Amnesty accuses China of targeting students abroad
China is targeting its citizens studying abroad for their political activism, rights group Amnesty International said on Monday, 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.
And 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. Overseas students reported that family members in China received threats after they attended events abroad, including commemorations of the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, according to the group.
Several threats
“Threats made to family members in mainland China included to revoke their passports, get them red from their jobs, prevent them from receiving promotions and retirement benets, or even limiting their physical freedom,” it said. Students also said they had been surveilled and blocked from posting on Chinese social apps — often the only way to communicate with family members due to Beijing’s Internet rewall.
One student told Amnesty International that police showed his parents “transcripts of his online WeChat conversations with family members”.
Asked about the Amnesty report on Monday, Beijing’s Foreign Ministry dismissed it as “purely malicious smears”.
“Any objective media outlet would nd that the vast majority of Chinese citizens living abroad feel proud of the motherland’s development and strength,” spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.
Overseas students told the group that their family members received threats after they attended political events