transnational repression

{{Short description|Efforts by a state to prevent dissent outside its borders}}

Transnational repression is a type of political repression conducted by a state outside its borders. It often involves targeting political dissidents or critical members of diaspora communities abroad and can take the forms of assassinations and/or enforced disappearances of citizens, among others.{{Cite web |last=Tsourapas |first=Gerasimos |date=2019 |title=A Tightening Grip Abroad: Authoritarian Regimes Target Their Emigrant and Diaspora Communities |url=https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/authoritarian-regimes-target-their-emigrant-and-diaspora-communities |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191110235509/https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/authoritarian-regimes-target-their-emigrant-and-diaspora-communities |archive-date=2019-11-10 |access-date= |website=Migration Policy Institute |author-link=Gerasimos Tsourapas}}{{Cite journal |last1=Baser |first1=Bahar |last2=Ozturk |first2=Ahmet Erdi |date=2020-07-02 |title=Positive and Negative Diaspora Governance in Context: From Public Diplomacy to Transnational Authoritarianism |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2020.1770449 |journal=Middle East Critique |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=319–334 |doi=10.1080/19436149.2020.1770449 |issn=1943-6149 |s2cid=219747605 |access-date=2021-02-24 |archive-date=2023-07-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705013317/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19436149.2020.1770449 |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |date=29 February 2024 |title=Autocracies are exporting autocracy to their diasporas |url=https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/02/29/autocracies-are-exporting-autocracy-to-their-diasporas |url-access=subscription |access-date=2024-03-02 |work=The Economist}} Freedom House has documented its rise worldwide in recent years. Incidents that occur in the United States have been investigated by such agencies as the FBI.{{Cite web |title=Out of Sight, Not Out of Reach |url=https://freedomhouse.org/report/transnational-repression |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224165244/https://freedomhouse.org/report/transnational-repression |archive-date=2021-02-24 |access-date=2021-02-24 |website=Freedom House}}{{Cite web |title=Transnational Repression |url=https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/transnational-repression |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521184436/https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/transnational-repression |archive-date=2023-05-21 |access-date=2023-06-26 |website=Federal Bureau of Investigation}}

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 have led autocracies to develop strategies aiming to manage their citizens' migration.{{Cite book |last=Brand |first=Laurie A. |title=Citizens Abroad: Emigration and the State in the Middle East and North Africa |date=2006-02-27 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-85805-2 |edition=1 |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511491498 |oclc=967481251 |author-link=Laurie Brand}} 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.{{Cite journal |last=Tsourapas |first=Gerasimos |year=2021 |title=Global Autocracies: Strategies of Transnational Repression, Legitimation, and Co-Optation in World Politics |journal=International Studies Review |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=616–644 |doi=10.1093/isr/viaa061 |doi-access=free}} Countries with more robust democracies are much less likely to pursue transnational repression. Some of these countries have been criticized for not doing enough to protect foreign nationals living in their countries.{{Cite web |last=Medhi |first=Kashmiri |last2=Cordell |first2=Rebecca |date=2024-10-25 |title=Foreign countries are helping autocracies repress exiled dissidents in return for economic gain |url=https://theconversation.com/foreign-countries-are-helping-autocracies-repress-exiled-dissidents-in-return-for-economic-gain-240069 |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=The Conversation}} Cooperation between countries has been more common when the two countries have had close economic ties.

The New York Times reported that the frequency of cases of transnational repression worldwide seems to be increasing as of 2024, due in part to some authoritarian governments responding to how globalization and the internet allow for more communication across countries.{{Cite news |last=Taub |first=Amanda |date=May 17, 2024 |title=Why a Tactic Used by Czars Is Back With a Vengeance |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/17/world/europe/transnational-repression-hong-kong-uk.html |work=New York Times}} While this term is relatively new, such repressive actions have been documented for decades.{{Cite web |last=Serhan |first=Yasmeen |date=2023-10-02 |title=The Long Arm of Transnational Repression |url=https://time.com/6319450/transnational-repression-nijjar-khashoggi/ |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=TIME}} According to a February 2025 report by Freedom House, the People's Republic of China is responsible for about 22 percent of all cases of transnational repression, followed by Turkey, Tajikistan, Russia, Egypt, and Cambodia.{{Cite web |last=Vaughan |first=Grady |last2=Gorokhovskaia |first2=Yana |last3=Schenkkan |first3=Nate |date=February 6, 2025 |title=Ten Findings from Ten Years of Data on Transnational Repression |url=https://freedomhouse.org/article/ten-findings-ten-years-data-transnational-repression |access-date=2025-02-06 |website=Freedom House}}

