The Guardian-China Russia and Cambodia top list of regimes targeting critics in exile
February 16, 2024 3 min 565 words
这篇报道揭示了自2014年以来跨国镇压的现状，中国、俄罗斯和柬埔寨成为去年最活跃的镇压者。根据Washington DC的亲民主组织Freedom House的数据，这五个国家是2023年全球跨国镇压的主要制造者。报道显示，包括暗杀、绑架和袭击在内的数十起事件是25个国家去年对境外人士实施的。Freedom House总裁Michael Abramowitz指出，这种专制国家打压流亡异见者的现象并未消退，民主国家必须采取更多行动来捍卫自己的主权和核心价值。 中国成为跨国压制的最大肇事者之一，自2014年以来占据四分之一的 documented incidents。报告揭示了自2014年以来，全球44个国家在过去十年中试图迫使沉默流亡政治活动家、记者、前政权内部人士以及少数民族或宗教团体成员的情况。这份分析显示，2023年共有125起被国家指使的对境外个人的物理攻击。报道中详述了俄罗斯、柬埔寨等国的实例，强调了这一威胁的广泛性。 言辞犀利的Freedom House总裁强调，民主国家必须采取紧急行动保护核心价值观。这份报道引起人们对国际政治和民主价值观受到跨国威胁的深刻关注，需要全球合作来制止这一危险趋势。
Scores of attacks, including assassinations, abductions and assaults, were perpetrated by 25 governments last year against people outside their borders, new analysis reveals.
Data from the Washington DC-based pro-democracy organisation Freedom House reveals that the governments of Russia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Turkmenistan and China were the biggest five perpetrators of transnational repression in 2023.
Quick guide
Transnational repression
Transnational repression is the use of tactics including electronic surveillance, physical assault, intimidation and threats to family in the home country to silence people living in exile. The Guardian’s Rights and freedom series is publishing a series of articles to highlight the dangers faced by citizens in countries including the UK.
Michael Abramowitz, the president of Freedom House, said: “The phenomenon of authoritarians striking down dissidents who have sought refuge abroad is not going away. Democracies will have to do more, and soon, to protect their sovereignty and their fundamental values.”
The first known cases of transitional repression sanctioned by the governments of Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, Myanmar, Sierra Leone and Yemen also took place last year.
Forty-four countries – more than a fifth of the world’s national governments – have reached beyond their borders over the past decade in an attempt to forcibly silence exiled political activists, journalists, former regime insiders and members of ethnic or religious minorities.
The analysis reveals that, in total, 125 physical attacks – which also included detentions and unlawful deportation – were ordered by states against individuals based abroad during 2023.
The Russian government was responsible for at least 18 documented incidents of transnational repression last year. The Kremlin targeted anti-war activists and other Russian defectors in Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan among others, with victims facing renditions or deportation.
The Cambodian government perpetrated at least 15 incidents of transnational repression, including one where four Cambodian activists were assaulted in neighbouring Thailand.
Iran is increasingly targeting people outside its borders, with a high-profile case last year involving counter-terrorism police investigating serious threats against London-based staff at a Farsi-language news channel. BBC staff in London subsequently told the Guardian they feared walking outside alone after being harassed by the Iranian authorities.
Elsewhere, agents of the Indian government were accused by Canadian and US intelligence of carrying out the assassination of the Canada-based Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar and planning an assassination attempt against another, based in the US.
Last month MPs in the UK raised concerns over the safety of Sikh activists in Britain after an “intelligence hitlist” emerged targeting individuals living outside India.
Between 2014 and 2023, Freedom House recorded 1,034 direct, physical incidents of transnational repression committed by 44 governments in 100 target countries, with China accounting for a quarter of all documented incidents. Other prolific perpetrators since 2014 include Turkey, Tajikistan, Russia and Egypt.
Yana Gorokhovskaia, the research director for strategy and design at Freedom House, said: “It’s clear that governments are not being deterred from violating sovereignty and targeting dissidents living abroad.”