New York City – A Chinese film festival, set to launch in New York, was abruptly shut down after filmmakers faced harassment and pressure from authorities seeking to suppress independent voices, according to festival director Zhu Rikun. The coordinated effort to silence the event highlights a growing trend of transnational repression by the Chinese government.
Expanding Reach of Beijing’s Control
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The crackdown extended beyond China’s borders, impacting filmmakers and activists across the globe.
- Chinese authorities are increasingly targeting critics and independent voices living abroad.
- The U.N. and European Parliament have identified China as a leading perpetrator of transnational repression, alongside Russia and Iran.
- Recent investigations have revealed the misuse of international institutions, like the U.N. and Interpol, to target overseas dissidents.
- Democratic nations are beginning to respond with reforms, but critics say action remains insufficient.
When filmmakers began receiving calls in late October urging them to withdraw from the IndieChina Film Festival, Zhu Rikun initially believed the issue could be resolved with scheduling adjustments. He soon realized the situation was far more serious: the festival, slated to begin just a week later, could not proceed at all. Thirteen Chinese filmmakers cancelled their trips, and Zhu received requests to pull 45 films from the program—even those lacking explicit political content. These included a documentary about a Beijing couple coping with a child’s leukemia, a fictional film about job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a feature film centered on a couple’s conversation during a long walk.
“In the end, I found that as long as the film festival continued, many people were still being harassed,” Zhu told investigators.
A Global Pattern of Coercion
The suppression of the film festival is part of a broader pattern of transnational repression, extending from hubs like New York City and the United Nations’ premises in Geneva to smaller towns in the United Kingdom and Australia. Chinese and Hong Kong authorities, and their proxies, continue to coerce, control, or silence critics of the regime who have sought refuge overseas.
This phenomenon is expanding, according to recent reports by the U.N. and European Parliament, which identify China as a leading perpetrator alongside Russia, Iran, and other autocratic states. Earlier this year, an investigation exposed the sprawling scope and tactics of Beijing’s campaign to target regime critics abroad, revealing the misuse of international institutions, including the U.N. and Interpol.
In the wake of the investigation, officials in democratic nations have announced reforms, acknowledging that this constitutes foreign interference and a growing threat to national sovereignty. In April, the U.N. published its first-ever guidelines on transnational repression, and in November, the European Parliament followed with a resolution urging EU member states to confront such efforts.
At a recent event on transnational repression in Brussels, European lawmakers and officials, including representatives from the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European External Action Service, voiced concerns about the escalating threat. “It is a global and urgent challenge that demands a global and urgent response,” said Christina Meinecke, OHCHR’s representative in Europe.
Uneven Response and Ongoing Concerns
Germany, which recently convicted a Chinese businessman for spying, is considering amending its criminal law to better address transnational repression. However, critics argue that the response remains uneven and lacks concrete action. Human rights advocates attending the Brussels event welcomed the increased attention but stressed that it’s insufficient to protect those targeted.
“Indeed the attention is growing,” said Philippe Dam, advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “That should not hide the fact that the EU’s response, foreign policy response, remains too limited, while the domestic responses remain quite inexistent.”
In recent months, at least two Europe-based Chinese students—Zhang Yadi, a Tibetan rights activist in France, and Hu Yang, in the Netherlands—were detained upon returning to China for the holidays, facing charges of “secession” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” allegedly for speaking out against the regime. Human rights associations believe they were under surveillance while living abroad.
The U.N.’s own premises are not immune to this repression. Investigations revealed that Beijing has transformed the U.N.’s Palais des Nations in Geneva into a hostile environment for critics of President Xi Jinping. Activists and lawyers reported surveillance, harassment, and intimidation by individuals believed to be Chinese diplomats or government proxies, even threats of physical assault and death. Some activists reported family members being pressured by Chinese authorities to cease their advocacy.
Investigations also revealed that more than half of the 106 Chinese nongovernmental organizations with special consultative status at the U.N. are not independent of the government or the Communist Party. A recent documentary by Yle, a Finnish broadcaster, confirmed these findings, revealing that a Chinese military spy worked as a high-ranking official with China’s U.N. mission in Geneva before allegedly attempting to obtain NATO secrets from an Estonian scientist.
The agent, identified as a member of China’s Central Military Commission’s intelligence bureau named “Victoria,” served as the second secretary of China’s Permanent Mission between 2012 and 2014. After leaving her U.N. post, she allegedly participated in a team attempting to acquire secret information about cybersecurity and maritime strategy in the Baltic Sea and Arctic regions, according to Estonian prosecutors.
The Chinese officers allegedly paid the scientist and a lawyer more than $40,000 in cash, luxury trips, and dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants. The scientist was convicted of espionage in 2021, and the lawyer in 2023. The Chinese agents, based in Beijing, were not prosecuted.
Zumretay Arkin, vice president of the World Uyghur Congress, expressed surprise at the revelation of a Chinese military spy within the U.N. mission. “We’ve been followed by Chinese diplomats from the mission itself,” Arkin said. “They’ve taken our photos, and our family members were retaliated against because of our presence in that [U.N.] space and our work, and people from the mission themselves were responsible for that.” Arkin reported instances of intimidation, including family members being pressured in China and pamphlets being removed from her exhibition table at the U.N.
While welcoming the U.N.’s guidelines and commitment, Arkin emphasized the need for bolder actions and greater protection for victims of transnational repression. “Transnational repression is a reality that we’ve lived for many years” and is “contributing to the shrinking space for civil society,” she said. “We need to see concrete action, concrete protection … steps taken by the U.N., not just policy briefings.”
