ah, w, travel, we go 2016 as i go to the queen casa, want to see if germany was for me. the last few years have been quite a bright and early in touch with. i've really done the homework when it comes to jermel beers and of course i always look in the eye for a kid, but perhaps the biggest on the new hobby of mine, i'm no longer approved. i love to be in the news there, a person there. but when you're feeling altogether, you'll realize that culture just another way of living. are you ready to meet the driver and then join me, right? just do it on b, w this is it of the news, a shirt coming up to date, the long arm of chinese law operating illegally across the world. 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 of prison. tom again, major 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 and that's come to light across the world and earlier bought by madrid, beast n, g, or save god, defenders claimed 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 antique 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 stationed in a new report. spanish and your safeguard defenders reveal evidence of b. jenks clandestine operation. they say 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 for for many years that there are 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's g 20 summit in bali just intrude auto journalist. he reached his concerned with chinese president. she jin ping. she scolded his counterpart over the incident. everything with personally all the way of m. b jing 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 due 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, there 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 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 hobbs welcomed who is running these illegal police stations. 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 one extra function, but isn't the element of legality here. ours, bro, for instance, china does have joint police patrolling arrangements with countries. large utilities, serbia, and crucial, surely will you stations are

a part of the deal on thing. i don't think they're a part of the deal or day they shouldn't be there is this the writing responses to that? we see, for example, that when it comes to the service stations, and so we need to also, i 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 the setup of such let's call them consular 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 side, from their statements that they used these joint police patrols to set up these kind of stations that they could if 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 counselor tasks, 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, presumably this is something about the governments 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 as 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,

which i'll oversees believe 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. moral health relieve of therapy so much for joining us over. ah,

ah hunk on 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 ly receives another jail sentence of nearly 6 years after being found guilty of fraud in a contract dispute over renting a 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. his wide ranging law has been used to jail. most of hong kong political opposition lie who

marked as 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 pretty citizen lie chose to stay in hong kong and face charges. if i leave, i we, we totally disgrace myself. i cannot do that, you know, if i leave law only at disgrace myself, i discredited epoch daily and also undermined exhorted clarity of the 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 ly 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 promise 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 at the same time with every journey begins with the 1st step. and every language with the 1st word, always been equal. rico is in germany to learn german. why not learn with him a simple online on your mobile and free to shop. d, w e learning course,

nico speak, german made easy. sometimes a seed is all you need to allow big ideas to grow. we're bringing environmental conservation to life with learning pass, like global ideas. we will show you how climate change and environmental conservation is taking shape around the world and how we can all make a difference. knowledge grows through sharing. download it now, feel free. ah, securing food in an ever more insecure world. you, agricultural minister as meat and brussels to discuss the many crises facing of the industry. still reeling from the pandemic of summer drives and the impact of high energy costs. we ask what's next for european farmers. also coming up,

tom flies in denmark, philip as people flee the high cost of hastings are full. this with great expectations. india's largest winemaker fil a vineyard goes public on hope that economic growth will what the nation's off ties for life minor thing. 5th is the w business. i'm kate 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.