China has opened overseas police stations, including three in Toronto: Report

China has opened a number of “overseas police service stations” worldwide, including several in Toronto, according to a report.

“These operations eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate the international rule of law, and may violate the territorial integrity in third countries involved in setting up a parallel policing mechanism using illegal methods,” the report by Safeguard Defenders, a human rights watchdog, said, according to the New York Post.

The report, titled “110 Overseas: Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild,” details China’s extensive efforts to combat “fraud” by its citizens living overseas, in part by opening several police stations on five continents that have assisted Chinese authorities in “carrying out policing operations on foreign soil.”

It said Toronto has three of these stations, New York City the other in North America. Europe has the most, according to the report, including in London, Budapest, Athens, Paris, Madrid and more. In all, the report said there are 54 stations in 30 different countries.

It also says how China has tried to get Chinese nationals living abroad to return to China “voluntarily” to face criminal prosecution.

“As these operations continue to develop, and new mechanisms are set up, it is evident that countries governed by the standards set by universal human rights and the rule of law urgently need to investigate these practices to identify the (local) actors at work, mitigate the risks and effectively protect the growing number of those targeted,” the report says.