The International Campaign for Tibet joined a conference in the European Parliament this week that aimed at shedding light on the dangerous impacts of China’s growing influence and transnational repression activities in Europe – including against Tibetans.
Titled “China’s growing influence in the EU: Implications for EU Policy, national security and human rights”, the event, that took place on 30 November, was organized by the Italian Federation for Human Rights and the World Uyghur Congress and hosted by Vice-President of the European Parliament Pina Picierno.
“CCP’s influence in the EU is particularly concerning when it comes to its growing campaigns of transnational repression as well as disinformation operations,” said ICT’s EU Policy Director Vincent Metten, who spoke at the conference. “The EU and its Member States need to further develop a wide range of measures to counter this influence and protect their citizens.”
Dawa Tsering, President of the Tibetan community in the Netherlands, also shared his own harrowing account of Chinese intimidation efforts targeted at Tibetans. “I feel like I am being watched constantly and every step of me is being tracked. It is a scary thought to think about how much they actually know about me and my family and what they could do to us,” he said.
Other speakers at the conference included Dolkun Isa, President of the Word Uyghur Congress, who spoke about China’s transnational repression of Uyghurs both in East Turkestan and abroad, and Finn Lau who presented the difficult situation of pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong.
Several recommendations came out of the event, such as the need to have points of contact and hotlines for victims of transnational repression in EU Member States; the necessity to have a unified definition of transnational repression at the EU level; or the suspension of extradition treaties that exists between China and a number of European countries such as Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania and Lithuania.