Thread by @samdunningo

Much scrutiny lately of 'Chinese police stations' operating on the streets of Britain…

What links the 'stations' to British politics, the Chinese Communist Party, an assault in the heart of London, & serious organised crime?

This is big.

1/54

Disclaimer: 4 British newspapers are aiming to publish slithers of this story. I’ve worked with two of them.

I explain why I’m publishing this on Twitter at the bottom of this thread. This may put my safety in jeopardy.

2/54

First, the stations. Thanks to @Peterinexile & @SafeguardDefend , the world knows about a network of ‘overseas police stations’ run by 🇨🇳

Investigations have been launched in a number of countries.

The UK has 3, and we know their addresses.

thetimes.co.uk/article/china-…

3/54

One of those addresses is also home to a company run by Lin Ruiyou 林瑞友.

There’s also a video on TikTok of Lin promoting the station’s ‘service’ – douyin.com/discover?modal…

4/54

In case it wasn’t obvious from the pictures (more than one occassion) of him with Boris, Lin has had access to the likes of @theresa_may , @sajidjavid , and a good number of other Conservatives.

Who is this guy?

5/54

Don’t ask the Daily Mail. They have removed reference to Lin from their article about the police stations.

Archived version: web.archive.org/web/2022101422…

I began wondering who Lin was almost a year ago in November 2021 when I published a story on a fight in Chinatown.

6/54

Original footage w sound - newsflare.com/video/465985/p…

The brawl took place when a ‘Rally against racism towards people of East Asian descent’ in London's Chinatown descended into violence after organisers appeared to attack pro-democracy HK & Chinese counter-protestors.

7/54

The official organisers & supporters' list included overtly pro-CCP organisations, e.g. the London Chinatown Chinese Association..

..& the UK Fujianese Association, run by Lin Ruiyou.

More video (of 'anti-racist' Bobby Chan colluding w/ thugs)

https://twitter.com/EileenEChang/status/1464980619058823180

8/54

After, images emerged of a group chat where ‘bounties’ were reportedly put on two prominent pro-democracy Hong Konger exiles, @SimonChengUK and @NathanLawKC .

Lin Xinxian 林新献, a leader of the Association, was in the chat.

telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/0…

9/54

In the footage, you can even see one of the Association’s leaders, Zhang Feng 张锋, punching a pro-democracy Hong Konger in the head repeatedly (c.00:23 onwards)

The Met police know this (more on this later..)

Zhang too has hung out with Tory MPs.

10/54

In fact, 2 attended the UK Fujianese 'Soc inauguration w/ him in late 2019: Mark Field (retired) & Paul Scully MP. Zhang reportedly spoke of his credentials as a promoter of ‘reunification’, China’s planned absorption of free Taiwan.

@scullyp 你懂了沒有他們說的話？

11/54

Also there: Lu Haitian 卢海⽥, counsellor for ‘Overseas Chinese affairs’ at the 🇨🇳 Embassy.

As of c. 2018, this area is overseen by the CCP's United Front Work Department.

Lu has been accused by Chinese Brits of interfering in their social organisations: it’s his job.

12/54

Barely a week after the inauguration, Lin Ruiyou was hanging out with MPs again at a Tory fundraising dinner in the heart of London.

How did Zhang and Lin Ruiyou get this level of access?

** Actually, Lin Ruiyou himself worked as a Tory fundraiser **

13/54

Until very recently (...), Lin was publicly described as vice-chair of the ‘Chinese Group’ of the London & Westminster Conservative Association (CLWCA). This description has since been removed from the CLWCA’s website.

Archive: web.archive.org/web/2022011610…

14/54

The group has a long history organising fundraising dinners for CLWCA. Here’s a pic from 2019.

Front row has Lin R, Xuelin Bates (Google her), former mayoral candidate Sean Bailey, then 🇨🇳 ambassador Liu Xiaoming, Lord Wei (Google ‘Lord Wei UFWD’) & then MP Mark Field.

15/54

These dinners went on for years & raised certainly tens perhaps hundreds of thousands for CLWCA.

In 2010, Field became the youngest ever member of the Intelligence & Security Committee. He later served as minister for Asia Pacific in the Foreign Office.

16/54

Lin Ruiyou likes to make connections in China too. Here he is back in 2011 with Xu Yousheng 许又声, already a junior director at the Overseas Chinese affairs and now a Central Committee member and UFWD deputy minister.

17/54

There is a long history of engagement between UFWD & 'Overseas Chinese affairs' officials & Lin, ranging from joint visits to classes of children from Xinjiang (moved to Lin’s home province of Fujian) & tours distributing wads of cash, to meetings in the UK & China.

18/54

Lin's taken part in a fair few pro-CCP, pro-’reunification’ groups. E.g. 英国福州⼗⾢同乡会 the UK Fuzhou Ten Hometowns Association, which declared on its founding a decade ago it would “accept the guidance of the Chinese embassy in the UK” & “promote reunification”.

