The Human Rights Foundation’s Toolkit to Counter the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Transnational Repression (TNR) is a direct outcome of HRF’s 2026 Beyond Borders workshop, which brought together young activists from Uyghur, Hong Konger, Tibetan, Chinese, and Southern Mongolian diasporas and Taiwan.
Built from workshop discussions, participant reflections, facilitator guidance, and additional research, this toolkit attempts to fill a gap of practical resources for activists and diaspora communities navigating and responding to CCP-linked TNR.
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HRF classifies China as ruled by a fully authoritarian regime, with the CCP being the sole ruling party retaining absolute control over all branches of government. While freedoms are enshrined in the Constitution of the PRC, in practice, the CCP monitors all aspects of daily life to actively suppress any criticism of its rule and ideologies.
Under General Secretary and President Xi Jinping, the CCP’s desire for control — both domestically and beyond its borders — has tightened. Xi’s unprecedented continued tenure is largely characterized by repressive government policies to consolidate power under the guise of fostering harmony and state security. His political and ideological vision, dubbed the “Chinese Dream,” centers on making China a global powerhouse and revitalizing a homogenous nation-state. As a result, the regime has dramatically scaled up its repression of dissenting voices while exporting the party’s narrative overseas.
As the world’s leading perpetrator of TNR, Beijing almost indiscriminately targets diaspora members of ethnic-national groups7, religious groups, and Chinese dissidents, as their ethnic or religious identities and political existence itself are viewed as a threat to the CCP’s authority and ambitions.
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China’s operationalization of TNR involves numerous party-state organs, including public security and intelligence organs, United Front networks, and diplomatic outposts, such as embassies and consulates. In practice, the Chinese government conducts TNR through a wide ecosystem including student and business associations, overseas community organizations, as well as co-opted actors, including members of ethnic-national diasporas, foreign nationals, or institutions, that are incentivized, pressured, or coerced into assisting state surveillance, intimidation, or information-gathering. The blurred boundary between state and non-state actors makes clear attribution harder, as it may be carried out directly by state agencies or indirectly through intermediaries or through co-opted actors whose relationship to the state is harder to trace.
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