The FBI have arrested two Chinese operatives on suspicion of running an illegal police station in downtown Manhattan to spy on and harass dissidents on US soil. 

US attorney for the Eastern District of New York confirmed that two men have been arrested in connection with the station in New York City's Chinatown neighborhood.

Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx, and Chen Jinping, 59, of Manhattan, were both arrested on Monday morning at their addresses in New York. 

They have been charged with conspiring to act as agents for the Chinese government, and are expected to appear in federal court in Brooklyn.

More than a dozen Chinese nationals have been charged by federal prosecutors with waging a campaign of surveillance and harassment against dissidents living in the States.  

Prosecutors say Jianwang tried to persuade a Chinese fugitive to return home, and continually 'harassed and threatened' the individual in 2018.

In 2022 China's government asked Jianwang to locate a pro-democracy Chinese activist living in California.

The pair admitted to the FBI that they deleted their communications with a Chinese government official after discovering they were under investigation.

Both are accused of running the station for a provincial branch of the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China (PRC). 

If convicted of conspiring to act as agents of the PRC, the defendants face a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

An obstruction of justice charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.