Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Aug. 14: The latest US State Department’s 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on China, published on Tuesday, has documented severe and systematic violations of fundamental freedoms in China, including arbitrary detention, transnational repression, and cyber surveillance targeting ethnic minorities such as Tibetans and Uyghurs.
The 42-page report emphasised Beijing’s sweeping restrictions on freedom of expression, press freedom, internet access, and religious practice. It cited the arbitrary arrest and prosecution of journalists, lawyers, writers, bloggers, dissidents, petitioners, and other individuals as a persistent feature of China’s governance.
According to the report, arbitrary arrest and detention remained systemic in 2024, with laws granting public security officers broad powers to detain individuals for extended periods without formal charges. Former political prisoners and their family members were frequently re-targeted. Many remained imprisoned or under other forms of detention, including Tibetan Buddhist monks Go Sherab Gyatso and Tenzin Khenrab, Tibetan entrepreneur Dorjee Tashi, and Tibetan singers Lhundrub Drakpa and Trinley Tsekar.
The report noted that “the [Chinese] authorities placed many citizens under house arrest during sensitive times, such as during the visits of senior foreign government officials, annual plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, and ‘sensitive’ anniversaries in Tibetan areas and Xinjiang.”
The report detailed how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its agents engaged in acts of violence and intimidation against dissidents overseas. These included threats, physical assaults with flagpoles and chemical sprays, stalking, theft of personal property, and other forms of harassment. A July report by the Hong Kong Democracy Council and Students for a Free Tibet documented such intimidation targeting protesters abroad.
In February, leaked documents from Chinese cybersecurity firm i-Soon (Aixun) revealed extensive cyber operations conducted on behalf of the Ministry of Public Security and other state security agencies. Targets included overseas organizations linked to ethnic minorities, primarily Uyghurs in Central and Southeast Asia and the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) in Dharamshala—demonstrating the CCP’s global reach in suppressing dissent.
