crosspostato da: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/36696301

A new report traces how China’s targeting of protesters has evolved since the Tiananmen Square massacre into part of a sophisticated transnational repression campaign using harassment, violence and surveillance.

The report by ARTICLE 19 [opens pdf], an organization that defends freedom of expression worldwide, bolsters ICIJ’s findings in China Targets, a cross-border investigation exposing the sprawling scope and terrifying tactics of Beijing’s campaign to silence its critics living overseas.

As part of the investigation, ICIJ outlined a pattern of activist detentions by local police and governments ahead of visits by President Xi Jinping. During at least seven of Xi’s 31 international trips between 2019 and 2024, local law enforcement infringed on dozens of protesters’ rights in order to shield the Chinese president from dissent, detaining or arresting activists, often for spurious reasons.

The ARTICLE 19 report goes further, interviewing 29 members of diaspora communities, including some also identified by ICIJ, to describe incidents at protests dating as far back as 2011 involving activists from mainland China, including ethnic minorities from the northwest Xinjiang region and Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Inner Mongolia.

“This report points to a campaign of international harassment and intimidation designed with one purpose: to systematically stifle global protest movements that seek to defend human rights in China,” ARTICLE 19 said in the report.

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The report also highlighted the psychological toll that acts of transnational repression can take on dissidents, many of whom are already isolated as members of diaspora communities. Beyond immediate verbal and physical attacks, the protracted threat of surveillance can lead to self-censorship and burnout, the report said.

“Overseas Chinese dissidents, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, and other diaspora activists know all too well the cost of protesting against human rights violations in China: its repression knows no borders,” Michael Caster, who runs ARTICLE 19’s Global China Programme, said in a statement. “And still, authorities in host countries have yet to fully grasp the dangers of transnational repression — and so support to those targeted is often severely lacking.”

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