Beijing’s operation of over 100 overseas police stations worldwide—with some allegedly used for transnational repression—has inspired other authoritarian regimes to “copy” such efforts, MPs on the House Canada-China committee heard on March 20.
Expert witness Laura Harth, campaign director for human rights NGO Safeguard Defenders, was asked by Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos at the committee meeting if China was the only country to have established clandestine police service centres abroad. In response, she said while no other authoritarian countries have yet done so, they are starting to learn from China’s experience.
“Transnational repression is definitely being used by all authoritarian regimes and to a growing extent, which is another reason why we believe it’s so important to be very clear that this will not be accepted, because we do see countries learning from each other. Also, smaller authoritarian countries are starting to learn from those efforts and copying,” she said at the committee meeting….