China is increasingly using foreign nationals detained by its authorities as leverage to pressure other governments, a report published in The Diplomat has alleged. The practice amounts to what critics describe as ‘hostage diplomacy’.
Peter Dahlin, founder of NGO Safeguard Defenders and a former detainee under China’s residential surveillance system, said several cases have recently come to light. These involve citizens from the Czech Republic, the United States, Britain and Japan, along with Chinese journalists, lawyers and NGO workers.
Dahlin cited the case of a Czech citizen allegedly detained by Chinese security agencies to pressure Prague into releasing a suspected Chinese spy. He also referred to two US citizens, a British national whose release from prison recently became public, and two Japanese businessmen working in the rare earth sector.
According to Dahlin, these individuals share experiences of enforced disappearance under China’s system of ‘residential surveillance at a designated location”'(RSDL). The system allows authorities to hold suspects at designated locations outside regular detention facilities.
He said the cases emerging now could represent only a fraction of the actual number of foreign nationals subjected to the system. Dahlin further alleged that Chinese police and the Ministry of State Security (MSS) have become increasingly willing to use RSDL against foreign citizens, particularly when their detention could serve foreign policy objectives.
He described the reported cases as the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and said the practice raises concerns about the use of detention as a diplomatic pressure tactic.
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