Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, the Chinese government has used various means to capture more than 2,500 fugitives from overseas and compel them to return to China under a state-sanctioned abduction program, according to the report.
Since the Chinese Communist Party launched Operation Fox Hunt in 2014, followed by Operation Sky Net in 2015, over 10,000 individuals have been extradited to China.
The Washington Times reported that China is using compulsion and illegal means to extradite unwilling individuals as case studies and reports issued by Safeguard Defenders expose the scope of the Chinese government's transnational oppression and describe China's repeated violations of sovereignty of foreign nations.
According to a recent media report, a Chinese man Sun Hoi Ying charged in the US over Beijing's 'Fox Hunt' for overseas 'fugitives.'
Sun, accused of enlisting others, including a US law enforcement officer, to spy on and blackmail his victims, allegedly targeted about 35 overseas Chinese who were in trouble at home, seeking to pressure them to return to China, reported The Washington Times.
While, on January 18, a human rights NGO Safeguard Defenders published a report highlighting organized and secretive methods used by the Chinese government to compel "refugees" to backpedal to China from overseas.
The report uses the term "involuntary return" to refer to the fact that the Chinese government uses compulsion and illegal means to extradite unwilling individuals.
The Washington Times said that case studies and reports issued by Safeguard Defenders expose the scope of the Chinese government's transnational oppression and describe China's repeated violations of the sovereignty of foreign nations.
Since Xi Jinping became president in 2013, the monitoring operation has undergone multiple revisions. Operation Fox Hunt was launched by the Ministry of Public Security in June 2014 to trace individuals who alleged to be involved in economic crimes. The program's aim is to extend Xi's "anti-corruption" campaign overseas.
In 2015, China launched Operation Sky Net under the auspices of the Supreme People's Procuratorate -- China's highest national agency responsible for legal prosecution and investigation. It was later consolidated with Operation Fox Hunt, and also includes other significant operations synchronized by state and party agencies, the US-based media outlet said.
Moreover, in 2018, Operation Sky Net was undertaken by the National Supervisory Commission, a state agency launched to expand the powers of the CCP's internal anti-corruption body, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, it added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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