The growing number of cases involving foreign nationals detained by Chinese authorities reveals an increasingly alarming pattern of Beijing using foreign citizens as leverage to pressure other governments, in what amounts to “hostage diplomacy.”
It noted that the trend suggests that earlier cases may have represented only a small fraction of the actual scale of such detentions, with Chinese police and the Ministry of State Security (MSS) seemingly becoming increasingly emboldened in targeting foreign nationals, particularly when they are seen as a tool of foreign policy. A Czech citizen, taken this summer by Chinese police – or more likely by the Ministry of State Security (MSS) – as part of hostage diplomacy, to pressure the Czech government into releasing an alleged Chinese spy. One U.S. citizen taken by the MSS after being lured into the country. Another U.S. citizen only just moved into formal arrest.
A British citizen whose release from prison was only recently made public. Two Japanese businessmen working in the sensitive field of rare earth materials. A Chinese journalist whose whereabouts and condition remain unknown to this day. An endless parade of Chinese lawyers, journalists, and NGO workers. All these individuals share one disturbing experience: they have been, or remain, victims of enforced disappearance. They were not simply detained or arrested but disappeared into what Chinese authorities euphemistically describe as ‘residential surveillance at a designated location’ (RSDL), said Dahlin, a former victim of RSDL.