He was convicted on Wednesday of acting as an illegal foreign agent and destroying evidence from a Chinese government handler. Prosecutors said the 64-year-old was involved in operating a station on behalf of China’s Ministry of Public Security.
The conviction comes shortly after the resignation of a California mayor who was charged with acting as an illegal agent for China, the report added.
The verdict came after a week-long jury trial in a federal court in New York. Jianwang, a New York resident also known as Harry Lu, could face up to 30 years in prison, according to prosecutors.
Lu, along with Chen Jinping, was arrested in April 2023. Chen pleaded guilty in December 2024 to working as an unauthorised agent of China in connection with the alleged overseas police station.
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According to federal prosecutors, Lu and his co-defendant, Chen Jinping, set up the outpost in Manhattan’s Chinatown area in 2022 after Lu attended an event in his native Fujian province, where China’s Ministry of Public Security announced plans to open 30 similar secret overseas police stations worldwide.
James C Barnacle Jr, the FBI’s assistant director in charge, said, “Lu Jianwang used a police station in New York City to target PRC dissidents in furtherance of the Chinese government’s political agenda.”
Lu had been “held accountable for blatantly disregarding the law and our country’s sovereignty,” Joseph Nocella Jr., the US attorney in Brooklyn, said in a statement. He also said that his office would protect the rights of those “seeking freedom from repression and speaking out to bring democracy, reform and human rights to China.”
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Reports suggest that at least 100 such stations operate across 53 countries. Rights groups have accused China of using these outposts to monitor and intimidate Chinese nationals abroad and to identify pro-democracy activists living in countries such as the US.
China has denied that these facilities are police stations, saying they are “service stations” meant to provide administrative support to overseas Chinese citizens, including pandemic-related assistance and driver’s licence renewals.
The Manhattan site was shut down in 2022 after an FBI investigation was launched.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
First Published: May 14, 2026 1:51 PM IST
