The Chinese government has launched one of the “world’s most complex,” “most global,” and “most comprehensive” “transnational crackdowns” against religious minorities who have fled overseas, such as Uighurs, political dissidents, and former Chinese Communist Party officials. “transnational crackdown” in the world.
The campaign uses “everything” from extradition to cooperation with foreign governments to arrest and deport exiles, from movement control to cyber threats, spyware, and remote threats enforced by proxy.
This is what a special report released Thursday (Feb. 4) by the U.S. NGO Freedom House describes as the Chinese Communist Party’s pursuit of hostile targets abroad. The report, titled “Special Report: Transnational Repression – from China and Elsewhere – a Growing Threat to Global Democracy,” says the report.
The report says there have been 214 “direct physical attacks” involving China since 2014, far more than any other country.
In addition to China, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran are among the countries covered in the report that have engaged in transnational persecution.
The report said that the targets of CCP attacks have expanded significantly over the past year, from Uighurs, Tibetans and Falun Gong practitioners in the past to Inner Mongolians and Hong Kongers overseas. The attacks have also become significantly more technical, with Chinese authorities sending messages through the WeChat platform to monitor and control the content of discussions among Chinese nationals through its social and financial services features.
In recent years, Xi-style anti-corruption has expanded overseas, bringing thousands of former Chinese officials living abroad under its crackdown and control on charges such as embezzlement of public funds.
The report estimates that around 3.5 million people worldwide have been affected by direct attacks or intimidation and coercion by the Chinese Communist Party.
“The scale and violence of these attacks underscore the dangers people face even when fleeing repression in their Home countries,” said Michael J. Abramowitz, president of Freedom House. “Exiles around the world describe surveillance, attacks, and even kidnappings and assassinations as a constant threat.”
Abramowitz stressed that these threats limit their ability to speak out freely.
China’s foreign ministry has not yet responded to the report, but it has previously said the NGO views China through “tinted glasses.
In 2019, China announced that it had placed Freedom House on its sanctions list for “interfering in China’s internal affairs.” On August 10, 2020, China imposed sanctions on 11 Americans, including Abramowitz, to punish them for their opposition to the Communist Party’s national security laws in Hong Kong.
But Freedom House has not stopped short of listing China as a major target of its own watch. In this latest report, Freedom House says, “These shocking and high-profile cases are just the tip of the iceberg of a much broader system of surveillance, harassment, and intimidation that has left many overseas Chinese and exiled minorities feeling that the CCP is spying on them and limiting their ability to exercise even basic rights while living in foreign democracies.”
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