On 4 June, the 36th anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre, ARTICLE 19 launched a new report documenting transnational repression tactics increasingly deployed by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to target and silence protesters abroad.
On 4 June 1989, PLA soldiers advanced into Tiananmen Square massacring the pro-democracy protest movement that had been swelling around the country for months. Thirty-six years later, China is now waging a global campaign of transnational repression against protesters critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Overseas Chinese dissidents, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, and other diaspora activists and allies know all too well the cost of protesting against China’s authoritarianism.
Going Global: China’s transnational repression of protesters worldwide draws on original interviews with 29 representatives of diaspora communities, and offers the most comprehensive narrative yet of the myriad of tactics and complex network of coordinated actors involved in China’s transnational repression.
Michael Caster, Head of ARTICLE 19’s Global China Programme, 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. 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.
“Public acts of physical violence to online intimidation, the targeting of family members, especially against high-profile protest leaders, have a knock on effect on human rights movements. The CCP employs its tactics to intimidate people from participating in protest, weakening global support and solidarity for human rights in China and around the world. Transnational repression silences dissent and chills freedom of expression.”
In a webinar accompanying the report launch, moderated by Liu I-Chen, Asia Programme Officer at ARTICLE 19, an expert panel explored how the CCP employs its tactics to intimidate people away from protest, seeking to weaken support for human rights in China and around the world. From physical threats and digital transnational repression, the collective punishment of families in China, and the distinct psychosocial and gender dynamics, transnational repression against protesters abroad is complex. The panel sought to break down the complexity and shed light on the growing trend.
Without concrete measures from host countries and the international community, including technology companies, transnational repression will continue to threaten voices that are critical of China’s human rights abuses engaged in protest around the world.