No Chinese 'service stations' authorized in Italy

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 7 - No Chinese 'servive stations helping their citizens renew their driving licenses or passports have been authorised in Italy, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Wednesday.
    The Guardian reported earlier this week that Italy contained 11 of 100 "police stations" operated by Beijing worldwide to mete out justice and pressure dissidents to return home, prompting China to say they were just offices performing services such as license and passport renewals.
    The British daily said that the "stations" were based in Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence, Bolzano and Prato, a town near Florence that hosts the largest Chinese community in Italy, as well as Sicily.
    Piantedosi told question time in the House Wednesday: "At the Department of department of Public Security there is no authorisation for the the activity" of Chinese centres for the processing of paperwork in Italy and "I assure that the police forces, along with intelligence, will monitor with the utmost attention, I will follow it personally and I do not exclude sanctioning measures in case of any illegality found'. (ANSA).