National security expert warns there's likely more Chinese influence stations than what's been discovered

As the FBI and watchdog groups raise red flags around communist China influence centers based across America, one national security expert sounded alarms that the number of undercover police stations is likely to rise.

"I suspect that number of six is actually low, that all these community centers have been dual-use because the Communist Party ethnically targets its own citizens and friends and family," America First Policy Institute senior fellow Steve Yates said on "Mornings with Maria" Monday. "They are the biggest racists in going after people to try to make them work for their politics."

Following the arrest of two New York City residents who were allegedly running secret "police stations" on behalf of Beijing, the New York Post reported last week that there are at least six more stations on U.S. soil in places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Nebraska and Minnesota, according to a Madrid-based human rights group.

The influence centers have reportedly also been used to spy on pro-democracy Chinese nationals. Members of the NYC group are accused of conspiracy to transmit interstate threats and conspiracy to commit interstate harassment.

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"More troubling, though, is the fact that the secret police station appears to have had a more sinister use on at least one occasion," U.S. attorney Breon Peace previously said. "An official with the Chinese National Police directed one of the defendants – a U.S. citizen who worked at the secret police station – to help locate a pro-democracy activist of Chinese descent living in California. In other words, the Chinese national police appear to have been using the station to track a U.S. resident on U.S. soil."

Yates indicated that the overseas police stations are China’s way of using political warfare and seeking foreign policy advantage.

"That's what China does under the communist parties, what they're doing in the Sudan, but also in the United States. It's outrageous that these influence operations have been able to go on undetected and undeterred within our own country," the senior fellow said.

Gatestone Institute senior fellow Gordon Chang also told host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that the Chinese centers have been running in America "for decades."

"Chinese consular officials, ministry of state security agents [are] openly violating our sovereignty, committing crimes and getting away with it. So, of course, they thought they could open up fixed locations," Chang said. "We have got to stop this because, look, spy balloons, police stations, fentanyl – the Chinese think that they can do whatever they want in our territory. And if we don't stop them now, this is going to get out of control."

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While the Biden White House has assured the public that U.S. relations with China are in good standing, Yates criticized the president for his lack of addressing "a whole host of things that undermine the American way of life."

"Unfortunately for the Biden administration, there's this trail of defeats that sort of begins with the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan. The seeds were sown before that, all the way to this situation in Sudan, and unfortunately, in our homeland. It's a bad look," Yates said. "But if you don't care about the truth, then you can put anyone up in front of a podium to spin, then this is what we get."

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Fox News’ Michael Lee, Greg Norman and Marta Dhanis contributed to this report.