China Opens Police Stations in Nigeria, and Other African Countries to Rein in Errant Nationals

• China has opened police stations in Nigeria and other African countries to crack down on its errant nationals
• Recent reports stated that the country also operates police stations in 20 countries around the world
• In a report by a rights group, the Chinese government employs methods considered incendiary to crack down on criminals

The Chinese government has opened police stations in Nigeria and about 20 other countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa to tackle increasing criminal activities by its citizens abroad.

In an investigative statement titled ‘110 Overseas Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild’, the report says that the police stations are meant to crack down on all kinds of illegal and criminal activities involving Chinese.

Countries like Lesotho and Tanzania are two countries in Africa with Chinese police stations, apart from Nigeria.

Read also

Why law enforcement struggles to throttle crypto scams

The report by Safeguard Defender states that rather than cooperating with local authorities in respect of territorial sovereignty, China prefers to cooperate with overseas NGOs or civil society organisations across the five continents, setting up alternative policing and directly implicating those organisations in the illegal methods used to pursue fugitives.

The report also stated that as part of a massive countrywide campaign to fight fraud and telecom fraud by Chinese citizens living abroad, Chinese authorities said that from April 2021 to July 2022, 230,000 nationals had been asked to return to face criminal charges in China.

The country’s official statement explained the use of depriving suspects’ dependents of the right to education in China and other actions against relatives and family members in a full-on guilt-by-association campaign.

Read also

Is China truly running police station in Nigeria? Here is what you need to know

The NGO said that China chose the nine countries as having serious fraud and cybercrimes and that Chinese nationals were no longer allowed to stay in those countries without good reason.

Safeguard said:

“While establishing these operations to hunt down those accused of fraud and telecommunications fraud, China identified nine countries particularly prone to hosting Chinese nationals engaging in such criminal activities, the ‘nine forbidden countries’

But the setting up of overseas police service was a nationwide practice, with many being in Western democratic nations focused mainly on Europe and not in the nine forbidden countries.

It is unknown if Chinese nationals would work in the police stations or if the stations would be subject to the laws of local policing in the host countries.

The group said:

“Whether the targets are dissidents, corrupt officials or low-level criminals, the problem remains the same: The use of irregular methods — often combining carrots with sticks — against the targeted individual or their family members in China undermines any due process and the most basic rights of suspects,” Safeguard Defender further stated.

Read also

2023 elections: Stop ethno-religious tantrums, Olawepo-Hashim counsels political parties

The List of African Countries With Highest Debt to China, amount and what the Debts are used for

Legit.ng reported that Macau is the only country in the world that is debt-free, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The world’s greates economies rank among the 20 countries with the highest external debts.

They are the US, Russia, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and China, according to a Daily Trust report.

Source: Legit.ng