When filmmakers started calling Zhu Rikun in late October to pull out of an autonomous Chinese film festival he was organizing in New York, he initially thought the problem could be solved by reshuffling the schedule.

Zhu soon realized that the festival – set to launch just a week later – could not take place at all.

Thirteen Chinese filmmakers abruptly cancelled their trips. Zhu received requests to pull most of the 45 films on the program, including works without an explicit political message: A documentary following a Beijing couple whose child has leukemia; a fictional film about a woman who lost her job during the Covid-19 pandemic; and a feature about a middle-aged couple talking while on a long walk.”I found that as long as the film festival continued, many people were still being harassed,” Zhu told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Independent film festivals in China are often targeted by local authorities. But this time it was different, Zhu said, becuase it required reaching beyond China’s borders. “Their message was quiet clear: They wanted to stop the film festival from taking place.”

>”Their message was quite clear: They wanted to stop the film festival from taking place.”
>- Zhu Rikun, Director of the Indirechana Film Festival in New York

From international hubs like New York City and the United Nations’ premises in Geneva, to smaller towns in the United Kingdom and Australia, Chinese and Hong kong authorities – and their proxies – continue to coerce, control or silence critics of the regime and independent voices who sought refuge overseas.

This phenomenon, often described as transnational repression, is expanding, according to recent reports by the U.N. and European Parliament which identify China as a leading perpetrator alongside Russia, Iran and other autocratic states.

Earlier this year, ICIJ’s China Targets investigation exposed the sprawling scope and terrifying tactics of Beijing’s campaign to target regime critics living abroad. In collaboration wiht 42 media partners, the investigation uncovered how the Chinese government has misused international institutions, including the U.N. and Interpol, to target overseas dissidents, while democratic nations often do little to stop it.

In the weeks and months following the investigation, officials in democratic nations have announced reforms, saying the phenomenon amounts to foreign interference and presents a growing threat to their countries’ sovereignty.

In April, the U.N. published its first-ever guidelines on transnational repression. In November, the European Parliament followed up with a resolution urging EU member states to confront efforts by authoritarian regimes to coerce, control or silence dissidents living in Europe.

This month,at an event hosted by the european Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights,experts discussed mapping trends in transnational repression and identifying effective countermeasures.

China Recruited U.N. Staffer for Espionage, Records Show

China’s intelligence services recruited a United Nations staff member, known only as “Victoria,” to gather information on European security matters, according to records examined by Yle show.

About two years after ending her U.N. stint, “Victoria” was part of a team of agents who, operating under the cover of a think tank, allegedly tried to obtain secret information about cybersecurity and maritime strategy in the Baltic Sea and Arctic regions, according to Estonian prosecutors.

The revelations emerged from a case involving an Estonian legal professional convicted of helping “Victoria” and two other Chinese spies connect with a marine scientist who had access to classified information while serving on a scientific committee of the NATO Center for Maritime Research and Experimentation in La Spezia, Italy.

The Chinese officers allegedly paid the scientist and the lawyer more than $40,000 in cash, luxury trips to Asia and dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants, according to court records. The scientist was convicted of espionage in 2021. The lawyer was convicted in 2023. The Chinese agents, who were based in Beijing, according to the records, were not prosecuted.

Yle found “Victoria” ‘s Chinese name and identified t