Typology of transnational repression

Sociologist Dana M. Moss, who coined the term 'transnational repression' in 2016,{{Cite web |last=Mackinnon |first=Amy |last2=Yang |first2=Mary |date=2024-11-26 |title=The Booming Export of Authoritarianism |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/06/02/freedom-house-report-myanmar-targeting-dissidents/ |access-date=2024-11-23 |website=Foreign Policy}} categorized repression into six types:{{Cite journal |last=Moss |first=Dana M. |date=2016-09-19 |title=Transnational Repression, Diaspora Mobilization, and the Case of The Arab Spring |journal=Social Problems |volume=63 |issue=4 |pages=480–498 |doi=10.1093/socpro/spw019 |issn=0037-7791 |jstor=26370875 |doi-access=free}}

class="wikitable"

|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.

History

= Soviet Union =

Bulgarian dissident writer Georgi Markov was assassinated on a London street via a micro-engineered pellet that might have contained ricin.{{Cite web |title=Georgi Markov - Death in a Pellet, a report to the Medico-Legal Society |url=http://elbdisliker.at.ua/Jedy/Georgi_Markov-Death_in_a_Pellet.pdf}} Contemporary newspaper accounts reported that he had been stabbed in the leg with an umbrella delivering a poisoned pellet, wielded by someone associated with the Bulgarian Secret Service.{{Cite news |date=9 September 2020 |title=The poison-tipped umbrella: the death of Georgi Markov in 1978 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/from-the-archive-blog/2020/sep/09/georgi-markov-killed-poisoned-umbrella-london-1978 |newspaper=The Guardian}} Annabel Markov recalled her husband's view about the umbrella, telling the BBC's Panorama programme, in April 1979, "He felt a jab in his thigh. He looked around and there was a man behind him who'd apologized and dropped an umbrella. I got the impression as he told the story that the jab hadn't been inflicted by the umbrella but that the man had dropped the umbrella as cover to hide his face."{{Citation |title=Panorama, April 1979 |date=24 October 2014 |url=https://rutube.ru/video/1f269596f2e0c8e3df40ee5dd98af757/}} It was reported after the fall of the Soviet Union that the Soviet KGB had assisted the Bulgarian Secret Service.{{cite news |last1=Kirilenko |first1=Anastasia |last2=Bigg |first2=Claire |date=31 March 2015 |title=Ex-KGB agent Kalugin: Putin was 'only a major' |url=http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-ex-kgb-kalugin-putin-only-a-major/26930384.html |publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty}}{{cite book |last1=Rózsa |first1=L. |title=Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons since 1945 |last2=Nixdorff |first2=K. |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2006 |isbn=0-674-01699-8 |editor1-last=Wheelis |editor1-first=M. |location=Cambridge |pages=157–168 |chapter=Biological Weapons in Non-Soviet Warsaw Pact Countries |editor2-last=Rózsa |editor2-first=L. |editor3-last=Dando |editor3-first=M.}}

= Chile =

In 1976 an exiled government official belonging to Salvador Allende's democratically elected socialist government which had been ousted 3 years prior in a military coup, Orlando Letelier, was assassinated in a planted car bombing orchestrated in broad daylight within the US capital city of Washington, D.C. The murder was carried out by the military regime's secret police as part of its policy of targeting and silencing political opposition, with the intent of dearticulating potential resistance to the military order not just from within Chile but also from those nationals who might exercise and advocate for dissident pressure abroad.https://interactivos.museodelamemoria.cl/victims/?p=1092 Official website of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, Chile (May 2025). The assassination became one of many exemplary cases of the extensive violent political repression carried out by right-wing military juntas of South America during the Cold War under the umbrella of Operation Condor.https://www.ciperchile.cl/2020/01/09/operacion-condor-los-asesinatos-selectivos-que-implican-a-pinochet-y-a-manuel-contreras/ "Operation Condor: the 'selective assassinations' that implicate Augusto Pinochet and Manuel Contreras", CIPER Chile (9 January 2020).https://www.mpf.gob.ar/plan-condor/la-operacion-condor-proceso/ "The Operation Condor - Process", Attorney General of Argentina (May 2025)

Governments accused

By 2024, some 44 countries have been documented as committing transnational repression, according to Freedom House.{{Cite web |last=Philip |first=Rowan |date=September 16, 2024 |title=Investigating State Attacks on Exiles: Lessons from The Washington Post's 'Repression's Long Arm' Series |url=https://gijn.org/stories/lessons-from-washington-posts-repressions-long-arm-series/ |access-date=2024-11-23 |website=Global Investigative Journalism Network}} The organization noted that it has become a more common practice worldwide. According to a February 2025 report by Freedom House, China is responsible for about 22 percent of all cases of transnational repression, followed by Turkey, Tajikistan, Russia, Egypt, Cambodia, Turkmenistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Belarus.

