Transnational Repression
Tracking China's surveillance, harassment, and extradition of Uyghurs across national borders.
The Oxus Society tracks China's global campaign of surveillance, harassment, repression, and extradition targeting Uyghurs across national borders. This project documents these incidents through reports, datasets, and interactive visualizations, providing an essential resource for researchers, journalists, and policymakers.
Key Reports
In-depth research and analysis from this project
Book: Great Wall of Steel: China’s Global Campaign to Suppress the Uyghurs
China has conducted a systematic campaign of transnational repression targeting Uyghurs across 44 countries since 1997, resulting in over 1,500 documented deportations and detentions, with tactics escalating from South Asia to the Middle East and expanding to include digital surveillance and coercion of family members. This comprehensive dataset and analysis documents how Beijing pursues Uyghurs internationally through multiple security services, revealing a coordinated effort that likely...
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Beyond Silence: Collaboration Between Arab States and China in the Transnational Repression of Uyghurs
China has systematically worked with Arab governments to detain and deport Uyghurs since 2001, with at least 292 cases documented across six countries including Egypt, Morocco, and the UAE, demonstrating Beijing's expanding transnational repression network and willingness to directly intervene in partner nations' law enforcement.
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“Your Family Will Suffer”: How China is Hacking, Surveilling, and Intimidating Uyghurs in Liberal Democracies
Chinese government campaigns of surveillance, hacking, and intimidation targeting Uyghurs across 22 countries since 2002 have created pervasive fear in diaspora communities, with 95.8% of surveyed Uyghurs reporting feeling threatened and 73.5% experiencing digital harassment. The report documents 5,530 instances of transnational repression and shows how Beijing extends authoritarian control beyond its borders despite living in liberal democracies.
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“Nets Cast from the Earth to the Sky:” China’s Hunt for Pakistan’s Uyghurs
China has systematically pursued Uyghurs living in Pakistan and Afghanistan since the late 1990s through detention, deportation, and transnational repression, leveraging economic incentives like the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to secure government cooperation in silencing dissent and violating international human rights norms.
Read reportAbout the Data
Our interactive map documents over 250 incidents of Chinese transnational repression targeting Uyghurs. The dataset covers cases of detention, deportation, digital harassment, and intimidation across dozens of countries, revealing the global scope of Beijing's campaign.
The dataset is available for download for researchers and journalists.