Transnational repression is a type of political repression conducted by a state outside its borders. It often involves targeting political dissidents or critical members of diaspora communities abroad and can take the forms of assassinations and/or enforced disappearances of citizens, among others. [1] [2] [3] Freedom House has documented its rise worldwide in recent years, prompting response from agencies such as the FBI. [4] [5]
International relations scholar Laurie Brand asserts that autocracies face specific challenges and opportunities in the international sphere that affect authoritarian practices. Specifically, the rise of transnationalism and practices that transcend national borders have led autocracies to develop strategies aiming to manage their citizens' migration. [6] According to political scientist Gerasimos Tsourapas, global autocracies engage in complex strategies of transnational repression, legitimation, and co-optation as well as cooperation with non-state actors. [7]
Sociologist Dana M. Moss has argued for a typology of transnational repression, [8] as described below:
Lethal retribution | The actual or attempted assassinations of dissidents abroad by regime agents or proxies. |
Threats | Verbal or written warnings directed to members of the diaspora, including the summoning of individuals by regime officials to their embassies for this purpose. |
Surveillance | The gathering and sending of information about co-nationals to the state security apparatus by informant networks composed of regime agents, loyalists, and coerced individuals. |
Exile | The direct and indirect banishment of dissidents from the home country, including when the threat of physical confinement and harm prevents activists from returning. |
Withdrawing scholarships | The rescinding of students’ state benefits for refusing to participate in regime-mandated actions or organizations abroad. |
Proxy punishment | The harassment, physical confinement, and/or bodily harm of relatives in the home-country as a means of information-gathering and retribution against dissidents abroad. |
According to Freedom House, the most prolific actors involved in transnational repression in 2022 were the governments of Pakistan, China, Turkey, Russia, Egypt, and Tajikistan. [9] Other nations of concern included Iran, India, Rwanda, and Saudi Arabia. [10] A 2024 Human Rights Watch report documented 75 cases between 2009 and 2024 committed by over two dozen governments. [11] There are also other views of accusing some democratic countries have similar practices. [12]
A 2022 Center for American Progress reported that some of the most notable transnational repression efforts of the Chinese government, such as the Causeway Bay Books disappearances, have been coordinated by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS). The report called for initiatives to better understand the MPS' activities overseas. [13] In July 2023, the United States Department of State labeled the Hong Kong Police Force's bounties on eight prominent dissidents living abroad as an instance of "transnational repression efforts." [14] [15]
In April 2023, the United States Department of Justice indicted Chinese operatives with crimes related to a transnational repression campaign utilizing a Chinese police overseas service station in Manhattan. [16] [17] Following the indictments, the FBI described seeing an "inflection point in the tactics and tools and the level of risk and the level of threat" in transnational repression. [18]
In March 2022, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken characterized the Chinese government's attempts to silence Uyghur activists outside its borders as part of a campaign of transnational repression. [19] [20] A 2023 report published by the University of Sheffield called for increased use of Magnitsky legislation in response to the transnational repression of the Uyghur diaspora. [21]
In 2023, the Index on Censorship has referred to the Chinese government's attempts to censor artist Badiucao's overseas exhibitions as an example of transnational repression. [22]
A report by Mohamed Soltan's nonprofit Freedom Initiative stated that Egypt has become "... more innovative and emboldened" in carrying out acts of transnational repression. [23]
In 2023, the Sikh Coalition wrote to the United States government to warn about Indian transnational repression and rising Hindu nationalist threats in the US in the aftermath of the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen. [24] The Canadian government is investigating what it said were 'credible allegations of a potential link' to the Indian government. [25]
A report by Mohamed Soltan's nonprofit Freedom Initiative stated that Saudi Arabia has become "... more innovative and emboldened" in carrying out acts of transnational repression. [23]
In June 2023, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe stated that Turkey's failure to ratify Sweden's NATO membership bid is part of its campaign of transnational repression. [26] [27]
During a June 2022 briefing by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, Wang Wenbin accused the US and UK of cooperating in transnational repression of Julian Assange. [28]
In December 2021, the Transnational Repression Accountability and Prevention (TRAP) Act became law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022. [29] The law aims to combat abuse of Interpol notices. [30] [31]
In March 2023, a bipartisan group of United States senators introduced the Transnational Repression Policy Act. [32] [33] The proposed law would mandate that the intelligence community identify and share information about perpetrators of transnational repression in the United States. [34] In October 2023, the Government Accountability Office reported that the US does not have adequate laws to combat acts of transnational repression. [35]
Saudi Arabia is the fourth largest state in the Arab world, with a reported population of 36,408,818 as of 2022. 41.6% of inhabitants are immigrants. Saudi Arabia has experienced a population explosion in the last 40 years, and continues to grow at a rate of 1.62% per year.
