Governments, Ottawa among them, said they had responded to Harth’s work by shutting the stations down. Her new report says the diaspora spying system behind them, aimed at the more than 60 million people Beijing counts as “overseas Chinese,” never closed. It runs through community associations designated as Party liaison nodes on Western soil, with Chinese police, prosecutors and courts plugged in from home, and online platforms and video links that put diaspora members face to face with authorities in China. A Formula for Repression, released Friday by the Madrid-based human rights group Safeguard Defenders at the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China summit in The Hague, identifies 1,247 formally designated Chinese Communist Party liaison points in at least 91 countries. A liaison point is a community association, or a person within one, that a Chinese authority has formally appointed as its contact abroad, often by presenting a nameplate to hang on the wall. They include points in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, the Montreal suburb of Brossard, and Ottawa. In the United States, they include New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Seattle and Washington. More than ten police forces from five Chinese provinces now work through the network, the report says, alongside Chinese prosecutors, courts and justice bureaus. Harth’s report places the police stations within a broader Party system for controlling Chinese communities abroad. The overseas operations “are part of a determined Chinese Communist Party policy to export its domestic system of surveillance and control to Chinese diaspora communities across the world.” “The Party controls China’s population through a grid,” the report states. “Every city, town and village is cut into grids of a few hundred households, each with a manager who collects information and reports to an enforcement hub. Since 2014 it has been building the same grid abroad.”

CCP uses united front channels, such as hometown associations and chambers of commerce, to extend control over Chinese communities abroad. “The only thing that changed post 2022 is they stopped being so dumb as to put actual police signs on walls abroad.”

@SafeguardDefend Reach out to the dissidents, journalists, religious and ethnic minorities, and civil society activists Beijing targets. Ask how you can help. Defending their freedom to speak and make their own choices protects the democratic freedoms we all share. 8/9 Report 🔗👇🏻

@SafeguardDefend What can citizens do? Learn to recognize United Front tactics. Ask businesses, politicians and officials to explain their relationships with Party-linked organizations and what those relationships involve. 7/9

Beijing’s overseas police stations were part of something much bigger. A new @SafeguardDefend's report maps the PRC’s system for monitoring and controlling Chinese diaspora communities, including in Canada. 🧵1/9 🔗👇🏻

China’s Overseas Police Network Expanded After Shutdown Claims, Report Says A new investigation identifies United Front liaison points in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa within Beijing’s expanding system of surveillance and control.

China has exponentially expanded its network of illegal overseas police stations, to “extend its tentacles” across a web of new community associations, according to a report by international human rights group @SafeguardDefend .

Illegal Chinese police stations were exposed in 2023 and we targeted this illegal interference in our country. If these reports are true and Chinese police stations have returned, they must be closed immediately. China cannot be allowed to circumvent our rules or threaten our freedoms.

#BREAKING# In response to new @SafeguardDefend report launched at #IPACTheHague26#, 54 lawmakers from 26 countries call for 6 urgent measures to combat CCP foreign interference and transnational repression. They demand an end to wilful blindness and overly tolerant acquiescence.

OUT NOW from @safeguarddefend - A FORMULA FOR REPRESSION 4 years after "police stations": more than ever Chinese police, courts, prosecutors and others "extend their tentacles" around the world. The aim: control what people think, say and do. No matter where they are... 1/2

OUT NOW from @safeguarddefend - A FORMULA FOR REPRESSION 4 years after "police stations": more than ever Chinese police, courts, prosecutors and others "extend their tentacles" around the world. The aim: control what people think, say and do. No matter where they are... 1/2

Go read the Reasons for Sentence in Joshua Wong's case. The national security offence of a "grave nature" involved (1) telling several media outlets that he would "keep fighting" and (2) occasionally reposting others' Facebook posts. 10 year sentence from a kangaroo court and a judge who was grasping for anything he could find to keep his bosses in Beijing happy.

“The only thing I worry about is that people will forget Hong Kong.” Those are #JoshuaWong’s# words, in this important article by @dannydvincent We must make sure that people never forget Hong Kong or Joshua Wong #FreeJoshuaWong# #FreeHongKong#

Did China really close its overseas Chinese “police stations”? The answer’s coming November 6. Stay tuned for @SafeguardDefend new report launch at @ipacglobal Summit in The Hague!

UN experts express grave concern over the continued detention of journalist and human rights defender Bai Zhaodong in Thailand and the risk of his forcible return to China, due to the persecution and repression he suffered at the hands of PRC authorities.

“Since early 2026, French counterintelligence services have dismantled nine clandestine structures operating in France under the direction of China's Ministry of Public Security. The sites were notably used to track down dissidents.”

CCP using old tricks in attempt to cancel @SafeguardDefend upcoming debate on growing risks for foreign nationals in China. Yet, as the recent wrongful detention of US scholar Min Zin sadly demonstrates, we need more, not less, public awareness of these risks. More in link👇