Chinese paramilitary police wearing goggles and face masks march in formation at the Yanqing National Sliding Center during a test event for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, in this Oct. 25, 2021, file photo. Korea has launched an investigation to confirm the allegations that the Chinese government is operating a "secret police station" here, joining several other countries conducting similar investigations. AP-Yonhap

By Jung Min-ho

Korea has launched an investigation into the allegations that the Chinese government is operating a "secret police station" here to monitor and terrorize Chinese nationals as part of Beijing's effort to keep them under its influence.

The move comes as several other countries, including the United States, Canada and the Netherlands, are conducting similar investigations after a human rights organization in Spain issued a detailed report accusing the Chinese government of running more than 100 overseas police stations in 53 countries, including Korea.

Government sources told reporters Tuesday that the investigation has begun to establish the full facts.

If confirmed, the case is expected to damage Korea's relations further with China, which has already been at the lowest point in decades following Beijing's "THAAD retaliation" ― its unofficial ban on importing Korean cultural content among others. It was Beijing's response to Seoul's decision to deploy a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in its territory in 2017.

According to the report published in September by Safeguard Defenders, the police stations are linked to the United Front Work Department, a Chinese Communist Party agency tasked with carrying out operations for the party's interests.

Their existence has been officially confirmed by some governments. The Dutch government has reportedly found two Chinese police stations in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, which have been ordered to close. Another one in Dublin has also been ordered to shut down by the Irish government.

Last month, U.S. FBI Director Christopher Wray also expressed concern, saying he was aware of "the existence of these stations," which he thinks "violates sovereignty and circumvents standard judicial and law enforcement cooperation processes."

The human rights organization's report says the secret Chinese police stations are operated out of four Chinese jurisdictions: Nantong, Wenzhou, Qingtian and Fuzhou. The one in an "unknown location" in Korea is allegedly operated out of Nantong, a city in China's southeastern Jiangsu province.

It could be a violation of international law as well as an infringement of national sovereignty for a country to establish a branch of a police force in a foreign country without permission.

"The establishment of Chinese Overseas Police Stations without the host country's consent represents a severe breach of territorial and judicial sovereignty ― even if they were to provide 'only' consular services such as the renewal of passports or driver's licenses," the report says, citing articles 2 to 5 of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

It is expected to take some time to verify whether such police stations exist in Korea and, if so, what their main functions are.

Lee Sang-man, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, told The Korea Times that he was not surprised when he heard the news of the secret police stations.

"I used to be invited frequently to events hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Seoul and to send contribution articles to several Chinese newspapers until about three years ago when such requests suddenly stopped all at once," said Lee, who has often voiced criticism of China's President Xi Jinping. "Given that such experience is shared by other professors, I would not be surprised even if there has been some sort of a control system that monitors certain people."