Roof of the World-Tibet in Context - Kate Saunders and Rebon Banerjee Dhar in conversation with Laura Harth

Tibet in Context is a podcast series that gears in gaining a deeper understanding of Tibet through conversations with Tibetans, China Watchers, Tibetologists, Environmentalist and Security Experts.

In this episode, we engage with Laura Harth who is the Campaign Director of Safeguard Defenders in understanding the truth of China's Transnational Policing.

Their report "110 Overseas: China's Policing gone wild" documents that Chinese police forces have been running “overseas police service stations” in “dozens of countries” across five continents since 2018, constituting illegal policing operations on foreign soil.

Since the report was released on 12 September, 14 governments have started investigations into the police stations on their territory - including Austria, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Nigeria, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, the UK and the US, documented here: https://safeguarddefenders.com/sites/default/files/pdf/110%20Overseas%20%284%29.pdf

The podcast opens with a discussion about a shocking incident in Britain when Chinese consular officials assaulted a peaceful protester from Hong Kong on 16 October. Hong Kongers were holding a peaceful demonstration outside the Chinese Consulate in Manchester coinciding with Xi Jinping’s assertion of power at the Party Congress in Beijing.

Chinese consular officials escalated the protest by tearing down images of Xi Jinping displayed by the protestors. Then Hong Konger Bob Chan was set upon by masked Chinese men and physically dragged into the grounds of the consulate.

After initial denials were disproved by the video clip, Zheng told Chinese state media that he was merely ‘doing his duty’. Greater Manchester police have launched an investigation into the assault. The incident was a frightening demonstration of the efforts made by the Chinese government and their proxies to silence and instil fear not only their own citizens but beyond their borders.

The podcast features a discussion on the significance of a new development on 6 October, a landmark decision by the European Court of Human Rights that could herald an end to Europe’s extraditions to China. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) unanimously found that the extradition of a Taiwanese national to China, which Poland’s courts had cleared earlier, would place him at significant risk of ill-treatment and torture. This decision will most likely mean European countries will find it near impossible to extradite suspects to China again.

Safeguard Defenders has called for democracies worldwide to recognize the domestic threat represented by these rapidly expanding transnational repression operations and adopt a whole-of-government approach to:

1. Investigate the PRC's transnational repression tactics and underlying networks – also in countries where no police service station appears to have been set up
2. Set up adequate reporting and protection mechanisms for communities at risk and ensure local law enforcement offices are aware of the particular threats they face
3. Urgently review – and possibly suspend - judicial and police cooperation agreements with the PRC;
4. Coordinate information-sharing and adequate responses with like-minded countries, including targeted sanctions and visa restrictions on those responsible for or complicit in these efforts.