U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher, who serves as the chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has stated that the CCP is conducting a global campaign to intimidate and harass its critics. This statement was made during a hearing titled "CCP Transnational Repression: The Party's Effort to Silence and Coerce Critics Overseas" held on December 13.
Gallagher asserted, "The CCP seeks to surveil, influence, punish, and coerce people all over the world. They want to silence their critics, control politics, and police thought far beyond China’s borders. One of their coveted targets? U.S. universities."
During the hearing, Gallagher highlighted that besides American universities, the CCP also targets the entertainment, technology, and banking industries. Earlier this year, he had discussions with members of Columbia University about how more than a dozen students were "harassed" by CCP agents. Gallagher pointed out that Hollywood producers have confessed to censoring content to avoid offending the CCP. Furthermore, tech executives have expressed reluctance in addressing human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims perpetrated by the CCP. He concluded his remarks by stating that even some of the most influential individuals globally fear retaliation from the CCP.
Anna Kwok, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Democracy Council, shared her personal experiences with transnational repression during her testimony at the hearing. After fleeing from Hong Kong following protests in 2019 and settling in America, she discovered a one-million-Hong-Kong-dollar bounty placed on her head along with an arrest warrant for "colluding with foreign forces." She also faced harassment on social media platforms.
Kwok stated that despite being in America – often referred to as 'the Land of Free' – she felt trapped due to "constant mental pressure" induced by "being hunted." She explained this was precisely what the CCP intended: "Of course, this was the CCP’s goal: they wanted to cripple my advocacy initiatives against their regime." Kwok appealed to Congress to criminalize transnational repression and called for law enforcement agencies to be educated about its tools and extent. She also suggested that individuals subjected to transnational repression should be granted legal status for obtaining necessary support.
Jinrui Zhang, a law student at Georgetown University Law Center, expressed his initial fear of voicing opinions on the CCP's authoritarianism after moving to the U.S. in 2018 due to potential retaliation. However, he said during the hearing that he decided to change his stance following China's zero-Covid policy, which resulted in more than 40 deaths when a fire broke out in a locked-down apartment complex in a Uyghur neighborhood in November 2022.
Zhang began engaging in activism by creating posters and distributing flyers. He noted that shortly after he started making public political statements about the Chinese government, he became a target of transnational repression. Zhang revealed that a pro-CCP student at Georgetown attempted to report him to Chinese police and that his family members residing in China were threatened by CCP officials multiple times within months. "The CCP carries this out systematically: about a dozen Chinese students in the DC area had their families harassed this year," Zhang said.
Dr. Sophie Richardson, an expert on human rights issues related to China, testified during the hearing that CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping's agenda includes "limiting if not erasing criticism of his regime—across 'all mankind.'" Richardson pointed out that many victims of transnational repression are too fearful to formally file complaints or reports with law enforcement agencies. She urged understanding why people refrain from reporting such crimes and stressed removing barriers preventing them from doing so.
Richardson called upon Congress to equip law enforcement with resources needed for investigating and prosecuting instances of transnational repression. She asserted that seeing cases against Chinese government or party officials progressing through the U.S. legal system would reassure those vulnerable to transnational repression and signal to Beijing that impunity for such conduct is ending. Richardson emphasized that bilateral, multinational forums should prioritize ending transnational repression.
