Two individuals have been arrested by the FBI for their alleged role in operating an illegal police station in New York City for the Chinese government. According to the FBI, there are over 100 similar Chinese police outposts worldwide that harass and threaten, among other things, Chinese nationals residing abroad that they consider "wanted." The Chinese embassy says these centers help Chinese with working and traveling abroad, and that accusations they were police outposts were false. However, the New York Times published an article in January quoting Chinese state media sources as describing the centers specifically as policing facilities operating independently of local authorities. Last fall, FBI counterintelligence agents searched the East Broadway facility in Chinatown. The case against the suspects, Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping, outlined in three separate complaints filed in New York and Washington, is the first time the FBI has brought criminal charges against suspects believed to have operated one of these outposts.