cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49702854
Though highly publicized cases of police stations, such as those in the UK, have resulted in their closure after COVID-19, some Balkan states are trending in the opposite direction. By doing so, they reveal a permissive attitude that endorses China’s incursion into their domestic security policy, in exchange for receiving means to renew their legitimacy, including powerful technology, and infrastructure investments.
[…]
NGOs such as the Madrid-based Safeguard Defenders, which tracks human rights violations and crackdowns on activists by Chinese authorities, through several investigations unearthed the presence of “at least 54 overseas police service centers.” At these centers, including one located in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, 230,000 claimed “suspects of fraud” were “persuaded to return” to China.
[…]
An unnamed Chinese official backed up the reports on secretive police stations by citing difficulties with European nations extraditing people to China and thus circumventing bilateral cooperation agreements. Previous revelations found “persuasion” to consist of three approaches to securing suspects, each with varying degrees of severity:
- harassing or persecuting family members at home,
- face-to-face confrontation with the target, and
- kidnapping – both with and without the suspects’ cooperation.
Similarly, in October 2024, the World Uyghur Congress, held in Sarajevo, had to ramp up security after organizers and attendees reported receiving threats and intimidation from Chinese nationals who were seen monitoring the event. China has been “arbitrarily detaining” Uyghurs in the country’s Xinjiang region because of fears of destabilizing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) control. Several countries, including the US have referred to the treatment as genocide.
[…]
Under Xi Jinping, China has worked to reinforce influence on foreign soil, and now operates under the “guide, buy, and coerce” model, which comprises strategies such as using diaspora communities as agents and encouraging those who are favorable to the government to become politically engaged. Campaigns of transnational repression are frequent, with dissidents, including students studying abroad, being targeted for their criticism of China’s government. During several of Xi’s foreign trips, protestors were arrested and detained with questionable legal justification for displaying signs supportive of Tibetan and Taiwanese independence. In the cases of France and Serbia, when activists probed officers over their detention, they were told that they were acting under orders from their superiors.
[…]
The adoption of surveillance technology has stretched the farthest in Bosnia and Serbia, where dozens of municipalities have implemented pedestrian and traffic monitoring systems in addition to video cameras […] China has ignored the scrutiny that Aleksandar Vučić’s government has been under following the train station canopy collapse in Novi Sad – constructed as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – that took the lives of 16 people last year. As a response to massive protests following this tragedy, the government has implemented Chinese-made surveillance devices with at least 1000 known cameras in the capital, while intending to expand capacity by 3500 additional cameras, as suggested by a leaked purchase order with tech giant, Huawei. During Vučić’s tenure, Serbia has sought to extensively monitor protestors, including having plainclothes officers use high-tech cellphones to film individuals with the aim of cataloging “activists and other citizens who are critically aligned against the government.”
[…]
The EU might explore adjusting its accession strategy to include mitigative efforts regarding Chinese partnerships in the Western Balkans. However, limiting the role of Beijing is only one part of the task. The other consists of unearthing what enticements can be offered to prospective EU members to ensure their efforts are focused on long-term integration and not consolidating control within their own borders.
[Edit to insert archived link.]