“Cross-border repression is a form of human rights persecution that has gradually received attention in recent years. The authoritarian governments use legal and illegal means to bring specific people back to the country, and China in particular favours this method of repression,” said the initiative and research specialist of the international human rights organization “Safeguard Defenders”, Chen Jingjie, according to Liberty Times Net.
According to the observation of “Protection Guardian”, China prefers to capture targets back to China through legal and illegal “cross-border suppression” and persecute them, said Jingjie at a press conference in Taipei on the occasion of World Human Rights Day on Saturday.
The conference was jointly held by Tibet-Taiwan Human Rights Connection, Human Rights Covenant Implementation Monitoring Alliance, Taiwan Abolition of the Death Penalty and other groups to call on world leaders to take immediate action towards China’s human rights atrocities and resist the country’s “cross-border repression.”
According to Jingjie, the legal means used by China include bilateral extradition agreements to request the extradition of individuals, giving unreliable diplomatic assurances to return Chinese citizens who have failed to apply for asylum to China and abusing Interpol’s red notices to arrest individuals.
It becomes impossible for human rights groups to analyse the situation as there are no official records of the repatriation process, said Jingjie, according to Liberty Times Net.
The illegal means, according to Jingjie, include “Operation Fox Hunt” and “Operation Skynet”, both launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2015 and 2016 respectively. The country attempted to rationalize its means by using legislation.
According to Liberty Times Net, Chen Jingjie called on Taiwan to stand with other democratic countries when more and more countries realize the problem of China’s cross-border repression, conduct investigations on China’s influence outside China, and try to strengthen their own democratic defence mechanisms.
Taiwanese human rights activist Lee Ming-che, while speaking at the same conference, cited an article published in the Chinese State-run People’s Daily by jurist Wang Yingjin. Lee said that China could invoke mutual legal assistance treaties to target pro-independence Taiwanese in a third country.
The article, suggests that Beijing is seriously contemplating the strategy, which would endanger all Taiwanese transiting through China or travelling in a country that has an extradition treaty with Beijing, said Lee, according to Taipei Times.
Lee, who was imprisoned in China from 2017 to April 2022 on charge of subverting state power, urged the Taiwan government to react on time to prevent China from abusing the extradition treaties.