China forced 2,500 ‘fugitives’ back from overseas during pandemic, report finds

Chinese authorities captured more than 2,500 "fugitives" from overseas and brought them back to China during the pandemic, under a program using methods ranging from family intimidation to "state-sanctioned kidnapping", according to a new report.

Human rights group Safeguard Defenders estimates in its report published on Tuesday that the continued repatriations now total more than 10,000 since Beijing launched operation Fox Hunt in 2014, followed by Sky Net in 2015.

During the pandemic, at least 1,421 people were brought back to China in 2020 and 1,114 in 2021, based on government figures, despite international lockdowns and travel restrictions. The figures only include those captured for purported economic crimes or crimes related to their official duties.

In December 2021 the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) described the year's operation as "fruitful".

In 2018 Sky Net was moved under the control of the newly formed non-judicial body, the National Supervision Commission. In February 2021 the commission relaunched the program, expanding it to fugitives in the fields of political and legal affairs, and civil affairs. Human rights groups believe activists and dissidents are now often targeted, including Uyghurs and Hongkongers living overseas. In July the Uyghur Human Rights Project documented 395 cases of Uyghurs being deported, extradited, or rendered back to China.

"Since Xi Jinping came to power the Chinese government intensified the crackdown on civil society," said US-based human rights activist Teng Biao. "They have targeted lawyers and dissidents, bloggers, journalists, Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, everything in civil society."

The methods to force someone back to China, outside formal bilateral agreements on extradition and deportation, can range from refusing to renew a passport, to misusing the Interpol red notice system to have international warrants issued, the report said. They also include exit bans and intimidation of targets' family members in China, and in-person threats by Chinese agents operating on foreign soil. At the more extreme end of the scale are acts which Safeguard Defenders termed state-sanctioned kidnappings, but which Beijing calls "irregular methods". These sometimes involved covert operations in conjunction with host country forces, the report said, or tricking the target into going to a third country where they could be extradited.