WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The United States is deeply concerned about the Chinese government setting up unauthorized 'police stations' in U.S. cities to possibly pursue influence operations, FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers on Thursday.
It also linked them to activities of China's United Front Work Department, a Communist Party body charged with spreading its influence and propaganda overseas.
We are aware of the existence of these stations," Wray told a U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, acknowledging but declining to detail the FBI's investigative work on the issue.
Wray, asked by Republican Senator Rick Scott if such stations violated U.S. law, said the FBI was "looking into the legal parameters."
Wray said the United States had made a number of indictments involving the Chinese government harassing, stalking, surveilling, and blackmailing people in the United States who disagreed with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.