A 2024 Human Rights Watch report documented 75 cases between 2009 and 2024, which were committed by more than two dozen governments, including Algeria, Bahrain, Belarus, Cambodia,{{Cite web |title=Cambodia's Transnational Repression Will Continue Until the World Takes Action |url=https://thediplomat.com/2024/07/cambodias-transnational-repression-will-continue-until-the-world-takes-action/ |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=thediplomat.com}} Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, South Sudan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, and the UAE.{{Cite journal |last=Sparks |first=Lily |date=2024-02-22 |title="We Will Find You" |url=https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/02/22/we-will-find-you/global-look-how-governments-repress-nationals-abroad |journal=Human Rights Watch}}

Countries with more robust democracies are much less likely to pursue transnational repression. Some have been criticised for not doing enough to protect foreign nationals or people of the diasporas living in their countries. Cooperation between countries was more common when the two countries had close economic ties. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a resolution on October 1, 2024 that defended Julian Assange for his 'journalistic work' and reiterated its condemnation of all forms and practices of transnational repression.{{cite news |date=2 October 2024 |title=European rights body finds prosecution of WikiLeaks' Assange 'politically motivated'-'Transnational repression' |url=https://www.rfi.fr/en/international/20241002-european-rights-body-finds-prosecution-of-wikileaks-assange-politically-motivated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007112834/https://www.rfi.fr/en/international/20241002-european-rights-body-finds-prosecution-of-wikileaks-assange-politically-motivated |archive-date=7 October 2024 |access-date=14 November 2024 |work=RFI}}

= Belarus =

During the United Nations Security Council briefing on October 2022 on the ICAO report about Belarus' diversion of Ryanair Flight 4978, after whose landing opposition activist and journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega were arrested by Belarusian authorities, the United States ambassador to the UN for Special Political Affairs, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, described the act as a violation of international aviation law and of transnational repression.{{Cite web |title=Belarus Improperly Diverted Passenger Flight, Endangered Lives, International Civil Aviation Organization Senior Official Tells Security Council {{!}} Meetings Coverage and Press Releases |url=https://press.un.org/en/2022/sc15088.doc.htm |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=United Nations}}{{Cite web |date=2022-10-31 |title=Remarks at a UN Security Council Briefing on the ICAO Report on Belarus' Diversion of Ryanair Flight 4978 |url=https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-at-a-un-security-council-briefing-on-the-icao-report-on-belarus-diversion-of-ryanair-flight-4978/ |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=United States Mission to the United Nations}} The United States Mission to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe further delivered a statement on behalf of its country, as well as Canad andd the United Kingdom, describing the diversion as "a blatant act of transnational repression".{{Cite book |author=United States Mission to the OSCE |title=On the Forced Landing of Ryanair Flight 4978 in Minsk on May 23, 2021 |date=28 July 2022 |publisher=Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe}}

= China =

The Center for American Progress reported in 2022 that some of the most notable transnational repression efforts of the government of the People's Republic of China, 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's activities overseas.{{Cite web |last=Link |first=Jordan |date=2022-10-17 |title=The Expanding International Reach of China's Police |url=https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-expanding-international-reach-of-chinas-police/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529063701/https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-expanding-international-reach-of-chinas-police/ |archive-date=2023-05-29 |access-date=2023-07-12 |website=Center for American Progress}}{{cite news |title=Under Xi, China wants absolute security. It's making the world nervous. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/21/china-xi-jinping-congress-absolute-security/ |work=The Washington Post |date=October 21, 2022 |last1=Shepherd |first1=Christian |last2=Li |first2=Lyric}}

