Read coverage of this story in Chinese.
So many foreign nationals have gone “missing” in China in recent years, later found to be detained by the authorities, that a rights group has issued a handbook for loved ones dealing with similar situations.
The detentions of U.S. citizen Kai Li, Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, Taiwanese citizens Morrison Lee and Lee Ming-cheh, Hong Konger Simon Cheng, Japanese nationals Iwatini Nobu and Hideji Suzuki, and Australians Yang Hengjun and Cheng Lei have all hit global headlines in recent years, but they are the tip of the iceberg, according to the Spain-based rights group Safeguard Defenders.
“After Xi Jinping became leader in 2012, the country has slowly been closing its doors to outsiders,” the group — which also runs a legal center for overseas Chinese nationals facing forced repatriation or “long-arm” enforcement by agents of the Chinese state — said in its new guide for the families of foreigners missing in China.
“It has also become increasingly emboldened at detaining foreigners for politically motivated reasons, [including] cases of hostage diplomacy, where Beijing aims to pressure or punish a foreign government,” the handbook said, adding that detentions are often framed as part of an expanding focus on national security.
Such arrests and disappearances can leave loved ones “feeling helpless in the face of the country’s opaque justice system,” it said, offering a set of practical tips on how to deal with a loved one who goes missing in China.
“This handbook is practical and thus describes the situation as it is in China, including the absence of rule of law or an independent judiciary,” Safeguard Defenders Advocacy Director Laura Harth told RFA Mandarin in written comments.
“While it does contain information that may be useful for wider advocacy purposes ... its main aim is to guide foreign victims and their family members through the process, so they may know how to prepare, what to expect, who to turn to, and other practical steps to secure the release of their loved one,” Harth said.
Dangers posed by ‘foreign spies’
According to the handbook, the risk to foreigners of arbitrary detentions in China has grown, particularly following the amendment of the State Secrets Law to include “work secrets” in May 2024, and of the Counter-Espionage Law in 2023 to include broader definitions of spying.
“Taking photos in a public space, posting something on social media outside China, looking up information or collecting economic data, chatting to friends, or attending a nonofficial religious service, may now be considered criminal behavior,” it warned, adding that China’s feared Ministry of State Security now has a WeChat account which it uses to warn the public about the dangers posed by “foreign spies.”
In 2022, the government in democratic Taiwan warned its 23 million citizens not to travel to China unless absolutely necessary, after police in China’s Zhejiang announced the arrest of a Taiwanese national for “separatism.”
The U.S. travel advisory for China also mentions the risk of “arbitrary detentions.”
“People from overseas, including Taiwan and other countries, can suddenly disappear in China,” U.S.-based rights lawyer Li Fangping told RFA Mandarin in an interview on Feb. 25.
“Since there is no legal process, [families] can only seek help or exert pressure through the consulate, or in Taiwan via the Straits Exchange Foundation, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, or other international mechanisms,” Li said. “There are more and more cases like this.”
Yet, Beijing has a history of routinely violating its consular obligations to provide governments with timely information on, and access to, foreign citizens it has detained, according to the handbook, which is available in English, Chinese and Japanese.
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Anyone with dual citizenship who holds a Chinese passport will be treated as a domestic case, with no consular access at all, despite Chinese law regarding their citizenship as null and void with the acquisition of another country’s passport.
“Lawyer access is frequently denied or restricted, conditions in custody are harsh, torture and forced confessions are prevalent,” the handbook warned.
Few qualms about detaining foreign nationals
Enghebatu Togochog, who heads the New York-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, said Chinese state security police have few qualms about detaining and interrogating foreign nationals.
“Once the Chinese authorities want to imprison you, there is no guidance or instruction manual that can stop them from doing so,” he said.
He said an ethnic Mongolian who was recently detained on a trip back to China after living overseas for many years had been warned by state security police: “You’re in our custody, and as the state security agency, we can do what we want with you, even if you’re a U.S. citizen.”
In “national security” cases, detainees can be held incommunicado under Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location for six months with no external visits or access to a lawyer.
And arrests are almost 100% guaranteed to end in a conviction, according to the handbook.
Nonetheless, there are things that can be done, and the handbook walks through all the steps people can take to help missing loved ones in China.
“If your loved one knows that on the outside they have someone with a calm head on their shoulders and are leveraging every resource possible while maintaining productive and cooperative relations with your government at both working and political level, then it will help them get through what will be the hardest time in their lives,” Nick Coyle, partner of Australian journalist Cheng Lei, was quoted as saying by the handbook.
“As a loved one, your job is to help get them through this and to leave no stone unturned to get them home,” Coyle said.
But not everyone will be in a position to benefit from the handbook’s advice, according to Ilshat Hassan Kokbore, vice chairman of the executive committee of the World Uyghur Congress.
“Their suggestions are very good, but they’re pretty useless for Uyghurs, including myself,” he told RFA Mandarin, adding that he has had no news of his disappeared mother since 2016, and no news of his two sisters since 2018.
“At least outside of Xinjiang you can still ... fight for people via judicial channels, if only to attract public attention,” Kokbore said. “But when it comes to the Uyghurs, they [disappear] like a stone dropped into the sea with leaving so much as a ripple.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.