The history of modern China is interwoven with that of the Chinese diaspora. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) views having strong influence and control over the Chinese diaspora as a key goal.
The diaspora is both a source of strength and opportunity, and presents a profound threat: a well organised and resourced dissident movement abroad could play a key role in toppling the CCP, as it did previous Chinese regimes.
Sun Yat-sen was the main leader of the 1911 revolution that overthrew China’s last dynasty, the Qing. He is revered as the “”Father of Nation“” in Taiwan and as the “”Forerunner of the Revolution“” in the mainland China.
Sun spent his formative years in Hawaii, and spent years plotting the Qing’s demise as an exiled revolutionary in the United Kingdom, Japan, Thailand, the United States and Singapore, gathering funds and support from Chinese diasporas as he travelled.
This included extensive support from ‘triads’ and secret societies involved in criminal or greyzone activity in countries other than China.
During the turbulence and war of the period 1911-1949, the CCP and other factions in China continued to compete for the political and financial and support of the Chinese diaspora.
When the CCP established the People’s Republic of China, it immediately sought to institutionalise its diasporic policy by means of the United Front system.
The construction of pro-CCP networks amongst Chinese diasporas – of a “broad and patriotic” United Front – is useful for surveillance and political warfare and is deeply linked to repression of anti-CCP elements. For example, there are a number of cases in which pro-CCP or nationalist students in universities have informed on their peers, leading in some case to very severe consequences.
You can read our research on the United Front elsewhere on our website. This page focuses on repression of anti-CCP elements and not the construction of pro-CCP networks per se.
There is growing awareness of “transnational repression” in the UK, which is host to perhaps as many as 1,000,000 people of Chinese ethnicity, many of whom have Chinese nationality or enduring familial ties to China.
Pressure on the family of dissidents is one of the main ways that the CCP seeks to threaten and intimidate those it identifies as its opponents.
UK-China Transparency is aware of multiple cases in which the China-based family members of individuals in the UK have been arrested and interviewed by police in relation to the conduct of their relative based here. In some cases, this pressure extends to social penalties.
There are a number of issues discussion of which is highly sensitive, however, there are no well-defined red lines as enforcement of speech norms is arbitrary and irregular.
UKCT’s research suggests that different standards are applied, for example, to Uyghurs than to mainland Chinese, and again to those from Hong Kong. Class may also be an important variable, as may whether (m)any members of a dissident’s family are CCP members.
Repression may also take the form of digital interference, including hacking and threats made online. There have also been instances of violence directed at anti-CCP protestors, as in London’s Chinatown in 2022, when supporters of a rally organised in part by pro-CCP groups attacked democracy activists from Hong Kong.
In some cases, British institutions are complicit in repression. UKCT is aware of cases involving students in which university staff have not only not provided support to anti-CCP Chinese students informed on by their peers, but have actually amplified the pile-on by suggesting such students have engaged in behaviour ‘offensive to China‘, thereby failing to understand the high stakes involved in what they may see as simple disagreements between teenagers. Hundreds of Chinese students have claimed asylum in the UK since 2020.
In the past, there has also been government complicity in Chinese transnational repression.
In the past, there has also been government complicity in Chinese transnational repression. During Xi Jinping‘s visit to the UK in 2015, the then Conservative government was very anxious to please the CCP. When a protestor, Thomas Shao, jumped in front of Xi Jinping’s motorcade, he could expect to be removed from the scene. Mr Shao, however, was not just removed but arrested for a public order offence and held overnight. His home was raided and his electronic devices seized and scanned by British police but was never charged. Mr Shao has never been told exactly why this happened, however, an investigation conducted by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in 2018 found that the extraordinary actions taken by the police were a result of Chinese pressure on the Home Office, which interfered to concoct the charge. In 2019, the IOPC reversed its recommendations on disciplinary action without any explanation.
UKCT is committed to studying and publicising CCP repression and surveillence of the Chinese diaspora in the UK. We examine individual cases, talk to those involved, hold to account those who are complicit, and study what actions the government and civil society organisations are taking to address these issues.
How many people may be affected?
According to the UK’s 2021/22 Census, there are more than 500,000 people living in the United Kingdom who have Chinese ethnicity. This figure included those with Chinese nationality, of which roughly 150,000 were university students from China.
This figure, however, did not include roughly 500,000 Chinese who came to the UK on a 6-month visitor visa.
Nor did it include all of those who were from Hong Kong, regardless of their nationality. Those from Hong Kong who filled in the census in March 2021 may not have indicated their ethnicity as ‘Chinese’. Furthermore, it has been estimated 180,000 Hong Kong British National (Overseas) passport holders have come to the UK since 2021.
Finally, the ’21/22 Census figure certainly did not include the “”statusless”” Chinese population, that is those with Chinese ethnicity who reside in the UK illegally. There are no well substantiated estimates of the size of this population.
A 2022 academic study arrived at the figure of 200,000. The same study presented data showing that, between 2004 and 2016, the Home Office returned 43,614 illegal immigrants to China.
There have been roughly 10,000 more returns since 2016.
All in all, then, it is likely there are more than 1,000,000 people in the UK who trace their origins to Hong Kong or China.
