This article first appeared in volume 53, issue 1 of Index on Censorship, The long reach: How authoritarian countries are silencing critics abroad, which was published in April 2024.
Zhou Fengsuo, Tiananmen protest leader, and Nathan Law, one of the faces of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, are high-profile and not afforded anonymity, something which means they are doubly exposed through being so recognised. But their fame can shield them to an extent too. Other overseas targets of Beijing who are less well-known can be just as ruthlessly pursued without an international community having their back. Ultimately their stories, which overlap, speak of just what dissidents suffer and often suffer silently.
Zhou Fengsuo
I was a student leader in Tiananmen because I wanted to do my duty for the country. I was proud of what I did, knowing that I had done so much to help facilitate the movement for a peaceful transition of China into a freer and more democratic China. But for this I was put on the most wanted list after the massacre. I was in position number five. From then on my life took on a different tune. I was arrested and put in a high-security jail in Beijing for a year and had my passport denied for five years. As soon as I got it I left China for the USA. It was January 1995.
The transition to the USA was not problem free, even from the start. I went to business school and got an MBA with honours and became a financial professional. Initially I was very relaxed but soon I realised I was very isolated from the ordinary Chinese community here. It seemed I bore a mark on my head wherever I went. People didn’t want to get close to me. Worse still, employers avoided me. Most of my friends at business school who were from China got jobs easily, but I couldn’t, even though my grades were really good. Wall Street banks were very concerned about the political risks of socialising with people like me. I was told by a Human Resources manager that the most high-profile female leader from 1989 Chai Ling was denied a job opportunity in New York because the Chairman of the Asian branch of the investment bank that offered her a job objected vehemently.
There was one incident that happened when I was in business school that also really alarmed me. In the spring of 1998 I met Wang Bingzhang, the most famous Chinese dissident. A few months later my family called and mentioned this meeting. They knew about it and what we’d talked about. Wang, who has been serving life in prison in China since 2002, must have been monitored. So it was a warning to me. The MSS [China’s Ministry of State Security) was telling me that even though I was in the USA they could still keep a close eye.
Still, I was largely oblivious to safety concerns in the early days and I continued my activism, including cofounding my own humanitarian organisation to support political prisoners in China.
The worst moment for me was in 2008. That year, when the Beijing Olympics happened, was the peak of China business. In San Francisco when the Olympic torch was passing by, we were beaten very brutally by CCP supporters. It was probably the largest gathering of CCP supporters on US soil ever – there were over 100,000 supporters, compared to just a handful of us protesters – and they really attacked us physically. I asked police to protect us, but they just shrugged and watched. This was the worst moment. I was surrounded by so many angry, impassioned CCP supporters. I believe they were ready to kill us. Their hatred of people like us was visceral. My friend Guo Ping was bleeding from an attack on the back of his head that could have been fatal.
Later I called all the major papers and TV stations in the United States about it but nobody responded.
Since Xi Jinping came to power it has become way more aggressive both on the ground and online. Even though I didn’t experience anything like what happened in 2008 again, I have known many attacks here, especially the attacks on the Hong Kong community in 2019. They were very extensive and well-organised. I wasn’t at the protests in San Francisco last November when Xi visited for the APEC summit. Once again protesters were attacked by CCP followers. Once again we published a report on it because we knew it wouldn’t otherwise be covered.
In 2018, after I organised a protest against Xi as leader for life, someone came to my house and used a big camera to take pictures, knowing I was inside. I realised this was a warning and also they are not trying to hide at all. It’s much more brazen and well-organised. Xi Jinping’s message is to go strong and to go after critics aboard.
They have become very sophisticated in how they threaten us. They gather all information on us that they can from publicly available sources. We know our organisation has everything closely examined by CCP. They scooped up all my personal information online too and organised a massive slandering and intimidation campaign against me on social media. My organisation’s public filings were used to harass us and to disrupt our work.
I even heard from a good source who was told the CCP would use US law and the US legal system to go after them. In FBI reported cases of the CCP spying on dissidents, tax records are often sought as a way to intimidate and coerce people and organisations.
Since 2020 US law enforcement has started to take action against those perpetrators of transnational repression and Congress is more aware too. But overall the CCP’s influence remains strong and pervasive in all areas of life. We will not be daunted. We will fight to be free, not to be silenced by fear.
Nathan Law
In June 2020, I made the difficult decision to leave Hong Kong. As a former protest leader and legislator, my outspoken criticism of Beijing had effectively painted a target on my back. The ramification of being a high-profile dissident became clear in August when the Hong Kong police, enforcing the draconian national security law newly imposed, issued arrest warrants for six democracy activists living abroad, myself included. The situation escalated in July 2023, when a bounty of 1 million Hong Kong dollars was placed on me, underscoring the lengths to which Beijing is willing to go to silence its critics beyond its borders. This pursuit is a testament to the concept of transnational repression, where authoritarian regimes extend their reach across the globe to target dissidents.
I was granted asylum in the United Kingdom in April 2021, but the threats from the Chinese Communist Party loomed large. I moved four times in the first year, living a discrete life, and had to be aware of my surroundings constantly to avoid tailing. The extended reach of the CCP was further highlighted when a UK-based anonymous group of Chinese overseas offered a reward for information about my whereabouts. I was not sure whether anyone offered them any intelligence – but the fact that they are so blatantly threatening exiled activists shows the CCP’s arrogance and aggression. As a result, I was always in doubt when connecting with new individuals because they could approach me with ulterior motives.
The repercussions of my activism were not limited to just myself. To frighten me, my family was subjected to interrogation by the Hong Kong police under false pretences of supporting my work financially. This baseless harassment aimed to inflict guilt and fear, leveraging collateral damage to the well-being of my loved ones. They were extremely bothered and scared. Friends in Hong Kong who were close to them told me this in secret.
The threats extend into the digital realm, where Beijing’s vast online propaganda machine orchestrates campaigns of vilification against its critics. Death threats and doxxing are part of the harassment I face, a constant reminder of the risks that come with dissent.
Escaping the grasp of an authoritarian regime is just the beginning of an ongoing struggle for freedom. The incidents of transnational repression are a reminder that the fight against autocracy doesn’t end at the border. It’s imperative for host countries of political refugees to recognise the sophisticated tactics of authoritarian regimes and ensure the safety of exiled activists. Their continued activism is vital, not just for their home countries, but as a beacon for democratic values worldwide.
Nathan Law attends a candle-lit vigil organised outside the Chinese Embassy in London in memory of those who died in the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre.
Photo by SOPA Images Limited/Alamy