In July 2023, the United States Department of State classified the Hong Kong Police Force's bounties on eight prominent dissidents living abroad as an instance of "transnational repression efforts."{{Cite news |date=July 3, 2023 |title=US Slams Hong Kong Bounties As 'Dangerous' Precedent |url=https://www.barrons.com/news/us-slams-hong-kong-bounties-as-dangerous-precedent-a9056d0e |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705013314/https://www.barrons.com/news/us-slams-hong-kong-bounties-as-dangerous-precedent-a9056d0e |archive-date=July 5, 2023 |access-date=July 4, 2023 |work=Barron's |agency=Agence France-Presse}}{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Matthew |date=July 3, 2023 |title=Hong Kong's Extra-Territorial Application of the National Security Law |url=https://www.state.gov/hong-kongs-extra-territorial-application-of-the-national-security-law/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230704034909/https://www.state.gov/hong-kongs-extra-territorial-application-of-the-national-security-law/ |archive-date=July 4, 2023 |access-date=July 4, 2023 |website=United States Department of State}}

In April 2023, the United States Department of Justice indicted Chinese operatives for crimes related to a transnational repression campaign using a Chinese police overseas service station in Manhattan.{{Cite magazine |last=De Guzman |first=Chad |date=2023-04-18 |title=U.S. Charges Chinese Operatives With 'Transnational Repression': What to Know |url=https://time.com/6272633/chinese-police-operatives-charged-new-york/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230523021116/https://time.com/6272633/chinese-police-operatives-charged-new-york/ |archive-date=2023-05-23 |access-date=2023-06-26 |magazine=Time}}{{Cite web |date=2022-03-30 |title=Man Charged with Transnational Repression Campaign While Acting as an Illegal Agent of the Chinese Government in the United States |url=https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/man-charged-transnational-repression-campaign-while-acting-illegal-agent-chinese-government |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230303225405/https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/man-charged-transnational-repression-campaign-while-acting-illegal-agent-chinese-government |archive-date=2023-03-03 |access-date=2023-06-26 |website=United States Department of Justice}} 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.{{Cite news |last=Mallin |first=Alexander |date=April 19, 2023 |title=FBI raises alarm over 'inflection point' in transnational repression threats |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fbi-raises-alarm-inflection-point-transnational-repression-threats/story?id=98701971 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519035909/https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fbi-raises-alarm-inflection-point-transnational-repression-threats/story?id=98701971 |archive-date=2023-05-19 |access-date=2023-06-27 |website=ABC News}}

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.{{Cite web |last=Snowdon Smith |first=Zachary |date=March 21, 2022 |title=U.S. Will Restrict Visas For Chinese Officials Involved In Uyghur Repression, Blinken Says |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/03/21/us-will-restrict-visas-for-chinese-officials-involved-in-uyghur-repression-blinken-says/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221006174902/http://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/03/21/us-will-restrict-visas-for-chinese-officials-involved-in-uyghur-repression-blinken-says/ |archive-date=2022-10-06 |access-date=2023-06-27 |website=Forbes}}{{Cite web |date=March 21, 2023 |title=Promoting Accountability for Transnational Repression Committed by People's Republic of China (PRC) Officials |url=https://www.state.gov/promoting-accountability-for-transnational-repression-committed-by-peoples-republic-of-china-prc-officials/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529124601/https://www.state.gov/promoting-accountability-for-transnational-repression-committed-by-peoples-republic-of-china-prc-officials/ |archive-date=May 29, 2023 |access-date=June 27, 2023 |website=United States Department of State}} 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.{{Cite web |last1=Tobin |first1=David |last2=Elimä |first2=Nyrola |date=2023-06-01 |title="We know you better than you know yourself": China's transnational repression of the Uyghur diaspora |url=https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/seas/research/we-know-you-better-you-know-yourself-chinas-transnational-repression-uyghur-diaspora |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230710083718/https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/seas/research/we-know-you-better-you-know-yourself-chinas-transnational-repression-uyghur-diaspora |archive-date=2023-07-10 |access-date=2023-07-10 |website=University of Sheffield}} This repression has increased in 2024 according to some Uyghur exiles.{{Cite web |date=2024-09-11 |title=China ramping up transnational repression, Uyghur exiles in US say |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/china-ramping-up-transnational-repression-uyghur-exiles-in-us-say-/7781143.html |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=Voice of America}}

