Beijing Codifies Repression of Overseas Activists

Senior research associate Emile Dirks spoke with Domino Theory about a new law in China that promotes “ethnic unity” and threatens cross-border legal consequences for those who disobey it.

The explicit codification of transnational repression can have a chilling effect, says Dirks. “It serves as a kind of sword of Damocles hanging over people’s heads,” he says. “It’s explicitly written down, a law that is clearly intended to prohibit certain kinds of public activism.”