*From Freedom House experts
The use of transnational repression—when governments reach across borders to silence dissent among diasporas and exiles—is spreading among like-minded authoritarian governments. According to research by Freedom House, the authoritarian regime in China is the world’s worst perpetrator of transnational repression.
Freedom House experts Yana Gorokhovskaia and Angeli Datt detail tactics used by the Chinese Communist Party to target individuals abroad and their far-reaching impact. They also explain policies and practices that democracies can use to protect exiles and diasporas from transnational repression.
All authoritarian governments fear dissent because it threatens their grip on power. At home and, increasingly, beyond their borders, many autocrats have found ways to intimidate, harass, and harm those who criticize them or speak out for basic freedoms. But the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is unique in the scale and ambition of its efforts, attempting to exert control over all overseas Chinese citizens and members of diaspora communities – a fact that was recently recognized by a Canadian court.
According to Freedom House’s research, the authoritarian regime in China conducts the world’s most sophisticated, comprehensive, and far-reaching campaign of transnational repression. It is responsible for 229 of the 735 incidents of physical transnational repression recorded between 2014 and 2021, targeting people on every inhabited continent and in at least 36 countries.
Mirroring the patterns of its repression at home, the CCP targets individual dissidents, their family members, and entire ethnic, religious, or social groups. Those at risk include former student activists from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Hong Kongers, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Mongolians, Falun Gong practitioners, human rights activists, journalists, former state employees, and others who criticize the regime.
In February, U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu had to compete in the Beijing Winter Olympics under escort and with security assurances after she and her father, a political refugee and human rights activist, were targeted in a transnational repression scheme that was foiled by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
