UPDATED at 10:16 a.m. on Oct. 10, 2024.
Growing efforts by China to silence critics living in the United States are “extremely dangerous” threats to the security of Americans, the top U.S. diplomat for human rights said at a forum Wednesday.
Dafna Rand, who was confirmed in August as the new assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor after being vetted by senators in February, said regular Americans should care about the "great power competition" with China because Beijing's human rights abuses were being exported to their backyards.
At an event hosted by the International Republican Institute, Rand said she viewed the emerging power rivalry with China as one centered on values, with the United States backing open society and democracy.
By contrast, she said, Beijing acts zealously to crush dissent.
“Not only do they go after dissidents and political oppositionists and civil society and journalists and bloggers within the PRC, but now are emboldened to go after dissidents … who have been exiled, or fled,” Rand said, using an acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
“This is extremely dangerous to the American taxpayer – this means that the United States is fair game for PRC and others,” she said. “This is a world where security is not confined to the nation state.”
Transnational repression
China's government has been repeatedly accused of trying to silence critics living in the United States by making threats, harassing or even outright attacking dissidents who dare to speak out against it.
People protesting against Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to San Francisco last year were attacked by pro-Xi supporters, for instance, and Chinese students studying in American colleges say they fear being monitored by fellow students if they criticize Beijing.
Uyghurs living in the United States have likewise reported fears about speaking publicly against the genocide occuring against their people in China due to threats against family still trapped in the country.
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However, Chinese officials have denied any orchestration of attacks on government critics. In some cases, they have turned the blame back on U.S. officials for apparently fabricating the claims due to an anti-China bias, and in others have said regime supporters are the real victims.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, repeated those denials in an email to Radio Free Asia.
“The Chinese government strictly abides by international law and fully respects other countries' sovereignty in law enforcement. There is no such thing as ‘transnational repression’ of so-called ‘dissidents,’” Liu said. “This is an issue concocted by the U.S. to slander China.”
“By attacking China's reasonable and lawful law enforcement operations, the U.S. will encourage more Chinese criminals to seek political asylum in the U.S. and serve as a ‘haven for crime,’ which will eventually shoot itself in the foot,” the spokesperson said.
Double standards
At the event on Wednesday, Rand also acknowledged that for geopolitical reasons the United States often supports governments that have been found to have committed human rights violations.
She said she viewed her role as the new head of the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor as advocating for changes that chip away at that double standard.
"This is the core of DRL's raison d'etre and daily work," Rand said, adding that State Department officials were "having really fruitful and productive and constructive debates every day" on the issues.
U.S. foreign policy would always be about “balancing” Washington’s “global security concerns” with its human rights agenda, she explained, with her office in charge of gradually convincing rights-abusing U.S. partners that “essentially, this is not good for our partnership.”
Edited by Malcolm Foster. Updated to include comments from the Chinese Embassy in Washington.