Countering China’s Global Transnational Repression Campaign
Amidst its systemic attempt to rewrite global norms, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has engaged in a campaign of transnational repression to harass diaspora communities and regime critics living around the world, specifically targeting Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, Tibetans, and others from groups that have been suppressed domestically. PRC agents – including those linked to the Ministry of State Security and provincial police forces – have engaged in forced rendition of asylum seekers, street assaults, digital surveillance, online harassment, and the coercion and intimidation of the family and friends of dissidents and political prisoners in the United States and globally. The PRC’s transnational repression campaign is “the most sophisticated, comprehensive, and far-reaching” in the world according to Freedom House.
This hearing will highlight the PRC’s use of transnational repression. Witnesses will discuss the diverse tactics used by the PRC, discuss specific cases of transnational repression and its effects on diaspora and dissident communities in the United States, Canada and worldwide, and offer recommendations for further congressional and administrative action and transatlantic cooperation.
The hearing can be viewed on the CECC’s YouTube Channel.
Hearing Transcript [PDF]
Opening Statements
Representative Christopher Smith, Chair
[Statement]
Senator Jeff Merkley, Cochair
[Statement]
Representative James P. McGovern, Commissioner
[Statement]
Senator Dan Sullivan, Commissioner
[Statement]
Uzra Zeya, Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, and Commissioner
[Statement]
Witnesses
Panel 1
Michael Chong, Member of Canadian Parliament, Wellington-Halton Hills
[Testimony]
Panel 2
Yana Gorokhovskaia, Research Director for Strategy and Design, Freedom House
[Testimony]
Laura Harth, Campaign Director, Safeguard Defenders
[Testimony]
Rushan Abbas, Founder and Executive Director, Campaign for Uyghurs
[Testimony]