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ARCHIVED - Spain on high alert for clandestine Chinese police stations
China has been accused of imposing its regime on citizens living in Spain and other European countries
The Ministry of the Interior in Spain has admitted that it is “checking all the facts” following rumours that the Chinese government is operating “secret police stations” in different European countries to keep tabs on its citizens abroad.
Although China denies the allegations, it’s widely speculated that Beijing continues to persecute dissidents in Spain and elsewhere by using clandestine police to promote the ideology and policies of the Chinese government.
Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has stressed again this week that Spain does not “have any agreement with the Government of the People’s Republic of China to establish joint police station.”
However, recent information from Europe has prompted his department into “checking all the details of the published information to assess the veracity of the facts and the impact they could have with respect to the group of citizens to which reference is made.”
When the threat first came to light in December the Chinese government insisted that while it has “service police stations” abroad to assist its citizens, its officers have not engaged in any actual “police activity”.
Furthermore, the Chinese Foreign Ministry roundly rejected the existence of the “clandestine police stations” that were reported by Germany, whose authorities claimed that Beijing has set up two of these stations to gather information in an unauthorised manner. These stations, according to the Germans, are set up remotely through mobile phones rather than being physically present in the country, to avoid detection.
Tensions are running high in Europe and further afield following the appearance of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over US airspace on February 4. China claims it was simply a weather balloon gone astray and has since accused the United States government of breaching its airspace at least 10 times in the past year.
According to the national government, there were 2,002 official arrests and investigations of Chinese citizens in Spain between January and November of 2022.
Image: Archive
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