Two Australian citizens have detailed the extraordinary lengths the Chinese government will go to silence foreign dissidents and the harrowing experiences of those subject to the intimidation and harassment campaigns.
Journalist Vicky Xu and artist Badiucao spoke to the senate committee on foreign interference through social media, detailing the CCP lengths the Chinese government will go to silence foreign dissidents.
“Because of the influence and impact of that report, the Chinese government decided…cancelled me, personally,” Ms Xu told the committee. Vicky Xu said China's harassment campaign had destroyed every personal relationship she had made during the first 19 years of her life. Picture: Jonoaldor, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
“She was known to have a close relationship with me so the Chinese secret police interrogated her repeatedly to gain information about my personal life,” Ms Xu said. “I was an anonymous artist for a very long time until 2018 when my identity was compromised by China’s national security police online and then what happened is they started to use WeChat and other methods to harass my family – particularly back in China,” he said.“They couldn’t reach me directly so they would use WeChat as a tool in order to get to me – sometimes even pretending to be my relatives.
Senator Paterson, who chairs the senate committee on foreign interference through social media, said all options must be on the table to"combat this malign conduct". Picture: Supplied “I also find they are being more bold and aggressive,” Badiucao said, before detailing how he had recently been approached by someone claiming to be a journalist from Reuters.
Badiucao said he receives death threats on an almost daily basis, and despite living in Australia, his family has “no sense of safety," while Ms Xu said that despite being a “strong resilient person,” the CCP had almost broken her.
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