In 2023, The Washington Post reported that China supported violent counterprotestors who attempted to silence criticism of Xi Jinping at the APEC United States 2023 summit in San Francisco. The Index on Censorship has described the Chinese government's attempts to censor artist Badiucao's overseas exhibitions as an example of transnational repression.{{Cite web |title=Banned by Beijing: Calling out transnational repression through art |url=https://www.indexoncensorship.org/events/banned-by-beijing-calling-out-transnational-repression-through-art-and-performance/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705163244/https://www.indexoncensorship.org/events/banned-by-beijing-calling-out-transnational-repression-through-art-and-performance/ |archive-date=2023-07-05 |access-date=2023-07-09 |website=Index on Censorship}}

As of 2024, Chinese students studying abroad who engaged in political activism against the regime faced harassment and retribution directly or through family members living in China.{{Cite web |date=2024-05-12 |title=China: Overseas students face harassment and surveillance in campaign of transnational repression |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/05/china-overseas-students-face-harassment-and-surveillance-in-campaign-of-transnational-repression/ |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=Amnesty International}}{{Cite news |last=Lau |first=Jessie |date=2024-03-25 |title=Threats, fear and surveillance: how Beijing targets students in the UK who criticise regime |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/25/china-students-uk-beijing-transnational-repression-surveillance |access-date=2024-11-22 |work=The Guardian}}{{Cite news |last=Ho-him |first=Chan |last2=Foster |first2=Peter |last3=Jack |first3=Andrew |last4=Yu |first4=Sun |date=2024-05-13 |title=China accused of 'transnational repression' of students |url=https://www.ft.com/content/f219a89f-dd11-41a3-bc96-998e2a9deae6 |access-date=2024-11-22 |work=Financial Times}} In 2019, a student was jailed for six months when he returned to China over tweets he had posted while studying at the University of Minnesota in the US; a Chinese district court held that the tweets "defaced the image of the country's leaders" and sentenced the student "for provocation".{{cite news |title=University of Minnesota Student Jailed for 6 Months for Critical Tweets He Sent in the U.S. |url=https://time.com/5770095/minnesota-student-jailed-tweets/ |work=Time |agency=Bloomberg |date=23 January 2020}}

In February 2025, Thailand deported 40 male Uyghur asylum seekers back to China.{{Cite web |date=2025-02-27 |title=Thailand deports 40 Uyghur detainees to China despite warnings from U.S. and rights groups |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/thailand-uyghur-detainees-china-warnings-rights-groups-rcna193958 |access-date=2025-02-27 |website=NBC News}}{{Cite news |last=Sullivan |first=Michael |date=2025-02-27 |title=Thailand deports dozens of Uyghurs to China, activists say |url=https://www.npr.org/2025/02/27/nx-s1-5311424/uyghur-thailand-china-repatriation |access-date=2025-02-27 |work=NPR}}{{Cite web |last=Steinhauser |first=Austin Ramzy and Gabriele |title=Thailand Deports Uyghur Detainees to China Over U.S. Objections |url=https://www.wsj.com/world/china/thailand-deports-uyghur-detainees-to-china-over-u-s-objections-5dbe593e?mod=hp_listb_pos2 |access-date=2025-02-28 |website=WSJ}} While other countries offered resettlement, Thailand confirmed that sending the Uyghurs elsewhere could risk retaliation from China.{{Cite web |title=Uyghurs deported to avert China 'retaliation': Thai minister |url=https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Uyghurs-deported-to-avert-China-retaliation-Thai-minister |access-date=2025-03-06 |website=Nikkei Asia}}

= Egypt =

A report by Mohamed Soltan's nonprofit Freedom Initiative stated that Egypt has become "... more innovative and emboldened" in carrying out acts of transnational repression. Actions include targeting dissidents in the United States.{{Cite news |last=Parker |first=Claire |date=2023-04-19 |title=U.S. allies in Middle East target dissidents on American soil, report says |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/04/19/saudi-arabia-egypt-repression-dissidents/ |access-date=2023-09-25 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}

= India =

In 2023, the Sikh Coalition wrote to the United States government to warn about Indian transnational repression and rising Hindu nationalist threats in the US in the aftermath of the killing in Canada of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen.{{Cite web |last=Singh |first=Harman |date=September 21, 2023 |title=Re: Concerns of Indian Transnational Repression in the United States |url=https://www.sikhcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2023.09.21-POTUS-letter-on-Indian-transnational-repression.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231012004616/https://www.sikhcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2023.09.21-POTUS-letter-on-Indian-transnational-repression.pdf |archive-date=October 12, 2023 |website=Sikh Coalition}} The Canadian government is investigating what it said were 'credible allegations of a potential link' in Nijjar's death to the Indian government.{{Cite web |last=Kestler-D'Amours |first=Jillian |title=Sikh leaders welcome arrests in Canada activist killing, but questions loom |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/7/sikh-leaders-welcome-arrests-in-canada-activist-killing-but-questions-loom |access-date=2024-06-03 |website=Al Jazeera}}