The United Front Work Department is a department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tasked with "united front work". It gathers intelligence on, manages relations with, and attempts to gain influence over elite individuals and organizations inside and outside mainland China, including in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and in other countries.
Islam has been practiced in China since the 7th century CE. There are an estimated 17–25 million Muslims in China, less than 2 percent of the total population. Though Hui Muslims are the most numerous group, the greatest concentration of Muslims reside in northwestern China's Xinjiang autonomous region, which contains a significant Uyghur population. Lesser yet significant populations reside in the regions of Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai. Of China's 55 officially recognized minority peoples, ten of these groups are predominantly Sunni Muslim.
Starting in 2002, the American government detained 22 Uyghurs in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp. The last 3 Uyghur detainees, Yusef Abbas, Hajiakbar Abdulghupur and Saidullah Khali, were released from Guantanamo on December 29, 2013, and later transferred to Slovakia.
The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council (OCAO) is an external name of the United Front Work Department (UFWD) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Prior to 2018, OCAO was an administrative office under the State Council of the People's Republic of China responsible for liaising with and influencing overseas Chinese as part of its united front efforts. Due to the 2018 party and government reform in China, OCAO was merged into the UFWD, with its functions being taken up by the department. Under the arrangement "one institution with two names", UFWD reserves the name "Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council", generally used when dealing in public statements and dealing with the outside world.
The Egyptian diaspora consists of citizens of Egypt abroad sharing a common culture and Egyptian Arabic dialects. The phenomenon of Egyptians emigrating from Egypt was rare until Gamal Abdel Nasser came to power after overthrowing the monarchy in 1952. Before then, Cleland's 1936 declaration remained valid, that "Egyptians have the reputation of preferring their own soil. Few ever leave except to study or travel; and they always return... Egyptians do not emigrate".
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is an international organization of exiled Uyghur groups that claims to "represent the collective interest of the Uyghur people" both inside and outside of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. The World Uyghur Congress claims to be a nonviolent and peaceful movement that opposes what it considers to be the Chinese "occupation" of 'East Turkestan' and advocates rejection of totalitarianism, religious intolerance and terrorism as an instrument of policy. It has been called the "largest representative body of Uyghurs around the world" and uses more moderate methods of human rights advocacy to influence the Chinese government within the international community in contrast to more radical Uyghur organizations.
Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd., often shortened to Hikvision, is a Chinese state-owned manufacturer and supplier of video surveillance equipment for civilian and military purposes, headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Due to its alleged involvement in mass surveillance of Uyghurs, the Xinjiang internment camps, and national security concerns, the company has been placed under sanctions from the U.S. and European governments.
Antireligious campaigns in China are a series of policies and practices taken as part of the Chinese Communist Party's official promotion of state atheism, coupled with its persecution of people with spiritual or religious beliefs, in the People's Republic of China. Antireligious campaigns were launched in 1949, after the Chinese Communist Revolution, and they continue to be waged against Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, and members of other religious communities in China.
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Gerasimos Tsourapas is a Professor of International Relations at the University of Glasgow. He currently serves as the Chair of the Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Section of the International Studies Association and is the Editor-in-Chief of Migration Studies. His main areas of research and teaching are the politics of migrants, refugees, and diasporas, with particular expertise on cross-border mobility across the Global South.
Transnational repression by China refers to efforts by the Chinese government to exert control and silence dissent beyond its national borders. This phenomenon targets groups and individuals perceived as threats or critics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The methods include digital surveillance, physical intimidation, coercion, and misuse of international legal systems.
Transnational repression by Russia refers to efforts by the Russian government to control its diaspora and exiles. This phenomenon targets former insiders and individuals perceived as threats to the government's security. The methods include assassination, manipulation of the Interpol notice system, and surveillance. Ramzan Kadyrov, head of Russia's Chechen Republic, conducts a total repression campaign against Chechen exiles.
汪文斌称,英国在配合美国逮捕引渡阿桑奇方面可谓不遗余力,迅速推进相关程序,充分显示英方维系同美特殊关系的忠诚,以及美英配合对特定人士跨国镇压的事实。