By Dr Austin Maho
There is a trending news report, which relies heavily on a report authored by one Laura Harth and released earlier in September by the London human rights group, Safeguard Defenders.
The investigation by the human rights group Safeguard Defenders says that while the overseas police service centers may help Chinese diaspora and tourists with everyday problems, they also are part of a complex global web of surveillance and control, allowing the Communist Party to reach far beyond China’s borders.
The report claims Chinese regional police forces have set up at least 54 offices on five continents, according to freely available official data. The centers are named after the police emergency telephone number in China, 110. The police service stations connect with local Chinese Overseas Home Associations in foreign countries, which in turn are linked to the ruling Chinese Communist party.
The crux of the report which seems to have gain media traction in Nigeria is that the Chinese government is operating a police station in some countries including Nigeria.
How ridiculous can this be! To begin with how can one sovereign nation seeks to establish and operate a police force in another sovereign nation? How is that even possible? Unfortunately there are those who are ready to go to town with such narratives, which further creates the necessity to debunk this odious and contemptuous report.
To begin with the Laura Harth report does not in anyway tell us if a physical Chinese police station exists in Nigeria; or if the so-called police station exists as part of the “contact desk” of the Chinese embassy or in any of its other affiliate institutions. The report is based entirely on speculation without any verifiable evidence to prove otherwise. Surprising some sections of the Nigerian media went to town with this patently false narrative without subjecting the story to verification at least within the Nigerian context.
The Nigerian government does not in anyway have bilateral agreements with China to operate police stations in our home soils as speculated ? In any case the Harth report makes no reference to such agreements. However, there are instances in which some countries in Asia and Europe have cooperated with China in its rendition of Chinese citizens back to China, this does not in anyway amounts to having physical police presence in another sovereign nation.
Be that as it may, we expect that the Nigerian Media should be more circumspect when reporting news from western based organisations about China, especially when such report seeks to denigrate the Asia giant. There are many instances in the past were stories and report which had the imprint of western based organizations turned out to be fake news design to malign China and to fuel the geopolitics between the west and a rising China.
There is no Chinese police station in Nigeria or any country in Africa for that matter, what is there is only an category of outreach service to service the need and interests of Chinese communities in foreign countries. It is preposterous and laughable to assume that China have the resource, energy s and intention to run a police station outside its territory.
The Chinese government supports an extraordinary rendition/policing framework which has been in operation, at least, since 2014 when the Chinese Ministry of Public Security was established and Operation Fox Hunt was launched to address the increasing involvement of Chinese citizens in overseas crimes. Available information also indicates that this Operation has since been replaced by Operation Sky-Net. The “110 Contact” (110 is China’s emergency number) policy under which there exists contact desks inside the Chinese embassies in 110 countries, Chinese Cultural and Language Centres and Law Firms dedicated to servicing Chinese citizens’ commercial interests globally. This does not by any stretch of the imagination amounts to the Chinese government setting up police station in a sovereign country like Nigeria.
The Chinese Embassy in London has already dismissed the report. In a publicized email, the Chinese embassy said the Safeguard Defenders report “is rife with speculation and lies,” adding that “China’s judicial and law-enforcement authorities strictly abide by international rules and fully respect the judicial sovereignty of other countries.”
The Nigerian media expectedly should be guided and discountenance this patently false assumption that the Chinese government is operating police stations in Nigeria as nothing can be further from the truth, providing outreach services to your citizens in a foreign country does not amount to setting up a police station.