Lu Jianwang went on trial Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court facing a federal case that hinges on what prosecutors say was a secret Chinese police outpost in Manhattan and what his lawyers describe as an ordinary community operation in Chinatown.
Prosecutors said the plain, glass-clad building stood among businesses in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood and served as a node for activities they say were directed from Beijing, including efforts aimed at pro-democracy dissidents in the United States. In their opening statement, prosecutor Lindsey Oken told jurors that Lu “was living in New York City but he was working for the Chinese government,” framing the case as a foreign-agent matter rather than a local dispute.
Oken described the outpost as a place intended to silence, harass and intimidate dissidents and said prosecutors would connect Lu’s conduct to instructions coming from China. She also said the site had a banner inside that read: “Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, New York USA.” Lu’s lawyer John Carman, in turn, portrayed the building as a community center where people could handle paperwork and spend time together.
Carman argued that the outpost’s services were aimed at helping members of the Chinese diaspora during a period when travel was constrained. He said the center allowed people to remotely renew Chinese driver’s licenses and also provided a setting where members met to play ping-pong and mahjong, insisting the arrangement was not the clandestine operation prosecutors alleged.
Lu, 64, has been accused of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent and of destroying evidence, including WeChat messages with his purported Chinese government handler, according to prosecutors. Authorities arrested him at his Bronx home more than three years after the Manhattan site was established, and he has denied the government’s characterization of his role.
Oken said the American case dates to a decision Lu made after attending a ceremony in his native Fujian province where China’s Ministry of Public Security announced it was opening 30 police stations around the world. She told jurors that Lu and a co-defendant, Chen Jinping, established the Chinatown outpost in 2022 and that a dissident witness would testify about being targeted.
Prosecutors said the outpost shared offices with the America ChangLe Association, a community organization that Lu and his brother, Jimmy, helped run. A lawyer for the defense said the group described itself on tax forms as a “social gathering place for Fujianese people,” and Carman argued that what prosecutors call foreign policing was rooted in community activities.
Oken acknowledged that the organization was open about its driver’s license service, but she told the jury that even that service was illegal under U.S. law. She said Lu worked for China “without asking or telling the U.S. government,” violating the federal Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires people acting as agents of a foreign government or entity to register with the Justice Department.
Carman disputed the government’s framing in opening remarks. He told jurors the case was “essentially failing to file a form” and argued that evidence would show that Lu is “not a spy, not a part of Chinese intelligence services, not a part of the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP, and he’s not an agent of the Chinese government.”
The trial also looks to the circumstances of the investigation that led to Lu’s arrest. Carman told jurors that the FBI raided the alleged outpost on Oct. 3, 2022, searching through drawers and paperwork and seizing a computer and cellphones, and he said that during the next day’s questioning Lu admitted he established the Manhattan outpost and kept in touch with his handler via WeChat but deleted the messages.
Carman added that Lu’s two-hour FBI interviews were not recorded, and he said Lu was arrested in April 2023. Lu’s co-defendant, Chen, pleaded guilty in December 2024 to a charge of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent and remains free on bond pending sentencing after Lu’s trial.
Lu sat at the defense table Wednesday wearing a dark suit, pale blue tie and glasses, with limited English and an earpiece so an interpreter could translate for him into Fujianese. Among the people supporting him outside the courthouse were several dozen supporters, including members of his church, who held signs with slogans such as “Justice for Harry Lu” and “Chinese Americans Are Americans!” and waved small American flags as he arrived with his legal team.
Carman told jurors, “No one controls him,” and said: “If Harry Lu is an agent of anyone, he is an agent for his community — the local people in his community.” He closed by telling the jury: “You have the life of an innocent man in your hands.”