Was it a secret Chinese spy headquarters or a ping-pong parlor? New York Chinatown case goes to trial

The plain, glass-clad building stands six stories between a hotel, a spa and a coffee shop in the heart of Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood.

U.S. prosecutors say it was a secret Chinese spy outpost, with orders from Beijing to silence, harass and intimidate pro-democracy dissidents in the U.S., and a banner inside that said: “Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, New York USA.”

Lawyers for the man accused of running it, Lu Jianwang, contend it was a community center — and nothing more — where members of the Chinese diaspora could remotely renew their Chinese driver’s licenses amid COVID-19 pandemic-era travel restrictions and meet to play ping-pong and mahjong.

Lu, 64, went on trial Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court, more than three years after U.S. authorities arrested him at his Bronx home on charges he conspired to act as a foreign agent and destroyed evidence, including WeChat messages with his purported Chinese government handler.

Lu, a U.S. citizen for decades, “was living in New York City but he was working for the Chinese government,” prosecutor Lindsey Oken said in an opening statement.

Lu and a co-defendant who has pleaded guilty, C...