Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping said it himself: ethnic Chinese around the world “are all Chinese family members”. As such, he said in Beijing in 2014 before representatives of diaspora associations from 119 countries, they “never forget their country, their origins, and the blood of the Chinese nation that runs in their veins”.
As China gains in power, it intends to rely on these communities already established for a long time outside the borders – sometimes precisely to extricate itself from the weight of the communist regime – to extend its influence. Since its economic opening at the end of the 1970s, the regime already saw the diaspora as a lever for development, calling on its members to invest or develop trade flows.
“In recent years, under Xi Jinping, China also intends to use it for political purposes, asking it to help carry propaganda. Members of the Diaspora are invited to “telling the Chinese narrative well” »explains Carsten Schäfer, professor of contemporary China at the University of Cologne.
We have thus seen associations of Chinese living abroad and the state media celebrate the role that the diaspora can play in the project carried out by President Xi Jinping for the “new silk roads” – the construction and financing of infrastructures, bridges, ports, roads, railways, public buildings, and a reinforcement of the trade which must contribute to make of China an international actor.
In doing so, Beijing is increasingly interested in these communities with ethnic and cultural ties but also a geographical and historical distance with the Middle Kingdom and, above all, not falling, for many, of Chinese citizenship. To the point that the line is blurred in the vision of the regime between Chinese origins and citizenship, in favor of a transnational reading: regardless of place of birth, residence or passport, it considers to have a form of right over these individuals. . A challenge to the sovereignty of other countries, by which it tests its own power and the diplomatic reactions it arouses or not.
Repatriating fugitives from abroad
The opening of pharmacies serving as a relay for the Chinese police in the premises of associations and relying on members of the diaspora, which the organization Safeguard Defenders revealed in September 2022, is part of this development. By combing the press and the sites of the Chinese police, the NGO has identified 102 in 53 different countries. Including four in France.
You have 41.09% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.