19/54

What of Lin’s businesses? I’ve found a few: he runs a food delivery app called All Eat App. One Chinese state media source says it recieves £400k of orders a day, which seems incredible judging from the reviews, scathing / fake :

uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.all…

20/54

Via All Eat Lin does business with a couple of other interesting guys, including Lin Xinxian, and a packaging company in Northern Ireland run by another Fujianese who also deals in freight.

21/54

In Spain Lin Ruiyou owns a vineyard, and seems to export the wine from there to China, where he owns a chain of wine shops. This is a more serious enterprise, with one shipment of wine shipped in 2015 worth more than £100k (I found it referred to in a court document).

22/54

I’m afraid it gets worse and more complicated now and this is where I must be careful.

Lin R, Lin X & Zhang have all long associated with He Jiajin 何家⾦ a.k.a. Anthony Kar King Ho, called by some, as he himself has admitted, ‘the Chinese Bin Laden’.

(Photo c. 2010)

23/54

Ho has been convicted of various crimes in multiple jurisdictions.

Zhang & Lin R are part of a core group consistently pictured with Ho for years either side of a major 2012 conviction, & consistently named as members of small fraternal organisations Ho runs.

24/54

The photo above is from 2012.

That year, Ho was convicted in Bristol of what the BBC termed a “£350m fraud” re. to his money transfer business.

BBC - bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…

25/54

Bristol Crown Court told me the “court file for this case was sent for destruction in 2019”, so they couldn’t provide it - which seems incredible…

But I found reference to the details of the case in another judgment, [2015] EWCA Crim 2331, 25 Nov 2015 R. v He, Jia Jin

26/54

The judgment explains how the “dishonest businessman” with former convictions in Hong Kong and Greece “built up a web of companies”. In just two years between 2008 and 2010, just one of these companies transferred £30m to China and this included serious criminal proceeds.

27/54

According to Companies House (no. 06437393), Ho had also managed briefly to rope in some well-known folks as directors of his finance companies: Lord Wei; the founder of the Gurkha Trust; & a former cop & crime specialist.

28/54

(NB recently, a researcher published a report about Lord Wei’s long-running previous engagement with the CCP’s United Front Work Department -

https://twitter.com/McWLuke/status/1553400261976199172

- Wei's response implied the report was ‘fascist’

@NatWei were you aware of the Ho directorship? )

29/54

But Anthony Ho’s role in the hidden side of this country’s relationship with the PRC and with the CCP goes much deeper.

In June 2006, eccentric and wealthy author Allan Chappelow was murdered in Hampstead.

30/54

The trial of Chappelow’s killer is 1 of the most notorious & mysterious murder trials in British history, the only modern trial to be conducted partly behind closed doors.

The man convicted (2009) was Wang Yam, an MI6 informant.

theguardian.com/technology/202…

31/54

Ho was a witness for the prosecution, one that Wang objected to strongly.

During his trials, Wang had accused Ho of various “nefarious activities”.

(See reference to this in later judgment supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uks… )

32/54

Others know better than me what exactly Ho’s role in this might have been.. @NortonTaylor

But it was not the only occasion on which he assisted HM Government in one way or another.

33/54

The 2015 judgment R. vs He, Jia Jin also includes reference on the part of the judge to “a statement from Mr He [Ho] which gives further details of the assistance that he has given in certain important respects to authorities in this country”..

34/54

Again, no detail is given. But in 2008 the Evening Standard reported that Ho was linked closely to people-smuggling from the UK to China.

standard.co.uk/hp/front/china…

Ho said, "I help deal with a lot of illegal immigrants for the authorities."

35/54

Amongst those in the know, from ex-coppers --> London Chinese community, it's known Ho was involved in people smuggling.

I’ve been told it's how he met Lin R.

Ho was @ the nexus of the movement of people & money between the UK and China.

thetimes.co.uk/article/seizur…

36/54

It’s a big business: a recent study estimated c.10y ago there were c.200,000 illegal immigrants from 🇨🇳 in the UK - stunning, but supported by gov data showing that in 2004-2016, the UK repatriated more than 43,000 illegal Chinese immigrants.

researchgate.net/publication/36… >>

37/54

Whilst I have no idea whether this was Ho, this description of help rendered to the Met by a Fujianese Londoner gives a sense of the kind of incident a well placed person can provide info on. This is a real underworld.

britsoccrim.org/volume12/pbcc_…

38/54

<< NB it is worth noting that Lin, Zhang, Ho & all these organisations are from Fujian (Chinese province), as are these fraternal organisations, as are the ‘overseas police stations’, as are many senior UFWD officials in China.

Fujian is very important. >>

39/54

What went wrong for Ho, & what did he do next?

Question 1: important to note Ho got done by a *regional* bust, "investigated by Zephyr, the south west’s serious and organised crime team which has a unit dedicated to financial investigation.”

zephyr218.rssing.com/chan-15528965/…

40/54

Question 2: Ho built public ties with the united front & embassy.

Having been convicted in 2012, as early as 2013 he spoke as a special guest in settings like this official celebration of the PRC's 64th birthday w/ diplomats & united front bigwig Shan Sheng 单声

41/54

Part of this also involved the difficult-to-interpret publication of a booklet including the faces of several dozen of Ho’s associates, including his children (involved in his businesses, in one case made legal director soon after turning 18.)

