China stretches its reach to silence online activists abroad

THE call was supposed to be from her father. But when a Chinese activist who fled her country turned on the video chat she was confronted by a police officer.

For 90 minutes, the uniformed officer – who had hauled her father into the station and used his phone to ring – berated her for mocking Communist Party leader Xi Jinping on Twitter, demanded she delete the account, and goaded her to give up the password.

At one point, he leaned in: “I’m telling you the truth. Even though you are over there [in Australia], you are still subject to the laws of China, and under our jurisdiction.”

While the dissident living in Australia who uses the pseudonym Horror Zoo hadn’t revealed her real identity online, Chinese authorities managed to trace her social media activity to figure out who her parents were. Police have been harassing them weekly since April in an attempt to get her to stop criticising Mr Xi online.

The remarkable incident demonstrates the increasingly long arm of the Chinese state, and the lengths Beijing is willing to go to snuff out dissent and control the narrative at a time hawkish sentiments against it are building.

As diplomatic spats pile up between China and Western nations – including the UK, US, Australia, Canada, India and more – Beijing has taken a more aggressive approach.

The Chinese “haven’t experienced pressure this intense from foreign governments for several years, if not decades,” said Kitty Smyth, founder of Jingpinou, a UK consultancy specialising in China.

Over the last week, as the US placed sanctions against Chinese officials over a range of human rights violations, and the UK moved to ban Huawei, Beijing’s tone became increasingly shrill.

“The Chinese have never lost control in public like that before,” said Ms Smyth. Some experts say this approach is backfiring, instead alienating potential allies.

The activist has cut communications with her family in hopes the police stop harassing them. But even still, she says, “I will never stop speaking out.”