Human Rights Watch pointed out in a new report that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is preventing Chinese residents in Japan from participating in protests and rights activities through cross-border harassment and intimidation.
According to interviews conducted by Human Rights Watch between June and August of this year, 25 Chinese individuals from Hong Kong and mainland China, including ethnic minorities from Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia, expressed that CCP police have been using their relatives in China to warn them against engaging in activities critical of the CCP or peaceful protests against the Chinese government’s policies.
These individuals have participated in peaceful activities deemed threatening to the CCP’s one-party rule, such as organizing public events to expose human rights abuses in Xinjiang, promoting Tibetan culture, or establishing book clubs to discuss the works of Inner Mongolian advocacy figures.
The report stated that several Uighur individuals from Xinjiang shared that CCP authorities contacted them through their families, with the police demanding them to either cease their anti-China government activities in Japan or provide information about the Uighur community in Japan to the authorities.
Some interviewees presented WeChat conversations, video call records, and surveillance footage as evidence to support their claims.
Individuals from Inner Mongolia mentioned that the CCP authorities often reach out to them through their relatives back in their hometown.
One interviewee mentioned that since receiving a phone call from the CCP authorities in 2024, they have refrained from participating in any offline or online politically sensitive activities.
A Tibetan individual residing in Japan stated that when they visited the Chinese embassy in Tokyo to renew their passport, embassy officials informed them that they need to return to Tibet for processing. A Taiwanese who had participated in democracy activities related to Hong Kong in a third country mentioned that the Chinese embassy had repeatedly invited them to “reclaim important documents.” Fearing detention or reprisals, they refused the embassy’s suggestions.
Several interviewees expressed that they did not seek help from the Japanese police as they believed that the Japanese authorities could not provide any remedies. They also feared retaliation or worsening the situation for their families in China.
In 2023, Hong Kong police arbitrarily arrested a 23-year-old Hong Kong woman returning from Japan on the grounds that she had expressed support for the pro-democracy movement online during her time in Japan.
CCP authorities also targeted local Chinese expatriates to gather information about other individuals in Japan.
The aforementioned report included several case studies of CCP government harassment of Chinese citizens residing in Japan.
One Chinese activist living in Japan, using the alias “AB,” told Human Rights Watch that he participated in public protests against the CCP’s policy to replace Mongolian language with Mandarin in schools, leading to retaliation against his family. Inner Mongolian police interrogated his relatives, restricted their movements, and denied them passports.
“AB” said: “My family told me that the pressure they felt made them fearful, which made me very distressed.”
Researcher Teppei Kasegai of Human Rights Watch Asia remarked that “the CCP authorities seem relentless in preventing Chinese individuals who have moved to Japan from speaking out against China’s human rights abuses,” and “the Japanese government should make it clear to the CCP that they will not tolerate China’s extraterritorial repression extending into Japan.”
The term “extraterritorial repression” is increasingly used to describe a regime suppressing or silencing dissent outside its borders. On June 26, Japan and 54 countries worldwide jointly condemned extraterritorial repression at the United Nations Human Rights Council and pledged to hold perpetrators accountable.
The CCP has transformed cross-border repression into a global strategy aimed at suppressing dissidents, controlling overseas Chinese communities, and expanding its authoritarian influence. While the CCP regime has long employed censorship, surveillance, and repression against dissent within its borders, these tactics increasingly extend overseas, undermining democratic freedoms in other countries.
Human Rights Watch indicated that they had written to the Chinese Embassy in Japan to share their findings and solicit feedback, but they did not receive an immediate response. The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment, and the Japanese National Police Agency did not respond to Human Rights Watch’s inquiry on how the police are addressing CCP’s repression measures in Japan.
Human Rights Watch emphasized that the Japanese government should acknowledge the threat posed by CCP government repression of overseas Chinese nationals and establish a complaint mechanism for residents in Japan to help protect the fundamental rights of overseas Chinese nationals. Japan should promptly establish a national system to investigate cases of cross-border suppression while appropriately safeguarding individual privacy.