The number of Chinese asylum seekers globally increased 700 percent from 2012 to 2020, while Beijing has employed various means to force the “involuntary return” of overseas fugitives, a report released yesterday by nongovernmental organization Safeguard Defenders said.
The report, titled Involuntary Returns: China’s Covert Operation to Force ‘Fugitives’ Overseas Back Home, exposes three methods employed by China to forcibly secure the return of Chinese fugitives and other targets abroad: threatening the fugitives’ family members in China, employing police officers or agents to target them, and kidnapping them.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had successfully returned at least 10,000 people since its launch of Operation Fox Hunt in mid-2014, but it “might just be the tip of the iceberg,” it said.
The report examined many cases, including that of Chinese political cartoonist Jiang Yefei (姜野飛).
Although he had been granted official refugee status by the UN Commission on Human Rights, Jiang was handed over to Chinese agents in 2015 when released from detention in Bangkok by Thai immigration authorities, the report said, adding that he was then “smuggled back to China,” where he remains in prison.
The use of state-sanctioned kidnapping, called “irregular methods” in Chinese, involves covert cooperation with host country forces to trick the target into heading to a third country where they can be extradited or simply handed over to Chinese agents for deportation without due process, it said, citing the example of Chinese human rights defender Dong Guangping (董廣平).
With involuntary returns, the CCP’s message is that there is no escape, it said, adding that fleeing overseas does not save a person, as nowhere is safe.
Since Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) took power and launched an anti-corruption campaign, the number of people leaving China has risen sharply, and the number of Chinese asylum seekers grew 700 percent between 2012 and 2000, it said, citing UN data.
China’s extraterritorial policing targets two types of people: those suspected of economic crimes, or crimes related to their official duties, and critics of the CCP, such as human rights advocates and other activists, the report said.
“The line between the two can often be blurred, as China usually presents such returns, or other forms of transnational repression, as related to economic crimes,” it added.
The report also examined how China is trying to legalize its hunting of fugitives by highlighting China’s National Supervision Law, which took effect in 2018.
Article 52 of the law states that the National Supervisory Commission would strengthen the coordination and organization of anti-corruption efforts, such as the international pursuit of stolen assets and fleeing persons, as well as the prevention of escape, the report said.
The article even lists kidnapping and entrapment as “irregular measures” to be used on occasion, which seems to have encouraged Chinese officials to adopt such measures, while this is unheard of in other countries, Safeguard Defenders coordinator and researcher Chen Yen-ting (陳彥廷) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
By publishing the report, the organization aims to raise international awareness about Beijing’s operations against overseas fugitives with the intent of pressuring Beijing into stopping such practices, he said.
In addition to members of the media, the report has been forwarded to government agencies and lawmakers in various countries, as well as international organizations, Chen said.
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