= Iran =

On 9 November 2023, former European Parliament Vice-President Alejo Vidal-Quadras was shot in the face in Madrid, Spain, an attack that he survived.{{Cite web |last=Fahey |first=Ryan |date=2023-11-09 |title=Politician shot in the face in busy city centre by brazen gunman on motorbike |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/breaking-alejo-vidal-quadras-spanish-31401002 |access-date=2023-11-09 |website=The Mirror}}{{Cite web |date=2023-11-09 |title=Spanish conservative politician shot in face in Madrid. Gunman escaped on a motorbike, reports say |url=https://apnews.com/article/spain-shooting-politician-d98bb2f3c482eb006ece10b8669d4c12 |access-date=2023-11-09 |website=AP News}} Iran was suspected to be related to the assassination attempt and the attack has been described as an act of transnational repression, including by the European Parliament.{{Cite web |title=Texts adopted - Iran's unprecedented attack against Israel, the need for de-escalation and an EU response - Thursday, 25 April 2024 |url=https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2024-0382_EN.html |access-date=2025-02-05 |website=European Parliament |quote=[...] suffered under Iran's brutal domestic and transnational repression, including on EU soil, particularly opponents to the Iranian regime, such as former European Parliament Vice-President Alejo Vidal-Quadras, who was shot, presumably by the IRGC}}{{Cite news |last=Davis |first=Jessica |date=25 July 2024 |title=State Secrets: Hiring Criminals for Targeted Killings (and more) |url=https://newsletter.insightthreatintel.com/p/state-secrets-hiring-criminals-for |work=Insight Monitor}} A United States Treasury Department press release declared that: "The [Ministry of Intelligence and Security] and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have long targeted perceived regime opponents in acts of transnational repression outside of Iran, a practice that the regime has accelerated in recent years."{{Cite web |last=Stevenson |first=Struan |date=2024-02-12 |title=The West's Imperative to Counter Iran's Shadow War |url=https://intpolicydigest.org/the-west-s-imperative-to-counter-iran-s-shadow-war/ |access-date=2025-02-05 |website=International Policy Digest}} Freedom House also included journalist Masih Alinejad's kidnapping plan among Iran's transnational repression tactics.{{Cite web |title=Iran Case Study {{!}} Understanding Transnational Repression |url=https://freedomhouse.org/report/transnational-repression/iran |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=Freedom House}}

= Russia =

As of 2024, Russia has focused its repression on anti-war and other political activists as well as journalists; it ranks among the most active perpetrators of transnational repression in the world.{{Cite news |last=Townsend |first=Mark |date=2024-02-16 |title=China, Russia and Cambodia top list of regimes targeting critics in exile |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/feb/16/china-russia-and-cambodia-top-list-of-regimes-targeting-critics-in-exile |access-date=2024-11-22 |work=The Guardian}}{{Cite news |last=Pikulicka-Wilczewska |first=Agnieszka |date=2024-10-28 |title='They want to show no one can escape': how the long arm of Russia is reaching out for Putin critics in exile |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/28/long-arm-russia-putin-critics-in-exile |access-date=2024-11-22 |work=The Guardian}} Russia has a history of transnational repression that was documented in the Tsarist regimes.

= Saudi Arabia =

A report by Mohamed Soltan's nonprofit Freedom Initiative stated that, like Egypt, Saudi Arabia has become "... more innovative and emboldened" in carrying out acts of transnational repression. As of 2024, The Guardian reported Saudi Arabia as one of the major perpetrators of transnational repression in the world.{{Cite news |last=Parent |first=Deepa |last2=Levitt |first2=Tom |date=2024-07-18 |title=UK 'turning a blind eye' to threats to kill Saudi activists living in exile |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jul/18/saudi-arabia-uk-exiles-threats-transnational-repression-human-rights |access-date=2024-11-22 |work=The Guardian}}

