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NEW YORK — <\/span>A man accused of running a secret Chinese spy outpost<\/a> in New York City was convicted Wednesday of acting as an illegal foreign agent and destroying text messages from a Chinese government handler.<\/p>\n Lu Jianwang, 64, was acquitted of a related conspiracy charge in a case that pitted U.S. concerns about China’s crackdown on pro-democracy dissidents against the defense\u2019s contention that prosecutors twisted a well-meaning Chinese American community leader\u2019s bureaucratic misstep to put him in prison.<\/p>\n Lu spoke to supporters as he left Brooklyn federal court but declined to answer questions from reporters. His lawyer, John Carman, said federal prosecutors dressed up a mundane paperwork case with specious suggestions that Lu was involved in spying and intelligence gathering.<\/p>\n Lu, who also goes by Harry Lu, remains free on bail pending sentencing, which has not been scheduled.<\/p>\n According to federal prosecutors, Lu and a co-defendant, Chen Jinping, established the outpost in Manhattan\u2019s Chinatown neighborhood in 2022 after Lu attended a ceremony in his native Fujian province where China\u2019s Ministry of Public Security announced it was opening 30 such secret police stations around the world.<\/p>\n China\u2019s communist government uses the outposts to monitor people it views as enemies of its interests. During the trial, jurors were shown a large banner from the Chinatown location that said: \u201cFuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, New York USA.\u201d<\/p>\n