A new investigation by the human rights group Defenders reveals that China has expanded its network of surveillance and influence overseas despite international efforts to shut down secret Chinese police stations exposed in 2022. The report, Formula for Repression, identifies 1,247 Chinese Communist Party links across at least 91 countries, including Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. The network operates through Chinese community associations, hometown associations and chambers of commerce, enabling Chinese police, prosecutors and courts to monitor diaspora communities, recruit informants, intimidate dissidents and pressure people to return to China. Researchers have identified hotspots in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa. A separate study by the Jamestown Foundation mapped 575 CCP-affiliated organizations in Canada and 967 in the United States. Defenders of Defense concludes that the enforcement system abroad survived the earlier attack: "The police logos were removed, but the control functions remained and their reach expanded." The 1,247 locations are designated link points, not necessarily operational police stations, and the association alone does not establish illegal activity.

A new investigation by the human rights group Defenders reveals that China has expanded its network of surveillance and influence overseas despite international efforts to shut down secret Chinese police stations exposed in 2022. The report, Formula for Repression, identifies 1,247 Chinese Communist Party links across at least 91 countries, including Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. The network operates through Chinese community associations, hometown associations and chambers of commerce, enabling Chinese police, prosecutors and courts to monitor diaspora communities, recruit informants, intimidate dissidents and pressure people to return to China. Researchers have identified hotspots in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa. A separate study by the Jamestown Foundation mapped 575 CCP-affiliated organizations in Canada and 967 in the United States. Defenders of Defense concludes that the enforcement system abroad survived the earlier attack: "The police logos were removed, but the control functions remained and their reach expanded." The 1,247 locations are designated link points, not necessarily operational police stations, and the association alone does not establish illegal activity.