China has to close its police offices in the Netherlands, which opened without the permission of the authorities, with immediate effect. This was ordered by Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra on Tuesday in The Hague. He informed the Chinese ambassador about this, the minister said, according to a report by the ANP news agency. The minister called the police offices “unacceptable”. The Dutch authorities would never have given their consent. The ministry will now investigate exactly what activities took place in the offices.
Media found out last week that China had set up police offices in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The Chinese authorities are said to be putting pressure on dissidents who have fled under the guise of “service centers”. According to the media, the office in Amsterdam was said to have opened in 2018, and in Rotterdam there has been a Chinese police branch office in an inconspicuous apartment since the beginning of 2022. The Dutch authorities were not informed about this.
A refugee dissident had told the TV channel RTL Nieuws that he had been called by an employee of the office in Rotterdam. He was asked to return to China and “solve my problems” … “he also said that I had to think about my parents”.
Authorities examine China’s “foreign office” in Frankfurt
According to the Foreign Minister, there should also be such offices in other European countries. There are indications that there is also an “office” of the Chinese government in Frankfurt that is used as a police station. As a spokesman for the Hessian Ministry of the Interior told the FAZ last week, the authorities are currently following up on relevant information.
China had stated that the Chinese could, for example, extend their driver’s licenses in the offices. But even for such consular tasks, the approval of the authorities of the host country is necessary, said the minister.
Map with “Police Stations”
A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior told the “Handelsblatt” last week: “The federal government does not tolerate the exercise of foreign state power and accordingly Chinese authorities have no executive powers on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany.” They have the topic in mind and agree within the Federal government on how to proceed.
The non-governmental organization “Safeguard Defenders”, which deals primarily with human rights violations in China, recently published a map of numerous Chinese “police stations” abroad.
