A man arrested for his alleged role in operating an illegal Chinese-government police station in New York was caught on camera at an anti-Taiwan protest in Manhattan linked to the Chinese consulate. His appearance there, weeks before his arrest, raises further questions about the activities of Chinese Communist Party–linked “hometown associations” in the U.S.
The federal government said in court documents this month that Lu Jianwang set up the unauthorized Chinese law-enforcement outpost under the auspices of a cultural group called the America ChangLe Association and that he assisted the Chinese secret police in locating a dissident in California. America ChangLe organized events for immigrants from China’s Fujian province and was named after a neighborhood in the city of Fuzhou. The FBI raided its office in October, after news of the police station’s existence came to light.
Three weeks before his arrest, Lu spent a day tailing Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen around New York City with a band of protesters, according to a YouTube video reviewed by National Review. Lu repeatedly appeared at the front of the crowd in that video, which called him the chairman of the “Fujian Hometown Association,” another Chinese government–linked group that he leads. America ChangLe was also represented by Zhang Zikuo, who previously served as that group’s chairman and who also appeared in the video.
Tsai arrived in New York on March 30 for a short stopover before heading to South America for the next leg of her trip. The entire time, a group of pro-China demonstrators followed her, from her arrival at the Lotte New York Palace hotel in Midtown Manhattan to her appearances at a Taiwanese store in Brooklyn and a banquet with members of the Taiwanese diaspora.
The YouTube video, posted by the account of a local videographer, features several clips of the protests against Tsai outside the Lotte, with crowds of anti-Taiwan protesters waving Chinese flags and banners with slogans criticizing the Taiwanese president. Lu is consistently spotted at the front of the crowd. Other parts of the video show a smaller group protesting at a different location, on a street corner outside an event venue. Lu also appears there.
The demonstrations against Tsai were a subject of scrutiny in Taiwan. There are indications of Chinese-government involvement. According to reports from the Liberty Times newspaper, the Chinese consulates in New York and Los Angeles planned to pay protesters $200 and $400, respectively, for taking part in demonstrations. The entities tasked with organizing the anti-Taiwan protests, according to the newspaper, are gangs and hometown associations. Taiwan’s top intelligence official, meanwhile, confirmed the accuracy of those reports in comments to the country’s parliament.
National Review subsequently reported that the Alliance for China’s Peaceful Reunification, USA, was involved in the protests; that group reports to the CCP’s United Front Work Department. A page on its website discussed a rally that took place in Queens before Tsai’s arrival in the U.S., during which ACPR USA leadership said that people interested in protesting could board buses chartered by the demonstration’s organizers.
Other leaders of the Fujian Hometown Association appeared in the video with Lu. The Daily Caller recently reported that NYC mayor Eric Adams and Senator Chuck Schumer were pictured with Lu at a gala hosted by that group in March. Adams’s office said he attends dozens of events every week, that he doesn’t know Lu, and that his attendance is not an endorsement. Schumer has yet to comment on the matter.
This isn’t the first time that Lu has participated in a protest ostensibly organized by Chinese diplomats in the U.S. In the criminal complaint, the FBI says Lu told agents that when he was president of America ChangLe in 2015, the Chinese consulate general in New York asked him to bring members of the group to D.C. to demonstrate against Falun Gong practitioners. They were paid $60 each for their participation, and “each bus would have a point of contact that would pay in cash from the consulate,” he said.
The FBI and State Department declined to comment, and the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York and Lu’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.