Why It Matters
An upcoming House hearing will focus on transnational repression tactics that have moved beyond foreign soil into American communities and universities. The House Foreign Affairs Committee's East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee has scheduled "Lives, Not Leverage: The Long Arm Of China And North Korea's Repression" for September 16.
Context
According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, China operates overseas police stations as part of its transnational repression toolkit; conducts intelligence operations targeting Beijing's critics in foreign countries; makes efforts to undermine free speech at universities; engages in online harassment; uses coercion-by-proxy tactics; abuses the INTERPOL red notice system; and leverages extradition treaties. North Korea has strengthened laws to increase citizen reporting of criminal or suspicious activities; increased mass surveillance; and enforces a shoot-on-sight border order that originated from a 2020 Covid-19 related decree.
In Hong Kong, the scope of repression has escalated quickly in the five years since the National Security Law was imposed. The territory's last active pro-democracy party, the League of Social Democrats, disbanded in 2025. Authorities used the national security law to prosecute a Hong Kong-based family member of pro-democracy leader Anna Kwok, who is based abroad.
The U.S. has also formally designated the American scholar U Min Zin, who studies Burma, as wrongfully detained by China.
The Hearing
Rep. Young Kim (R-CA-40) chairs the subcommittee. Human rights activist Deborah Choi is scheduled to testify as a witness.
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