In Italy, found a dozen Chinese police stations: what’s going on

Italy has the largest number of unofficial Chinese “police stations” out of a network of more than 100 such “stations” worldwide, according to a report by a Spanish civil rights group.

According to The Guardian, the city of Milan in northern Italy has allegedly been used by two local Chinese public security agencies as a European testing ground for a police strategy to monitor the Chinese population abroad and force dissidents to return home.

Madrid-based Safeguard Defenders reported in September that there were believed to be 54 such stations around the world, prompting police investigations in at least 12 countries, including Canada, Germany and the Netherlands.

In a report released on Monday, the civil rights group said 48 additional stations have been identified, 11 of which are in Italy. Other recently discovered “police stations” were allegedly in Croatia, Serbia and Romania.

In Italy, “police stations”, according to human rights activists, are located in Rome, Milan, Bolzano, Venice, Florence, Prato – a city near Florence, which has the largest Chinese community in Italy – and in Sicily.

For its part, China said the offices in question are simply “service stations” set up to assist Chinese citizens with bureaucratic procedures such as renewing a passport or driver’s license.

The Safeguard Defenders investigation was based on publicly available Chinese claims and data, and was limited to stations set up by China’s local public security agencies in countries with large Chinese communities.

Safeguard Defenders officials said that while Beijing does not directly operate the stations, “certain statements and policies are starting to show clearer leadership from the central government in encouraging their establishment and policies.”

The civil rights group claims that unofficial police stations are being used by China to “harass, threaten, intimidate, and force targets to return to China for prosecution.”

The group says it has evidence of intimidation – unlike the official extradition channel – to force people home from Italy, including against a factory worker charged with misappropriation who returned to China after 13 years in Italy and disappeared without a trace.

“We are monitoring Chinese data and in April received information from the Ministry of Public Information that showed that 210,000 people were convinced to return in just one year,” said Laura Hart, campaign manager for Safeguard Defenders.

Some of those forced to return home were victims of Operation Foxhunt, a campaign allegedly orchestrated by Chinese President Xi Jinping, apparently to target corrupt officials who had fled abroad.

Home to 330,000 Chinese citizens, Italy, according to 2021 data from national statistics agency Istat, is fertile ground for Beijing’s potential influence thanks to a slew of agreements between the two countries. Among them is a joint police patrol scheme, first approved in 2015, in which Chinese police temporarily patrol Italian cities, ostensibly to help Chinese tourists.

According to the report, the first unofficial Chinese police station in Italy was set up as a “pilot” in Milan by the Wenzhou Public Security Agency in May 2016, when the Tourist Aid Detachment debuted in Italy. Wenzhou opened premises in Prato and Paris. In 2018, shortly after the police patrol agreement was strengthened, Qingtian Public Security also opened a “pilot” office in Milan.

“The fact that the Chinese local authorities were able to use these stations as pilot stations in Italy is quite daunting,” says Laura Hart.

In a September statement to the newspaper Il Foglio, Italy’s interior ministry, which was under the government of Mario Draghi at the time, said alleged unofficial Chinese police stations “were not much of a concern.”

Before coming to power in October, George Meloni, the current Prime Minister of Italy, was fiercely anti-Chinese, writes The Guardian.

The report notes that “despite having the largest number of communications outposts on its territory, the Italian government is among the very few European countries that have not yet publicly announced the investigation of Chinese overseas police stations and declared their illegality.”