Beijing: The growing number of cases involving foreign nationals detained by Chinese authorities reveals an increasingly alarming pattern of Beijing using foreign citizens as leverage to pressure other governments, in what amounts to “hostage diplomacy”, a report has stated.
It noted that the trend suggests that earlier cases may have represented only a small fraction of the actual scale of such detentions, with Chinese police and the Ministry of State Security (MSS) seemingly becoming increasingly emboldened in targeting foreign nationals, particularly when they are seen as a tool of foreign policy.
“A Czech citizen, taken this summer by Chinese police – or more likely by the Ministry of State Security (MSS) – as part of hostage diplomacy, to pressure the Czech government into releasing an alleged Chinese spy. One U.S. citizen taken by the MSS after being lured into the country. Another U.S. citizen only just moved into formal arrest,” Peter Dahlin, founder of the NGO Safeguard Defenders, wrote in ‘The Diplomat’.
“A British citizen whose release from prison was only recently made public. Two Japanese businessmen working in the sensitive field of rare earth materials. A Chinese journalist whose whereabouts and condition remain unknown to this day. An endless parade of Chinese lawyers, journalists, and NGO workers,” he added.
All these individuals share one disturbing experience: they have been, or remain, victims of enforced disappearance. They were not simply detained or arrested but disappeared into what Chinese authorities euphemistically describe as ‘residential surveillance at a designated location’ (RSDL), said Dahlin, a former victim of RSDL.
The diversity of these cases reflects how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is turning to RSDL as a tool in a growing range of circumstances. However, the cases highlighted above are merely the “tip of the iceberg”, he added
“It has long been known that China has used the system on foreigners in the past – myself included. However, the sheer number of cases only now coming to light suggests that past foreign victims were either just a small fraction of the real number, or, more likely, that Chinese police and the MSS alike are becoming more carefree about placing foreign citizens into the system, especially when the victim is intended as a tool of foreign policy. Or, to put it plainly: hostage diplomacy,” Dahlin stated.
