A Chinese secret police station in Quito, Ecuador appears to still be operating despite having been “shut down” in May 2024, several outlets reported this week.
Numerous reports in past years have denounced that the Chinese communist regime has set up dozens of illegal secret police stations around the world to persecute dissidents of the regime of dictator Xi Jinping and to conduct espionage on Chinese communities living abroad.
The Chinese regime established one such illegal police station in Quito, operating under the guise of a purported “travel agency” known as Andywei Travel, whose offices were located in a local hotel in northern Quito owned by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC). The illegal Chinese police office was allegedly “shut down” in May 2024 following an investigation presented by the local outlets Código Vidrio and Vistazo that revealed its existence.
On Thursday, both Código Vidrio and Vistazo released a new joint report denouncing that Chinese businessmen continue to carry out illegal espionage and surveillance operations in Quito from another location in the city.
The outlets, citing confidential documents, explained that a Chinese businessman identified as 41-year-old Wei Fuyan served as the legal representative of the “travel agency” where the “shut down” illegal Chinese police station had operated.
Wei was further identified in the reports as a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front, which coordinates the Party’s foreign influence and political warfare operations. The confidential documents revealed potential links between Wei and the Chinese regime’s efforts to conduct surveillance on the Chinese community in the South American nation. Wei also holds memberships in the Federation of Chinese Returning Overseas and the Ecuadorian Chinese Colony Confederation.
In addition to leading the Quito illegal station operations, both outlets revealed in their 2024 report that according to the “intelligence agencies of several countries,” Wei was being investigated for allegedly directing a smuggling network that brought Chinese nationals into the United States.
The outlets, citing Wei’s migratory records, explained that he traveled one time to the United States and three times to China in 2023. Both outlets reported that there are no records of Wei officially returning to Ecuador through airports or ports after his third 2023 trip to China in December of that year — stressing that “intelligence authorities do not rule out that he could have returned by land, through the Colombian border.”
While Andywei Travel’s offices were shut down in May 2024, the purported travel agency continues to be active despite lacking a formal office site. Financial records reviewed by both outlets revealed that, as of January, Wei and some of his collaborators continue to receive a basic monthly salary of $480.
Ecuadorian authorities launched a preliminary tax fraud probe into Wei in January 2024. Both outlets reported that local authorities are handling the probe under confidentiality. Sources consulted by both outlets claimed that Wei’s tax evasion probe was opened a year after a similar probe into Andywei Travel was abruptly closed “without apparent explanations.”
According to records from the Ecuadorian Superintendence of Companies cited by the outlets, Wei founded another company that is presently active where the “shut down” illegal police station allegedly had operated. In 2017, Wei founded a Quito-based consulting company that provides “business advisory services and imports” and presently has active bank accounts in Ecuador with a balance of more than $10,000.
Wei’s partner in the consulting firm, which “keeps its figures in the red,” was identified in the report as an unnamed 37-year-old Chinese citizen who also owns another tourism company founded in 2019 in partnership with another Chinese national that “does not report income or profits, only losses.”
Intelligence sources consulted by the outlets for the report suggested that Wei and the other two unnamed Chinese nationals would be the three heads of China’s espionage, surveillance, and other illegal operations in Ecuador.
Código Vidrio and Vistazo indicated in their joint report that Wei Fuyan has consolidated his influence within the Chinese migrant community in Latin America since 2016. Wei was appointed president of the Chinese Weekly in Ecuador and operated Chinese-language media aimed at his fellow countrymen. According to sources based in China consulted by the two outlets, “this would be part of an official strategy to maintain ideological control over the diasporas.”
The Chinese communist regime was able to accrue significant influence in Ecuador under the auspices of socialist former President Rafael Correa, a pro-China fugitive convicted felon who ruled Ecuador between 2007 and 2017. Under Correa, Ecuador signed thousands of contracts and became dependent on Chinese credit funds. In return, China gained significant control of Ecuador’s mines, oil, and other natural resources.
Fernando Villavicencio, a staunch anti-China Ecuadorian journalist assassinated in 2023 while running for president, denounced China’s growing influence throughout his career. In 2022, Villavicencio asserted that Ecuador had become a “colony of China” since 2007, the year Correa first took office. Correa had Villavicencio and two others sentenced to 18 months in prison for “insulting him” in 2014. Villavicencio avoided his sentence by seeking refuge with local indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
“Ecuador boasts majestic natural landscapes, rich resources, and varied products, its people are industrious and courageous,” Xi Jinping said during his official visit to Ecuador in 2016 under Correa. “This visit will achieve positive results and will extend a new solid bridge for cooperation between both countries.”
Both outlets stated that the Chinese embassy in Quito did not respond to their requests for an interview.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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