Global Implications of Chinese Shadow Police Operating in US and Abroad
3rd March 2025
It is unsettling to learn that the Chinese regime is capable of operating covert police stations in foreign countries to monitor, harass, and control Chinese citizens living abroad—committing considerable resources to focus on those most critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
CCP shadow police operations came to light in June 2021, when nonprofit media group ProPublica revealed Beijing’s Operation Fox Hunt program. Initially thought to be some form of Chinese bounty hunter program, the United States and numerous other countries now see it as a global shadow police force. This program, ostensibly aimed at combating corruption, is now viewed as a front for targeting and coercing dissidents and critics of the CCP to return to China. According to the human rights group Safeguard Defenders, these activities are ongoing in more than 50 countries, including the United States, Canada, and several European nations.