An estate agency in London has denied its premises is being used as a secret overseas Chinese police station following a report naming the firm in The Times.
It is alleged that without notifying the authorities or declaring their existence China has opened more than 50 unofficial police “offices” globally, with most of them in Europe, to clamp down on its own dissidents.
Hunter Realty in Hendon was one of a number of businesses named by the newspaper in connection with a report compiled by a civil liberties group that claims the Chinese Communist Party has established a global network of undeclared police hubs used to silence dissenters and force them to return home.
According to The Times report, researchers from Safeguard Defenders, a Madrid-based human rights organisation, had identified possible outposts in London and Glasgow after their addresses were published by Chinese police agencies.
One of the addresses seen by The Times was that of Hunter Realty but a woman working at the agency told Property Industry Eye: “We don’t know anything about that and like we told The Times, that is fraud information.”
The worker added that the agency wasn’t concerned about a detrimental effect on business from being named in the report.
“We’ve done nothing wrong so why would we worry about it?” she said. “I don’t think people will pay attention to it. If they’re looking for property they just call about the property.
“The only interest in the story is from the media but we’ve done nothing wrong so we don’t worry.”
Well… that’s one way to get free advertising.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
As the phrase goes, “They would say that, wouldn’t they”.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register