Most sophisticated repression of minorities conducted by China abroad: Report

New Delhi, Feb 04: The most sophisticated and comprehensive campaign of transnational repression, targeting religious minorities like Uighurs, political dissidents and former Communist party members who have fled abroad is done by China, a new report has said.

The Freedom House report said that the Chinese government's transnational repression is is unparalleled. Freedom House is a US government funded and Washington based advocacy group for democracy and human rights.

The report said that "members of ethnic and religious minorities, former insiders of the Chinese Communist Party, human rights defenders, and increasingly, people from Hong Kong-all have been subjected to serious forms of transnational repression, including assassination attempts and renditions."

The report pointed out to the Chinese authorities' 2015 kidnapping of Gui Minhai, a Swedish citizenship, who was later forced to renounce his citizenship while in Chinese custody. This was a striking example of Beijing's disregard for nationality, sovereignty and human rights, the report said.

It may be recalled that Beijing had sanctioned Freedom House in 2019 over what it called efforts to interfere in its internal affairs. "These egregious and high-profile cases are only the tip of the iceberg of a much broader system of surveillance, harassment, and intimidation that leaves many overseas Chinese and exile minorities feeling that the CCP is watching them and constraining their ability to exercise basic rights even when living in a foreign democracy," Freedom House also said.