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Operation Fox Hunt (Chinese: 猎狐专项行动) is a Chinese covert global operation whose purported aim is anti-corruption under Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping‘s administration. It has led to the arrest of over 40 of its 100 most wanted globally.[1][2][3] The program has been accused of targeting Chinese dissidents living abroad to stop their activism under the guise of returning corrupt Chinese nationals to China to face criminal charges.[4][5][1][2]
Operation Fox Hunt was launched in June 2014. In the course of six months during 2015 Operation Fox Hunt repatriated 680 people to China.[6]
In 2015 Operation Fox Hunt scored its first big success in Europe with the arrest and extradition of a woman surnamed Zhang from Italy. It was the first time a European country had extradited someone to China on accusations of financial crimes.[7]
In March 2017, Ningxia investigators and Paris embassy personnel “successfully persuaded” fugitive Zheng Ning to come home, after he had lived in France for three years before his mysterious disappearance. Despite an extradition treaty between France and China, French officials were not informed of the repatriation, leading French intelligence to lodge a complaint. Paul Charon, an expert on China at the French defense ministry’s Institute for Strategic Research, says “It also shows a bigger phenomenon: the hardening stance of the regime in Beijing, which dares to carry out these operations overseas and mock the sovereignty of other countries.”[8]
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) publicly acknowledged to The Globe and Mail that China is using threats and intimidation against members of Canada’s Chinese community that are akin to the tactics used in Operation Fox Hunt. CSIS said that “these tactics can also be used as cover for silencing dissent, pressuring political opponents and instilling a general fear of state power no matter where a person is located.”[9]
Operation Skynet
Announced in 2015, operation Skynet is a parallel and simultaneous program designed to augment operation Fox Hunt by restricting the financial flows of cadres which have fled overseas and by engaging in recovery of corrupt proceeds. South China Morning Post reports that programme will “go further” than previous manhunts through the coordination of multiple government agencies to cut off the exfiltration of state and corrupt assets abroad.[10]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fox_Hunt
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FBI Director: China’s Fox Hunt program targets China-born Chinese in the USA…
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AFP – January 19, 2022 11:45 AM
BEIJING: Beijing has forced nearly 10,000 Chinese overseas nationals to return since 2014 using coercive means outside the justice system, according to a new report.
The figure could be the “tip of the iceberg”, Spain-based rights group Safeguard Defenders reported yesterday, as China aggressively pursues its nationals overseas.
The report alleges China is expanding its policing powers overseas and conducting illegal operations on foreign soil.
Officially, the targets are people wanted by the Chinese judicial system as part of president Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive.
But the NGO details cases where those who criticised the Communist Party had relatives in China harassed and detained in attempts to coerce them to return.
Through two programmes, Operation Fox Hunt and Operation Sky Net, targeted individuals were pressured to return to China against their will due to a combination of non-judicial methods, including kidnappings, harassment and intimidation, according to the report.
“With the Chinese diaspora growing at an ever faster rate as more people seek to leave China … Beijing has never been more motivated to expand the powers of its security forces overseas,” the report said.
Safeguard Defenders cited government data in its estimate that almost 10,000 Chinese nationals had been forcibly returned since 2014.
Official figures from the government’s anti-graft watchdog show Beijing returned around 2,500 targeted individuals in the past two years.
But the numbers do not include suspects apprehended for non-economic crimes or those who are not members of China’s ruling Communist Party.
The NGO’s report alleges intimidation of suspects’ family members in China is widespread and Chinese agents are sent to threaten targets in foreign countries.
Sometimes overseas nationals are lured to third countries that have extradition agreements with China, the rights group says.
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weehingthong 