Photo: Dutch police apprehend a suspect who may have harassed and threatened Chinese exile Wang Jingyu (Wang Jingyu’s Twitter)
(Netherlands—November 14, 2022) Chinese dissident Wang Jingyu, living in exile, is on the Chinese government’s wanted list because he questioned the death toll of Chinese soldiers in the India-China border dispute. He has been unable to escape intimidation in the Netherlands by those claiming to be members of the Chinese police abroad. On November 7, Wang made an emergency call, and the Dutch police took action to arrest a suspect.
Chinese dissident Wang Jingyu went into exile in the Netherlands last year and has been subjected to continued harassment and intimidation since February. Recently, the pressure against him has escalated. On November 6, Wang tweeted that he had received death threats from overseas police officers claiming to be members of the “Chinese state security,” threatening messages such as “go to your house tonight and kill you” and that “you can go and command the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee to come and arrest me.”
The individual who threatened Wang said he would arrive at nine in the morning on the 7th at the Hague Central Station in the Netherlands and demanded to chat with Wang or he would go to Wang’s residence to arrest him. The Dutch police took immediate action and informed the German police of a joint investigation. However, the unknown person who made the death threat did not show up at the Hague Central Station on the morning of the 7th.
It was not until the evening of the 7th that Wang received another phone call from an individual claiming to be a Chinese overseas public security officer who was about to arrive at the Hague Central Station. Wang again reported to the police immediately, and 10 Dutch police officers and four police vehicles rushed to the scene. After the police asked Wang to call the number back, they identified a male wearing a hat in a Starbucks at the Hague Central Station as the suspect. The police then approached and arrested him.
When Wang Jingyu and the police arrived at the scene, the police asked him to call the number and ask the suspect where he was situated; the man responded by saying he was sitting at Starbucks. The police could identify and confirm the suspect when they saw him on the phone when Wang was on the call and waited for him to put his phone away before asking Wang Jingyu to call again. The individual’s phone then rang, thus confirming that he was the one who threatened Wang Jingyu.
Wang Jingyu videotaped the scene of the Dutch police arresting the suspect from afar, and in the video, Wang Jingyu was heard saying, “we’ve caught the Chinese Communist bandits.”
The arrested man claimed to the Dutch police that he had a German residence permit, that he was a volunteer at a Chinese “public security station” overseas, and that they were legal. He accused the Dutch police of violating his human rights.
In the past few months, Wang Jingyu was targeted by the Chinese Communist Party after he went to protest in front of the Chinese Embassy in the Netherlands. In June this year, the Chinese Communist government hired an individual to intimidate Wang with a knife. After Wang called the police, the knife-wielder escaped to another country and continued to provoke him and the Dutch police.
This year, he received a call from the Chinese Overseas Service Center in Rotterdam urging him to go back to China to solve his problems and threatening him with his parents. Since then, individuals working for the Chinese government have made 10 calls to the police in Belgium, Germany, and Canada, pretending to be him, claiming bomb threats. Police once questioned Wang was once about these cases. After Wang Jingyu clarified the facts, the false reports of Chinese government personnel caused European countries such as the Netherlands to pay great attention to the infiltration of Chinese Communist Party police stations abroad and Chinese Communist Party agents in Europe.
The Dutch police confirmed that the man is in custody, and the latest developments will be announced separately by the Dutch prosecution service. It is not yet known why the man took the desperate step of risking arrest to meet with Wang Jingyu after making physical threats against Wang Jingyu.
In September, the Spanish human rights organization Safeguard Defenders published a report on establishing overseas police “service stations” by the Chinese Communist authorities. They reported that the Chinese authorities have set up 54 overseas police “service stations” in 30 countries around the world, ostensibly to provide administrative services such as renewing driver’s licenses, but in essence to threaten dissidents abroad and coerce suspects accused by the Chinese Communist Party to return to China for trial.
On July 7, the official website of the Safeguard Defenders reported that 14 governments had begun investigations into China’s overseas police “service stations,” including Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Other countries investigating are Canada, Chile, Nigeria, and the United States. In particular, the Netherlands and Ireland have explicitly requested that China immediately shut down these illegal agencies.
~Gao Zhensai, Special Correspondent of ChinaAid Association
