Exile has been a way for critics to escape the iron fist of tyrants and for regimes to silence naysayers. Yet the way authoritarian regimes interact with dissenting opinions abroad is changing dramatically for the worse. Technology has amplified individuals’ voices and their connection to their homeland, but also enabled monitoring, intimidation and censorship by distant governments. The result is that the world’s autocracies can now plausibly aspire to control ideas and large numbers of people abroad as well as at home. Exhibit A is China. Eleven million of its citizens or ex-citizens now live outside its borders. As we report, its programme of monitoring, censorship and coercion is more elaborate and extensive than ever. And China is not alone. Under Vladimir Putin, Russia maintains an extensive apparatus to spy on and manipulate ethnic Russians abroad, which includes agents who poisoned former members of his regime in Britain.
Exile has been a way for critics to escape the iron fist of tyrants and for regimes to silence naysayers. Yet the way authoritarian regimes interact with dissenting opinions abroad is changing dramatically for the worse. Technology has amplified individuals’ voices and their connection to their homeland, but also enabled monitoring, intimidation and censorship by distant governments.
The result is that the world’s autocracies can now plausibly aspire to control ideas and large numbers of people abroad as well as at home. Exhibit A is China. Eleven million of its citizens or ex-citizens now live outside its borders. As we report, its programme of monitoring, censorship and coercion is more elaborate and extensive than ever. And China is not alone. Under Vladimir Putin, Russia maintains an extensive apparatus to spy on and manipulate ethnic Russians abroad, which includes agents who poisoned former members of his regime in Britain
Exile Authoritarian Regimes Dissenting Opinions Technology Monitoring Censorship Coercion China Russia
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