The Chinese government continues to conduct activities in the United States and elsewhere to stifle its people.
Apr 01, 2025, AFCEA
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) continues to control its citizens living abroad through a sophisticated low- and high-tech system of technology surveillance and social pressure. This includes activities in the United States to further the PRC’s transnational repression, confirmed John Sifton, Human Rights Watch Asia Advocacy director, in an interview with SIGNAL Media.
“They are intimidating people on our soil, both Chinese and U.S. citizens,” Sifton stated.
The PRC especially targets Uyghurs, the population of Turkic Chinese in Xinjiang, in northwestern China, who are predominantly Muslim and have their own language and culture that is different than traditional Chinese culture, according to a February report from Human Rights Watch that outlined the latest activities.
“Chinese authorities have long engaged in transnational repression—human rights abuses committed beyond a country’s borders to curtail dissent,” said Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at Human Rights Watch and contributor to the investigation.
The government conducts oppression against Uyghurs living abroad, targeting activists and those critical of the Chinese government, and then retaliates against their families in Xinjiang, Uluyol explained.
“The Chinese government has continued to control the Uyghur diaspora, some of whom stay silent or shun activism and even Uyghur cultural activities in hopes of resuming contact with their families and visiting the region,” Uluyol stated.
And for those still in the country, the Chinese government continues to restrict the Uyghur people from traveling abroad, with onerous requirements, arbitrarily confiscated passports and imprisonment of Uyghurs who contact other people abroad.
“The Chinese government continues to deny Uyghurs their right to leave the country, restrict their speech and associations when abroad, and punish them for having foreign ties,” according to the report. “Permission comes with strict rules: those traveling must not engage with activists or speak critically about the Chinese government and must return within a specified time, which could range from a few days to several months.”
In some cases, only one family member gets approval to travel outside China, “effectively holding their immediate family members hostage,” to ensure the traveler returned and abided by the restrictions, Human Rights Watch indicated.
If allowed, Uyghurs’ business travel also comes with conditions, including approval only to visit certain countries—such as Kazakhstan—the report noted. Also, they are prohibited from visiting countries with large Muslim populations, such as Türkiye.
“While those who were allowed to travel were abroad, a designated official regularly checked in with them and sought updates on their daily activities,” Uluyol noted. “Upon their return, the authorities again confiscated their passports and questioned them about their trip and the Uyghurs in the countries they visited. Being able to contact or visit loved ones abroad shouldn’t be a privilege granted to a few Uyghurs but is a right that the Chinese government is obligated to respect.”
Notably, China conducts activities in the United States to further their transnational repression, and not just against Uyghurs, confirmed Sifton. This oppression takes many forms, from insidious to direct methods.
Sophisticated surveillance infrastructure is being deployed in major U.S. cities, he noted.
“My understanding is that the Chinese government has all kinds of spoofing towers and methodology to infect people’s phones or otherwise spy on people in the United States, and that includes right here in New York City,” the director stated.
Moreover, surveillance extends beyond the typical surveillance in which many nations engage. “China’s approach, it is not just about legitimate intelligence gathering; it is about the repression of Chinese citizens,” Sifton noted.
Direct intimidation methods include Chinese consular officials warning citizens living in the United States, requesting they surveil other diaspora members or threatening visa/passport restrictions. Back in China, the PRC often questions family members about their relatives’ activities in the United States.
The PRC’s influence in U.S. academia is particularly concerning, Sifton stressed.
Human Rights Watch is seeing that Chinese professors and students studying in America—and elsewhere—face sophisticated surveillance from their own government, often through their countrymen. The result is self-censorship that impacts classroom discussions, research topics and academic collaboration.
“A Chinese student in a classroom at a university in the United States is almost certainly aware that other Chinese citizen students in that class may be, and quite likely are, reporting to the consulate,” he shared.
Sifton added that universities worldwide are reluctant to host events critical of China for fear of retribution, losing partnerships and the tuition of Chinese students, which could especially be impactful in countries like Australia, where Chinese students comprise 40% of their foreign student population, in terms of pre-COVID numbers.
Here, universities need to work together to resist intimidation while maintaining academic freedom, Sifton advised.
For the U.S. military and companies in the defense industrial base, officials should evaluate their supply chain security not just for hardware and software but for research and development partnerships from academia that might be compromised by surveillance pressure. Additionally, companies developing emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, communications, surveillance and data analytics may need to navigate a complex environment of ethical and national security concerns if their technologies would be used for transnational repression activities.
Moreover, Sifton warned that the impact of the PRC’s activities on U.S. policymaking was particularly concerning, with the intimidation affecting Congress and its understanding of human rights situations, degrading policymaking. Human Rights Watch also is seeing how the PRC’s activities result in self-censorship across the U.S. technology sector, media and entertainment industry.
“While Congress remains willing to criticize China’s human rights record, many industry articles, events and creative works never materialize due to subtle pressure because people are afraid to speak, act, study and hold events focusing on China’s human rights record,” Sifton said. “Then those events don’t happen, and articles don’t get written, movies don’t get made, and congressional hearings don’t happen. Content is either getting taken down or just not even put up in the first place, whether it’s a Netflix special about something or a movie or a book that raises uncomfortable issues.”
This is affecting major U.S.-based companies including publishers, streaming services and social media platforms. And the effect extends to the technology industry, Sifton continued. Companies in Silicon Valley have faced mounting pressure to self-censor or restrict content critical of Beijing, leaving the companies to navigate between American democratic values of free speech and their access to selling their software, hardware or consumer goods to the billion-dollar Chinese market.
To U.S. leaders, Sifton recommends they consider that the line between normal foreign intelligence gathering and transnational repression will become increasingly blurry, creating considerations for counterintelligence, national security and cybersecurity.
Additionally, transnational repression should be treated as a global issue, not just a U.S.-China problem. Consensus-building with our allies and preparing joint multilateral actions will be most effective.
He also warned against approaches that could spark anti-Chinese racism.
Although the PRC is the United States’ main near-peer adversary and is widely known for its transnational repression, other countries such as India, Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Rwanda target their diasporas—and also in the United States, Sifton emphasized.
“It’s got to be treated as a global problem,” he concluded. “China’s got to receive the same message that India gets, and Rwanda and Turkey, to show that it’s not just about the United States and China. It’s about United States standing up for human rights, for the rights of its own citizens and for visitors to the United States.”