42/54

Simultaneously, he expanded his media work... For Ho controls a newspaper. EU Chinese Journal always had a UK focus and in 2013 it was rebranded as the UK Chinese Journal.

Altho mostly banal, it began heavily to promote pro-CCP organisations & united front work

43/54

It also promoted the UK-China ‘golden era’, when a Tory government decided let the CCP's China build our nuclear plants, buy up our infrastructure, get into our universities, & be trained by our military.

e.g.

https://twitter.com/haynesdeborah/status/1586061609335721987

We still don't know the full truth

44/54

Naturally, it also gave lots of ad space to Christine Lee (at bottom in this pic), named by MI5 in January as an agent of CCP influence.

And Ho used it to try to exonerate himself to the British Chinese community, claiming that media reports on his conviction were false.

45/54

Thanks in part to the Journal, we can trace Lin R & Zhang’s association w/ Ho from before his 2012 conviction thru year on year to c. 2018, from dinners together with visiting Chinese officials, to a joint trip to Fujian, mutual memberships, even meeting videos &c.

46/54

(There are many other sources, tho: e.g. Lin R, Lin X & Zhang have been frequently referred to as a deputy leaders of Ho’s organisation on Chinese-language news sites; e.g. there’s even a Chinese government site describing a joint visit to Fujian by Lin R and Ho)

47/54

For his work, Ho has been rewarded. It seems his business empire is as healthy as ever, and spread across the world.

<< 满利通 >>

And he’s risen to become one of Europe’s foremost united front figures. More on that anon.

48/54

Why am I publishing this? Frankly, after a year, with things moving so slowly, no certainty & word that tabloids are onto it, I envisaged bad outcomes: weak reporting that kills the story & obscures the truth, most importantly the Ho connection, which no one is touching.

49/54

The potential costs of such an important story coming out in the wrong form are too great.

Other people more serious than I have to haul this iceberg up by its tip & demand answers.

I am happy to share my notes.

I will be clear about what I allege:

50/54

--> A group of individuals have been engaging frequently with the CCP’s United Front Work Department.

The group has a close historical association to a convicted fraudster linked by a British judge to serious organised crime.

51/54

This group gained access to the Conservative Party.

Last year, the group supported a cynical ‘anti-racism’ rally & one of its representatives spread violence on the streets of London.

Another of its reps plays a role in hosting an ‘overseas police station’ for the CCP.

52/54

This story needs urgent attention from the British media, politics & public (please RETWEET!!).

I urge Conservatives to put their embarrassment aside and give this network the attention it deserves, as they have already committed to doing.

https://twitter.com/MPIainDS/status/1585538729808199680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

53/54

I urge Labour supporters to recall that the CCP are imperialist ethnic cleansers and their proxies are demonstrably a threat to British Chinese people above all.

We have already seen the first pro-’reunification’ terrorist attack in the US.

theguardian.com/us-news/2022/m…

54/54

RETWEET both for my sake, because I don't feel that safe, and for the sake of the truth.

NB The inauguration attended by Scully was a classic UFWD event. It’s stunning that this has been known for so long and people just do nothing. We have been asleep.

https://twitter.com/McWLuke/status/1188987653108174848?t=RKPrSOOHaiN4hRz1kMExmQ&s=19

Brief historical context epilogue: the co-opting of shady businessmen into the united front is part of a global pattern & one of the sharp tips of the CCP’s foreign policy strategy. It began, at the latest, in Hong Kong in the ‘90s when the CCP cultivated ‘patriotic triads’.

This has always had a political side. I urge anyone interested in this to research the work of @scoopercooper who uncovered an incredible network linking UFWD, opioids, politics, casinos and the property market in W. Canada.

I know I am scratching the surface of whatever is happening in the UK. At one point, there was a constant stream of stories about triads in the UK. Then it stopped, I think even before the Met’s special Chinese unit dissolved ('golden era'/austerity medley..?)

@edwardlucas @Xiani_PCh @BeijingToBrit @Byron_Wan @chris_a_cash @MattCKnight @finnlau_cd @kamilkazani @RWeber_Basel @METhorley @juliapamilih @AMFChina @benedictrogers @aliciakearns @SKinnock @SarahOwen_ @MPIainDS @SnellArthur @RosieBlau @geoff_p_wade @alexjoske @jichanglulu

(Compare Met here to treatment of) @DrewPavlou

@MehmetTohti @ReasonablyRagin @MahmutRahima @angelagui_ @MarkSabah @Billbrowder @profserious @JimBethell @MaajidNawaz @larisamlbrown @helenwarrell @ggatehouse @mattwridley @james_rogers @PeterKGeoghegan @pumashen

@anderscorr @apmassaro3 @EmmaReillyTweet @BelleTimsit @NH4HumanRights @RollandNadege @HeathershawJ @Nus_Ghani @_JakubJanda @RyanFedasiuk @Scott_R_Singer @marceldirsus @AntoineBondaz @badiucao @kevincarrico @greybrow53 @niubi

@JAHeale @charliehparker @samwarmstrong @TaiwanPolicyCen @GraySergeant @MichaelPolakLaw @BenPBradshaw