China is targeting citizens studying abroad for their political activism, rights group Amnesty International said yesterday, with some students reporting harassment of family members back home.
China does not tolerate political dissent and has used sophisticated tech tools and intimidation to crack down on domestic protesters and activists.
Moreover, Beijing’s curbs on political activism are increasingly expanding abroad in the form of “transnational repression,” Amnesty International said in a report, citing interviews with dozens of students in eight European and North American countries.
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Overseas students reported that family members in China received threats after they attended events abroad, including commemorations of the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the group said.
“Threats made to family members in mainland China included to revoke their passports, get them fired from their jobs, prevent them from receiving promotions and retirement benefits, or even limiting their physical freedom,” it said.
Students also said they had been blocked from posting and surveilled on Chinese social apps — often the only way to communicate with family members due to Beijing’s Internet firewall.
One student told Amnesty International that police showed his parents “transcripts of his online WeChat conversations with family members.”
Students said that they self-censored during classes and social interactions, and complained of mental health problems caused by the feeling of pervasive surveillance, “ranging from stress and trauma to paranoia and depression.”
“I would really want to publish my thesis ... but I’m worried, so I chose not to,” one student told Amnesty.
Asked about the Amnesty report, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed it as “purely malicious smears.”
“Any objective media outlet would find that the vast majority of Chinese citizens living abroad feel proud of the motherland’s development and strength,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) said.
It has previously rejected claims that it targets citizens living abroad, insisting that it respects other countries’ sovereignty and that any policing operations are conducted in accordance with the law.
A report last year by US research group Freedom House found that China was responsible for hundreds of cases of “transnational repression” since 2014, including attempts to pressure other nations to forcibly return members of the Uighur minority.
Amnesty International yesterday said that Beijing’s targeting of students has “engendered a ‘climate of fear’ on university campuses across Western Europe and North America, negatively impacting upon students’ human rights.”
“The impact of China’s transnational repression poses a serious threat to the free exchange of ideas that is at the heart of academic freedom,” Amnesty International’s China director Sarah Brooks said.
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