A federal jury convicted a 64-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen Wednesday of operating an illegal Chinese government outpost in Manhattan's Chinatown, marking another enforcement action against what prosecutors describe as Beijing's covert pressure campaigns targeting dissidents on American soil.
Lu Jianwang was found guilty of conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent, acting as an unregistered agent of China, and obstruction of justice. The Brooklyn federal court verdict followed a weeklong trial. He faces up to 30 years in prison.
Prosecutors alleged that Lu, tasked by Chinese officials during a 2022 trip to China, opened what amounted to a secret police station inside a nondescript office building in Chinatown starting that same year. The operation initially focused on helping Chinese nationals renew driver's licenses without proper disclosure to U.S. authorities, a crime in itself when conducted by an unregistered foreign agent.
But the charges went further. Prosecutors said Lu agreed to assist Beijing in locating a pro-democracy activist residing in California. The government did not allege the activist was harmed.
Lu's attorney, John Carman, argued his client opened the center purely to help Chinese nationals unable to travel home during the COVID pandemic, acting independently rather than under government direction. That defense did not persuade the jury.
"May today's verdict send a message to other foreign agents," FBI assistant director James Barnacle said. "The FBI maintains its unwavering resolve to reveal and disrupt the clandestine operations of adversarial nations."
The case reflects a broader Justice Department focus on what officials call "transnational repression" by U.S. adversaries including China and Iran, using threats and surveillance to intimidate political opponents living in America.
Beijing has rejected the charges as fabricated. Chinese officials maintain that overseas centers are run by local volunteers, not state agents, and provide legitimate document renewal services and other assistance to citizens abroad.
A codefendant, Chen Jinping, pleaded guilty in 2024 to conspiring to act as an unregistered Chinese agent in connection with the same operation.
The investigation that led to the arrests grew out of a 2022 report by Safeguard Defenders, a Spain-based advocacy group, documenting that China had established overseas "service stations" including in New York that illegally coordinated with Chinese police to pressure fugitives into returning to China.
Two days before this verdict, Eileen Wang, the former mayor of Arcadia, California, agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal Chinese agent. Wang had resigned her position as the plea deal was announced, having coordinated with China to post pro-Beijing propaganda on a website presented as a news source for the region's Chinese American community.
Author James Rodriguez: "This conviction sends a clear signal that the U.S. isn't tolerating Beijing's shadow government operations on American soil, but it's also a reminder that China's repression infrastructure is far more sophisticated and widespread than most people realize."
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