The Dutch government has accused China of running "illegal" unlicensed police offices in the Netherlands. The facilities were allegedly used to pressure Chinese citizens in the country.
Dutch broadcaster RTL News reported yesterday that "administrative" offices in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, set up to help Chinese citizens obtain official documents, were also used to track down and threaten dissidents, critics of the Beijing government. .
"We are investigating what is going on in the centers and, when we have more information about it, we will be able to determine the most appropriate action“, Said yesterday the spokesman for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maxime Hovenkamp who then added: "The Chinese government has never informed us of the centers through regular diplomatic channels, which makes them illegal".
Il Chinese Foreign Ministry he claimed that the allegation of running illegal police offices in the Netherlands is "simply false" and that the facilities are just "overseas Chinese service centers". "The Chinese public security authorities are fully committed to fighting transnational crimes in accordance with the law, strictly observing international law and fully respecting the judicial sovereignty of other countries ", said the spokesman for the Chinese ministry Wang Wen Bin.
The Dutch investigation started from the report 'Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild'of the Spanish NGO Safeguard Defenders, according to which the public security offices of two Chinese provinces - Fuzhou and Qingtian - have set up 54 "overseas police service stations" in 21 countries on five continents. Most of these would be in Europe, including nine in Spain and four in Italy. The NGO reported in September that police offices across the border were part of the Chinese campaign "Persuade to return" to repatriate criminals and dissident political targets. The centers would have been involved in "police operations on foreign soil".
The Dutch police offices were established in 2018, RTL News said. The broadcaster's report includes testimony from the Chinese dissident Wang Jingyu, who lives in the Netherlands who said officials from the Chinese office in Rotterdam had "urged" him to return to China immediately.
A recent document prepared for EU member states by the foreign service suggested that total defense against China should be strengthened in all areas. Nothing should be left to chance, the document suggests.
The Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said: "There is growing realism in the dialogue with China. Now is the time to leave naivety behind".
Sara Bessi on la Nazione deals with the problem with reference to the 4 Chinese centers in Italy
A Prato the Chinese police center is a simple room and the Chinese citizens who run it do not provide information to the Italians. Other similar offices have been taken over at Roma, Milano e Florence, a city where there is the highest concentration of Chinese in Italy.
According to the report of the Spanish NGO, between April 2021 and July 2022, the Chinese police allegedly "persuaded" 230.000 people, wanted by the Beijing authorities, to return to China. The Prato branch is called 'Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station'and to manage it since the end of March is theCultural Association of the Chinese community of Fujian in Italy, formed by civilians. There Prato police headquarters, when asked by the Nation, she made it known that at the moment there are no investigations underway and that there have been no more changes than what emerged two months ago.