a reporter tracks down the arctics. major players with dangerous game. people overseas that yeah, we are here. we're patrolling area. now, the cards are being re, shuffles, has the best handed. russia is a quite active economic in the arctic. if you see something that looked like james bond, it has to do with the military. starts december 23rd on d, w. did he did up the news asia coming up to date, the long arm of chinese law operating illegally across the world. and, and your claims paging is running a network of police stations across more than 50 countries to target alleged criminals and dissidence. but how could this network grow so wide? and what governments,

ignorant of chinese plans and hong kong media mobile jimmy and i handed a prison tom again begging calls of justice. his lawyers call it legal harassment. ah, my british manager, welcome to did up the news. asia ledger could join us. germany says china is operating to illegal police stations on it's data, treat these set ups don't have a fixed office and are run by private individuals from the chinese diaspora. the aim to collect information on chinese dissidents and citizens in exile and pass that on to be jing, it's about on that's come to light across the world and only a report by madrid based n g or see if god defenders claimed of there are more than a 100 such police stations in at least $53.00 countries most exist illegally an aim

to monitor coerce, and in some instances, repatriate those beijing considers criminal or anti china. a run of the mill convenience store. an innocuous office unit in the suburbs, and a residential home like any other. just some of the unremarkable places alleged to be woven into a vast secret network of chinese overseas police station. in a new report, spanish and your safeguard defenders reveal evidence of b. james clandestine operation. they see it's used to harass and intimidate the chinese diaspora. and the scale is breathtaking. at least 100 such police stations in 53 countries worldwide. in canada, alone, there are thought to be 4 i for many years that her consistent engagements by representatives of the chinese government into

a canadian communities with local media reports of illicit chinese police stations. these are all things that we continue to be concerned about with our officials. i stay active on and that we will continue to be vigilant around to keep canadian safe. the issue came to the for at last month g. 20 summit in bali. justin trudeau toll journalist. he raised his concerns with chinese president, she jin ping. she scolded his counterpart over the incident. everything with personally all the way over he will be, ging says the overseas police network is to help citizens process paperwork or to

crack down on corruption in 2019 chinese law enforcement began officially working in cambodia since then. hundreds of chinese citizens accused of telecom fraud, had been reported without you process the f b. i says that the latest revelations, however, mark an illegal expansion of china's police state. as we have seen, a clear pattern of the chinese government, the chinese communist party exporting their trans dear repression right here into the u. s. and we've had now a number of indictments that you may have seen of the chinese engaging in uncoordinated law, quote unquote, law enforcement action right here in the united states harassing stockings, surveilling, black mailing people who they just don't like or disagree with the, the she regime the u. s. and a number of european countries including germany, have now opened investigations into the allegations of chinese,

foul play on their soil. and for more context of this, i'm joined by laura hearth. she's a campaign director at enjo, saved god defenders and joins me from rome. miss harp welcomed who is running these illegal police station. i mean, are we talking of chinese spies? diplomats police persons? thank you for having me. from what we gathered from the chinese authorities themselves and from chinese media reports on this subject, which is the exclusive basis of, of a reporting on this. so we only use that. i wish to highlight this open source material available online from chinese authorities, local authorities, and the media itself. so what we see from their statements is that these so called overseas police service centers or police linkage centers, they have different names depending on what local jurisdiction is. running them

where set up by the local public security bureaus, we identified 4 of them in close cooperation with the united front work department . so it appears that these have been set up on top of, let's say, an existing network of united front organizations and people tied to those organizations around the world. so we have no reason at this time to believe that people were brought into countries to exercise these functions that these are, you know, traditional spies or public security agents. we cannot exclude that, but we have no evidence at this point that this would be the case. it really seems that they are using existing networks, united front networks that have been there to build this extra function on either merged or function book isn't the element of legality. here i was bro, for instance, china does have joint police patrolling arrangements with countries like you to lisa baron cruz. sure. surely will you stations are

a part of the deal on thing. i don't think they're part of the deal or day they shouldn't be. there's this to writing responses to that. we see for example, that when it comes to the service stations. and so we need to also and diversify a bit between the different functions. so one part of the functions of the so called service stations is in helping in the renewal of passports, driver's licenses. so more traditional counselor tasks. now while these are worrying also because if run by united front on networks and obviously we know that these are instruments that have been used in transmission repression efforts from the chinese communist party. but in general, these kind of consular services might be legal if and only if, and when the host government consented to set up of such let's call them counselor outpost from what we gathered. that seems to be the case. for example, in south africa, that does not seem to be the case. however,

