New EU Report Urges More Aggressive Action Against Transnational Repression

Citizen Lab senior research associate Emile Dirks spoke with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists about a report he co-authored on transnational repression in the EU. 

The authors found that European nations respond more weakly to transnational repression from China than repression by other countries. Dirks notes that this is likely due to closer economic ties with China. “Many Democratic states, including within the European Union, are…looking to maintain workable relations with China in a range of areas,” he says.

The report also calls  for a coordinated response from European countries and greater support for victims. “For many people, this is a human rights problem that they face day in and day out, and that failure to address this problem will have real human consequences for those individuals and their wider communities,” Dirks says.