Transnational repression

Transnational repression is a type of political repression conducted by an authoritarian state outside its borders. It often involves targeting political dissidents or critical members of diaspora communities abroad.[1][2]

Freedom House and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have detailed transnational repression by authoritarian states against dissident and diaspora communities abroad.[3][4] A range of states engage in these actions, which have included assassinations and/or forced disappearances of citizens abroad. In 2021, Freedom House noted that acts of transnational repression are rising across the world.[3]

According to a 2022 Freedom House report, the most prolific actors involved in this activity are the governments of China, Turkey, Russia, Egypt, and Tajikistan.[5] Other nations noted with concern include Iran, Rwanda, and Saudi Arabia.[6]

International relations scholar Laurie Brand asserts that autocracies face specific challenges and opportunities in the international sphere that affect authoritarian practices. Specifically, the rise of transnationalism and practices that transcend national borders has led autocracies to develop strategies aiming to manage their citizens' migration.[7] According to political scientist Gerasimos Tsourapas, global autocracies engage in complex strategies of transnational repression, legitimation, and co-optation as well as cooperation with non-state actors.[8]

Typology of transnational repression

Sociologist Dana M. Moss has argued for a typology of transnational repression,[9] as described below:

Lethal retribution The actual or attempted assassinations of dissidents abroad by regime agents or proxies.
Threats Verbal or written warnings directed to members of the diaspora, including the summoning of individuals by regime officials to their embassies for this purpose.
Surveillance The gathering and sending of information about co-nationals to the state security apparatus by informant networks composed of regime agents, loyalists, and coerced individuals.
Exile The direct and indirect banishment of dissidents from the home country, including when the threat of physical confinement and harm prevents activists from returning.
Withdrawing scholarships The rescinding of students’ state benefits for refusing to participate in regime-mandated actions or organizations abroad.
Proxy punishment The harassment, physical confinement, and/or bodily harm of relatives in the home-country as a means of information-gathering and retribution against dissidents abroad.

Responses

Council of Europe

In June 2023, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe stated that Turkey's failure to ratify Sweden's NATO membership bid is part of its campaign of transnational repression.[10][11]

People's Republic of China

During a June 2022 briefing by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, Wang Wenbin accused the US and UK of cooperating in transnational repression of Julian Assange.[12]

Laws and proposed laws

In December 2021, the Transnational Repression Accountability and Prevention (TRAP) Act became law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022.[13] The law aims to combat abuse of Interpol notices.[14][15]

In March 2023, a bipartisan group of United States senators introduced the Transnational Repression Policy Act.[16][17] The proposed law would mandate that the intelligence community identify and share information about perpetrators of transnational repression in the United States.[18] In October 2023, the Government Accountability Office reported that the US does not have adequate laws to combat acts of transnational repression.[19]

In March 2022, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken characterized the Chinese government's attempts to silence Uyghur activists outside its borders as part of a campaign of transnational repression.[20][21]

In April 2023, the United States Department of Justice indicted Chinese operatives with crimes related to a transnational repression campaign utilizing a Chinese police overseas service station in Manhattan.[22][23] Following the indictments, the FBI described seeing an "inflection point in the tactics and tools and the level of risk and the level of threat" in transnational repression.[24]

In July 2023, the United States Department of State labeled the Hong Kong Police Force's bounties on eight prominent dissidents living abroad as an instance of "transnational repression efforts."[25][26]

Civil society

In 2023, the US Sikh Coalition wrote to the federal government to warn about Indian transnational repression and rising Hindu nationalist threats in the US in the aftermath of the killing of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar.[27]

A 2022 Center for American Progress reported that some of the most notable transnational repression efforts of the Chinese government, such as the Causeway Bay Books disappearances, have been coordinated by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS). The report called for initiatives to better understand the MPS' activities overseas.[28]

A 2023 report published by the University of Sheffield called for increased use of Magnitsky legislation in response to the transnational repression of the Uyghur diaspora.[29] A report the same year by Mohamed Soltan's nonprofit Freedom Initiative stated that Egypt and Saudi Arabia have become "become more innovative and emboldened" in carrying out acts of transnational repression.[30]

In 2023, the Index on Censorship has referred to the Chinese government's attempts to censor artist Badiucao's overseas exhibitions as an example of transnational repression.[31]

