction of justice. He is out on bail ahead of sentencing. Chen Jinping previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government.

Chen Jinping’s guilty plea was reported in December 2024. John Carman, Lu Jianwang’s lawyer, said he planned to appeal the conviction. “This is not espionage. This is not spying. This is not intelligence gathering.

He wasn’t charged with any of that,” Carman said. He added that the location was a community center where individuals could renew their Chinese driver’s licenses without returning to China and where people gathered to play ping-pong and mahjong.

U.S. Citizen on Wednesday of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for his part in establishing a police station in New York on behalf of Chinese authorities.