A new report released by the U.S. NGO Freedom House on April 4 shows that the Chinese Communist Party‘s transnational crackdown is growing. Schematic
A new report released by the U.S. NGO Freedom House shows that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has attacked, intimidated, and coerced people from all walks of Life who have fled overseas, including those who have fled abroad, with violence that transcends national borders, involving 3.5 million people worldwide. This transnational repression is growing.
On February 4, Freedom House released a report entitled “Special Report: Transnational Repression – from China and Elsewhere – a Growing Threat to Global Democracy,” saying Human rights activists, dissidents and their families have been subjected to violence and intimidation by authoritarian regimes at Home, and they had hoped to be spared by fleeing abroad, but the reality is that they are facing this pattern of violence and intimidation on a global scale.
The report describes the CCP’s “transnational crackdown” on those fleeing abroad as “the most complex,” “most global,” and “most comprehensive” in the world. campaign” against those who have fled abroad. The campaign has used “everything” from extradition to cooperation with foreign governments to apprehend and deport exiles, from movement control to cyber threats, spyware and remote threats enforced by proxy.
Uighur, Tibetan, and Falun Gong practitioners, as well as dissidents, have long faced systematic transnational repression by the CCP abroad, the report said. The operation has escalated significantly since 2014. But the groups targeted in the new crackdown campaign within China have been added to its extended list of international crackdowns.
The report notes that the targets of CCP attacks have expanded from Uighurs, Tibetans and Falun Gong practitioners in the past to Inner Mongolians and Hong Kongers overseas. There has also been a marked increase in the technological content of the attacks, with the CCP sending messages through the WeChat platform and monitoring and controlling the content of discussions among overseas Chinese through its social and financial services functions.
In recent years, Xi-style anti-corruption has expanded overseas, bringing thousands of former CCP officials living abroad under its crackdown and control on charges such as embezzlement of public funds.
The report estimates that since 2014, some 3.5 million people worldwide have been affected by direct attacks or intimidation and coercion by the CCP. At least 608 of these incidents of transnational repression include assassinations, kidnappings, beatings, detentions and illegal deportations. These tactics are spreading in communities around the world.
The CCP’s aggressive extraterritorial policy even extends in some cases to Chinese with other nationalities. One of the most famous cases is that of Gui Minhai, a Swedish Chinese bookseller who was kidnapped and taken to China in October 2015 for selling books containing information about Xi Jinping in Hong Kong.
The report said Gui Minhai’s case raises questions about whether the Chinese Communist Party sees itself as a jurisdictional authority over all people of Chinese descent, regardless of where those Chinese are located, rather than seeing itself as a country bound by international law and diplomatic protocols.
The report also mentions that at least 31 countries of origin have committed such acts against victims in 79 host countries, resulting in 160 unique matches between countries of origin and host countries. Victims have also been hit in the United States, the United Kingdom and other established democracies.
“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 constant threats that limit their ability to speak out freely. Ending transnational repression is critical to protecting democracy and reducing the impact of authoritarianism.
“Freedom House has been sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party for interfering in the internal affairs of the CCP for exposing its record of human rights abuses. Last August, the Communist Party imposed sanctions on 11 Americans, including Abramowitz, to punish them for their opposition to the Communist Party’s implementation of the “Hong Kong State Security Law.
But Abramowitz has not been deterred, and Freedom House continues to list the CCP as a primary target for observation. In its latest report, Freedom House said, “These shocking and high-profile cases are just the tip of a 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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