See also

References
  1. Tsourapas, Gerasimos (2019). "A Tightening Grip Abroad: Authoritarian Regimes Target Their Emigrant and Diaspora Communities". Migration Policy Institute. Archived from the original on 2019-11-10.
  2. Baser, Bahar; Ozturk, Ahmet Erdi (2020-07-02). "Positive and Negative Diaspora Governance in Context: From Public Diplomacy to Transnational Authoritarianism". Middle East Critique. 29 (3): 319–334. doi:10.1080/19436149.2020.1770449. ISSN 1943-6149. S2CID 219747605. Archived from the original on 2023-07-05. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
  3. "Out of Sight, Not Out of Reach". Freedom House. Archived from the original on 2021-02-24. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
  4. "Transnational Repression". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Archived from the original on 2023-05-21. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  5. Gorokhovskaia, Yana; Schenkkan, Nate; Vaughan, Grady. "Still Not Safe: Transnational Repression in 2022" (PDF). Freedom House. Freedom House. p. 2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 June 2023. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  6. "Defending Democracy in Exile". Freedom House. Archived from the original on 2022-08-12. Retrieved 2022-08-19.
  7. Brand, Laurie A. (2006-02-27). Citizens Abroad: Emigration and the State in the Middle East and North Africa (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511491498. ISBN 978-0-521-85805-2. OCLC 967481251.
  8. Tsourapas, Gerasimos (2021). "Global Autocracies: Strategies of Transnational Repression, Legitimation, and Co-Optation in World Politics". International Studies Review. 23 (3): 616–644. doi:10.1093/isr/viaa061.
  9. Moss, Dana M. (2016-09-19). "Transnational Repression, Diaspora Mobilization, and the Case of The Arab Spring". Social Problems. 63 (4): 480–498. doi:10.1093/socpro/spw019. ISSN 0037-7791. JSTOR 26370875.
  10. Buyuk, Hamdi Firat (2023-06-23). "CoE: Turkey Using Sweden's NATO Membership Bid To Extend Repression". Balkan Insight. Archived from the original on 2023-06-26. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  11. "Transnational repression as a growing threat to the rule of law and human rights". Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. June 23, 2023. Archived from the original on June 24, 2023. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
  12. 黄, 彩婵; 郑, 婉英 (2022-06-20). "外交部指阿桑奇案是美英配合对特定人士跨国镇压" (in Chinese). TDM (Macau). TDM. Archived from the original on 2023-04-17. Retrieved 25 June 2023. 汪文斌称，英国在配合美国逮捕引渡阿桑奇方面可谓不遗余力，迅速推进相关程序，充分显示英方维系同美特殊关系的忠诚，以及美英配合对特定人士跨国镇压的事实。
  13. "New Law Protects Those Who Call Out Corruption". Transparency International. December 27, 2021. Archived from the original on 2023-02-05. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  14. "Helsinki Commission Welcomes Passage of Trap Provision in 2022 National Defense Authorization Act". Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. 2021-12-15. Archived from the original on 2023-06-02. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  15. "Transnational Repression Accountability and Prevention (TRAP) Act Reports". U.S. Department of State. June 2, 2023. Archived from the original on July 5, 2023. Retrieved June 25, 2023.
  16. "China using families as 'hostages' to quash Uyghur dissent abroad". BBC News. 2023-07-30. Archived from the original on 2023-07-31. Retrieved 2023-07-31.
  17. "Fighting Beijing's long arm of repression". Radio Free Asia. March 26, 2023. Archived from the original on June 5, 2023. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  18. Weine, Kate (2023-03-24). "US Lawmakers Tackle Transnational Repression". Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on 2023-04-18. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  19. McKelvey, Tara (October 4, 2023). "US may not have right tools to combat foreign harassment: report". Radio Free Asia. Archived from the original on 2023-10-05. Retrieved 2023-10-05.
  20. Snowdon Smith, Zachary (March 21, 2022). "U.S. Will Restrict Visas For Chinese Officials Involved In Uyghur Repression, Blinken Says". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2022-10-06. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  21. "Promoting Accountability for Transnational Repression Committed by People's Republic of China (PRC) Officials". United States Department of State. March 21, 2023. Archived from the original on May 29, 2023. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
  22. De Guzman, Chad (2023-04-18). "U.S. Charges Chinese Operatives With 'Transnational Repression': What to Know". Time. Archived from the original on 2023-05-23. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  23. "Man Charged with Transnational Repression Campaign While Acting as an Illegal Agent of the Chinese Government in the United States". United States Department of Justice. 2022-03-30. Archived from the original on 2023-03-03. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  24. Mallin, Alexander (April 19, 2023). "FBI raises alarm over 'inflection point' in transnational repression threats". ABC News. Archived from the original on 2023-05-19. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  25. "US Slams Hong Kong Bounties As 'Dangerous' Precedent". Barron's. Agence France-Presse. July 3, 2023. Archived from the original on July 5, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  26. Miller, Matthew (July 3, 2023). "Hong Kong's Extra-Territorial Application of the National Security Law". United States Department of State. Archived from the original on July 4, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  27. Singh, Harman (September 21, 2023). "Re: Concerns of Indian Transnational Repression in the United States" (PDF). www.sikhcoalition.org.
  28. Link, Jordan (2022-10-17). "The Expanding International Reach of China's Police". Center for American Progress. Archived from the original on 2023-05-29. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  29. Tobin, David; Elimä, Nyrola (2023-06-01). ""We know you better than you know yourself": China's transnational repression of the Uyghur diaspora". University of Sheffield. Archived from the original on 2023-07-10. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  30. Parker, Claire (2023-04-19). "U.S. allies in Middle East target dissidents on American soil, report says". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-09-25.
  31. "Banned by Beijing: Calling out transnational repression through art". Index on Censorship. Archived from the original on 2023-07-05. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
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