Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Authoritarian Countries Increasingly Target Critics Abroad, Monitor Says

VOA News

   China, Russia, Turkey and Iran are some of the world's authoritarian
   countries that have increasingly spread political repression abroad
   with little consequence, according to a report released Thursday.
   Freedom House, a Washington-based democracy advocacy group, identified
   authoritarian nations that have resorted to tactics in recent years to
   murder and intimidate critics living outside their borders.
   Titled "[1]Out of Sight, Not Out of Reach," the report said there have
   been at least 608 acts of physical repression against individuals since
   2014 in 79 countries, including the United States. About 3.5 million
   people were affected by direct or secondary attacks in that time span,
   the report said.
   China was the worst offender, conducting "the most sophisticated,
   global and comprehensive campaign of transnational repression in the
   world," said Freedom House.
   China deployed a wide range of tactics against dissidents abroad,
   including Uighurs, Han Chinese, Tibetans and Falun Gong adherents,
   according to the report. Bejing also kidnapped exiled activists such as
   Gui Minhai, a bookseller of Swedish nationality who was relocated back
   to China from Thailand in 2015.
   Turkey ranked a close second in the use of transnational repression,
   particularly after the July 2016 coup attempt against President Recep
   Tayyip Erdogan. The report said Turkey engaged in murders, interstate
   extraditions, physical threats and "mobility controls" such as passport
   cancellations and denial of consular assistance.
   The report said Russia engaged in "highly aggressive" acts of
   repression abroad by "heavily" relying on assassinations of people
   deemed as threats by the Russian government.
   The Kremlin's repression campaign resulted in seven of 26
   assassinations or assassination attempts identified worldwide by
   Freedom House between 2014 and 2020.

References

   1. https://freedomhouse.org/report/transnational-repression

.