Description
Recently, research on global authoritarianism and transnational repression has expanded rapidly and deepened our understanding of the ways in which less- and non-democratic regimes seek to control or silence parts of their non-resident populations. While we have a fairly good understanding of the underlying operating logics and authoritarian regimes’ strategies and tactics, we know comparatively less about the ways in which the intended targets or victims experience these practices. To further help fill this gap, the present article focuses on the lived experiences of exiled Uyghur activists in Sweden, and how they perceive, react and adapt to Chinese efforts to silence their voices thousands of miles from home. Building on semi-structured interviews with diaspora activists and secondary sources, we find that repressive practices such as surveillance, harassment as well as repression by proxy seem to be rather widespread. At the same time, we find these practices, at least in this particular context, to be less efficacious than the perpetrators might like. We identify the host country context – understood broadly – to be a key issue for further research in this space.
