The Chinese regime is increasingly using artificial intelligence, contractors, overseas organizations, and people recruited inside other countries to pursue critics beyond China’s borders, according to a report released on July 15.
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) assessment draws together recent cases involving an account linked to Chinese law enforcement, malware targeting Uyghur activists, an alleged plot against a Los Angeles critic of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and attacks on protesters in San Francisco.
Caroline Costello of the Atlantic Council and William Nee of NED, who wrote the report’s China chapter, said the tactics reduce Beijing’s reliance on large overseas networks of Chinese security officers.
They described an emerging market for transnational repression in which governments can contract surveillance, harassment, and violence to digital operators, criminal actors, or people already present in the target country.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian rejected the findings on July 16, accusing NED of attacking China and interfering in other countries’ affairs. He did not address the individual cases cited by the authors.
Alleged Plot Against Xi Critic
Cui Guanghai and John Miller recruited people to prevent the victim from protesting during Xi’s November 2023 visit to San Francisco, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court in California.
Those recruits were secretly working with the FBI.
Prosecutors alleged that Cui and Miller directed them to locate the victim’s home, place a tracker on the victim’s vehicle, slash the tires, destroy artwork depicting Xi and his wife, and arrange an assault that would leave the victim unable to walk.
The complaint also alleges that Miller previously arranged a demonstration against Taiwan’s president during an April 2023 visit to Los Angeles by hiring actors to pose as protesters.
An FBI agent said Cui was believed to be acting on behalf of the Chinese regime and assigning work through Miller to people inside the United States.
The defendants face conspiracy and interstate-stalking charges.
Costello and Nee cited such intermediaries as one way Beijing can conceal its role while lowering the cost of overseas operations.
AI and Malware
OpenAI said in February that it banned a ChatGPT account linked to an individual associated with Chinese law enforcement.
The account was used to plan and document what its operator called “cyber special operations,” including pro-CCP messaging and online campaigns targeting Beijing’s critics.
Citizen Lab separately identified malware distributed through Uyghur-language text-editing and spell-checking software.
The altered programs installed malicious code on users’ devices and targeted senior members of the World Uyghur Congress.
Citizen Lab documented the infrastructure, targeting methods, and malicious files, but did not identify who directed the operation.
Costello and Nee said AI services and compromised software allow Beijing-linked actors to monitor overseas targets without deploying comparable numbers of officers or informants abroad.
The U.S. State Department has described the Chinese regime’s methods as including physical and digital threats, coercion through relatives and other proxies, technical espionage, and unexplained disappearances.
Violence and Paid Demonstrators
People linked to CCP-aligned organizations harassed and assaulted anti-Beijing protesters during Xi’s November 2023 visit to San Francisco, according to an investigation by the Hong Kong Democracy Council and Students for a Free Tibet.
The groups reviewed photographs, videos, and organizational records from demonstrations surrounding the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Their investigation identified 12 leaders of organizations they described as influenced by the CCP who participated in the confrontations.
Safeguard Defenders said those networks could provide access to overseas Chinese residents’ personal information and assist efforts to control diaspora communities.
Costello and Nee said the use of local recruits allows repression to be carried out by people who hold no formal Chinese government position and may, in some cases, know little about the wider operation.
Pressure on Kazakhstan
The NED authors also pointed to cases in which pressure from Chinese diplomats entered another country’s legal process.
The protesters burned a Chinese regime flag and a portrait of Xi during the November 2025 demonstration.
The Chinese Consulate in Almaty sent two letters to Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry the next day, according to translated copies reviewed by The Epoch Times.
The letters said the protest had an “extremely negative impact” on bilateral relations.
Kazakh authorities opened a criminal investigation after receiving the diplomatic notes, which were later cited in the indictment.
The activists had initially faced fines and short administrative detentions.
Eleven defendants received five-year prison terms.
Eight received restrictions on their freedom lasting between four years and eight months and five years.
Bilash told The Epoch Times that he believed the arrest was retaliation for his advocacy and was carried out under Chinese pressure.
Lower-Cost Repression
Costello and Nee said AI, surveillance software, overseas political groups, diplomatic pressure, and hired intermediaries are making transnational repression easier to conduct at scale.
They projected that Beijing would become more assertive in countries where governments provide weak protection to threatened activists or allow foreign officials to influence local institutions.
The authors called for stronger criminal enforcement, closer cooperation with targeted diaspora communities, and safeguards against foreign misuse of police, courts, technology platforms, and financial systems.
