Chinese Seeking Asylum Abroad Surges Under Xi Jinping

According to foreign media reports on June 19th, the latest data released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) shows that in the past ten years, the number of Chinese people fleeing Communist China and seeking political asylum has increased year by year under Xi Jinping. Ironically, during Xi’s ruling, the country has not been hit by war or violence, and it claims to have entered a well-off country.

According to data released by the UNHCR on June 16th, the number of Chinese seeking political asylum abroad in 2019, 2020 and 2021 was 104,248, 108,071 and 118,476 respectively.

When Xi succeeded Hu Jintao as the top leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2012, about 12,000 Chinese sought asylum abroad throughout the year, and by 2019 there were over 100,000. Despite the subsequent severe restrictions on traveling Communist China and other parts of the world due to the CCP virus pandemic, the number of Chinese people seeking asylum abroad continued to rise in 2020 and 2021, reaching a record high of nearly 120,000 last year.

Last year alone, there are more asylum seekers appeared in Communist China than his predecessor Hu Jintao in eight years, according to an analysis by Protect Defenders, an NGO whose mission is to safeguard basic human rights and the rule of law. Protective Defenders believes that as the number of Chinese citizens seeking political asylum abroad increases, the CCP’s transnational persecution may also intensify, including the use of “involuntary return” programs. The group noted that the CCP earlier this year said it would expand its “Skynet Operation,” seeking to pressure suspects known as fugitives to return to Communist China.

Since 2012, the cumulative number of people seeking political asylum in Communist China has reached 730,000, with over 170,000 people living abroad as refugees. Since Miles Guo started the Whistleblower Movement in 2017, a large number of compatriots have been rescued or awakened to flee Communist China, and many righteous people of the Anti-Extradition Movement in Hong Kong have also been rescued. These people are not included in the figures published by the UNHCR, otherwise, these political asylum seekers will be counted at least in millions. Therefore, the UNHCR figures are far smaller than the real figures.