= Turkey =

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. It called upon Turkey to end its intimidation of exiled journalist Bülent Keneş and to both recognise and respect the Swedish Supreme Court's decision not to extradite him.{{cite news |last=Buyuk |first=Hamdi Firat |date=2023-06-23 |title=CoE: Turkey Using Sweden's NATO Membership Bid To Extend Repression |url=https://balkaninsight.com/2023/06/23/coe-turkey-using-swedens-nato-membership-bid-to-extend-repression/ |access-date=2023-06-27 |website=Balkan Insight |archive-date=2023-06-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230626174737/https://balkaninsight.com/2023/06/23/coe-turkey-using-swedens-nato-membership-bid-to-extend-repression/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |date=June 23, 2023 |title=Transnational repression as a growing threat to the rule of law and human rights |url=https://pace.coe.int/en/files/32828 |website=Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe |access-date=June 27, 2023 |archive-date=June 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230624002439/https://pace.coe.int/en/files/32828 |url-status=live }}

= Others =

J.D. Tuccille described the forced grounding of Evo Morales' plane in 2013 on suspicion that it was transporting whistleblower Edward Snowden as an example of transnational repression by "even nominally free countries."{{Cite web |last=Tuccille |first=J. D. |date=2021-08-13 |title=Oppressive Regimes Reach Beyond Their Borders |url=https://reason.com/2021/08/13/oppressive-regimes-reach-beyond-their-borders/ |access-date=2025-02-13 |website=Reason.com}}

Defenses

= United States =

In December 2021, the US passed the Transnational Repression Accountability and Prevention (TRAP) Act as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022.{{Cite news |date=December 27, 2021 |title=New Law Protects Those Who Call Out Corruption |url=https://us.transparency.org/news/new-law-protects-those-who-call-out-corruption/ |access-date=2023-06-26 |website=Transparency International |archive-date=2023-02-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205033302/https://us.transparency.org/news/new-law-protects-those-who-call-out-corruption/ |url-status=live }} The law aims to combat abuse of Interpol notices.{{Cite web |date=2021-12-15 |title=Helsinki Commission Welcomes Passage of Trap Provision in 2022 National Defense Authorization Act |url=https://www.csce.gov/international-impact/press-and-media/press-releases/helsinki-commission-welcomes-passage-trap |access-date=2023-06-26 |website=Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe |archive-date=2023-06-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602081901/https://www.csce.gov/international-impact/press-and-media/press-releases/helsinki-commission-welcomes-passage-trap |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |date=June 2, 2023 |title=Transnational Repression Accountability and Prevention (TRAP) Act Reports |url=https://www.state.gov/transnational-repression-accountability-and-prevention-trap-act-reports/ |access-date=June 25, 2023 |website=U.S. Department of State |archive-date=July 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705013316/https://www.state.gov/transnational-repression-accountability-and-prevention-trap-act-reports/ |url-status=live }}

In March 2023, a bipartisan group of United States senators introduced the Transnational Repression Policy Act.{{Cite news |date=2023-07-30 |title=China using families as 'hostages' to quash Uyghur dissent abroad |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-66337328 |access-date=2023-07-31 |archive-date=2023-07-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230731000406/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-66337328 |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |date=March 26, 2023 |title=Fighting Beijing's long arm of repression |work=Radio Free Asia |url=https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/china-long-arm-03262023085146.html |access-date=July 11, 2023 |archive-date=June 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605001941/https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/china-long-arm-03262023085146.html |url-status=live }} The proposed law would mandate that the intelligence community identify and share information about perpetrators of transnational repression operating in the United States.{{Cite news |last=Weine |first=Kate |date=2023-03-24 |title=US Lawmakers Tackle Transnational Repression |website=Human Rights Watch |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/03/24/us-lawmakers-tackle-transnational-repression |url-status=live |access-date=2023-06-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418191323/https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/03/24/us-lawmakers-tackle-transnational-repression |archive-date=2023-04-18}} In October 2023, the Government Accountability Office reported that the US does not have adequate laws to combat acts of transnational repression.{{cite news |last=McKelvey |first=Tara |date=October 4, 2023 |title=US may not have right tools to combat foreign harassment: report |url=https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/harassment-10042023145048.html |access-date=2023-10-05 |website=Radio Free Asia |archive-date=2023-10-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231005022813/https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/harassment-10042023145048.html |url-status=live }}

References

External links

Articles on transnational repression by [https://www.codastory.com/tag/transnational-repression/ Coda Story], [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/transnational-repression The Guardian]

Category:Authoritarianism

Category:Political repression