in countries such as italy, croatia, or others where there are agreements on join police patrols, but which is something completely different. and for example, in italy, we've now started to get some responses from the interior minister who clearly stated that this was not part of the deals. so obviously we see from the chinese site from their statements that they used these joint police patrols on to set up these kind of stations that they could get. they claim that the stations are one of the biggest achievements of those are doing police patrols, but they do not seem to be part of what the government consented to said that does a lot of different things going on here. but it must be clear that in a majority of countries where we found them, because there was no express agreement by to whose governments, even on the so called administrative councilor task the are, these are fully clandestine. and i don't think any government really, even the south african authorities, have denied that they consented to the policing activities that the stations these

networks have been involved in your organization. uncovered this network using publicly available sources, open source material, essentially prism of movers or something of a government could have done as world war governments slacking. look when he comes, see we came across the stations because we are mapping and tracking the trans national repression efforts from the chinese communist party. and in particular the what we call involuntary returns. so both the legal and illegal methods that the chinese communist party and its state bodies used to bring people back to china at all costs. so as we were tracking these, we also came across the set up of the stations as a part of these efforts of trans national repression and trans national policing could governments have come across is they probably should have, especially in some cases, for example, in ireland, where there was a clear sign outside the door of the building actually saying, you know,

for joe overseas police service center. so it's a bit worrying that that didn't happen. but i would say that goes to a deeper underlying issue, which is, i think in most countries still there's a lack of awareness, lack of willingness, a lack of sense of urgency in investigating encountering these trans national repression efforts coming from the chinese communist party. but i would say also the awareness and willingness to a front confront counter the wider influence and interference operations run by among others these united front work department networks. so we hope that this kind of investigation will finally open the eyes of various governments around the world . that this is something that really needs to be countered and hopefully they will do so in a coordinated way to learn from each other and to set up a common framework to counter these efforts. laurel health relieve therapy to so much for joining us to her. ah,

hong kong cold has sentenced mediate icon. jimmy lie to nearly 6 years. imprisonment over fraud lie is arguably the highest profile target of china's campaign to stamp out hong kong pro democracy movement. his lawyers have called the multiple cases against him. an example of legal harassment. a fresh body blow to hong kong struggling democracy movement. media mogul, jimmy lie receives another jail sentence of nearly 6 years after being found guilty of fraud in a contract dispute over renting out part of his office. it seems hardly the stuff of high politics, but his latest sentence is merely a precursor to much more serious judicial proceedings. lie potentially faces a life sentence at his upcoming trial and national security charges. this wide ranging law has been used to jail. most of hong kong political opposition lie who

marked his 75th birthday imprison last week is the founder of the now closed apple daily newspaper. he had just completed a 20 month jail term for taking part in anti government protests in 2019. that triggered a crackdown on descent. a birdie citizen ly chose to stay in hong kong and face charges he by leave. i, we, we totally disgraced myself. i cannot do that, you know, if i leave, not only at disgrace myself, i discredited, i put daily and also undermined solidarity of democratic movement is something i have to take responsibility. krusik say beijing security legislation effectively means the end of the rule of law in the once free wheeling city. drawn at legal campaign against lie has sparked concern about press freedom. several pro democracy media outlets of sheltered after the introduction of the national security law. ly wanted

a prominent london base lawyer to represent him in the upcoming case. however, hong kong leader john lee caught you, asked china to bar a foreign lawyer from a national security trial. even though local courts had approved the move. beijing promised to allow hong kong to retain political and media freedoms for 50 years when it took the former british colony back in 1997. increasingly, however, beijing's rules are making hong kong no different from a mainland city. and that's it for today. we'll see you tomorrow, the same time with secrets lie behind these wall. discover new adventures in 360 degrees. and explore fascinating world heritage sites with

d. w world heritage. 360. get out now. hey guys, it's evelyn sharma. welcome to my podcast, love matter. that i and life celebrities influences and experts to talk about all playing loud effects from dating and india today. nothing less of all these things and more in the new season of the car. make sure to tune and wherever you get your path and join the conversation because you know, it love matters ah, ah, ah, securing food in an evermore insecure world. you agriculture minister, meet in brussels, to discuss the many crises facing of the industry. still reeling from the pandemic of summer drives onto the impact of high energy costs. we ask what's next for

european farmers. also coming up. com sites in denmark, philip, as people flee the high cost of facing our focus this winter. and the great expectations. india's largest winemaker, 311 yards, goes public on hope that economic growth will what the nation's off ties for life minor things. this is the w business. i'm paid ferguson, thanks for joining me. e. agriculture ministers are meeting in brussels to discuss the state of the food and fishing industries across the block. the gathering takes place against the back top of russia's war in ukraine, which has caused major disruption to food supply chains and contributed to soaring energy prices. a common sight in grocery stores across europe, rising prices for vegetables, bread and everything else. after 2 decades of 1.5 percent inflation.