cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42733874

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Students from China comprise one of Canada’s largest international student populations—nearly 15 percent of the University of Toronto’s total student population in 2024. The majority aren’t leading anti-government marches in the street, or hatching plans to harm their classmates in group chats. But as a result of overseas surveillance and intimidation by the Chinese government, an atmosphere of fear and repression looms over the community at large, chilling free and open discourse. It’s led to a conflict within this community, left largely unaddressed by school authorities, that threatens one of the core values of a university in a free society.

“I think the CCP has created an environment where students are too scared or uncomfortable to talk about politics at all,” [one Chinese student in Canada] says.

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For decades, members of the Chinese diaspora worldwide have been subjected to the phenomenon of “transnational repression.” This term broadly describes “efforts by states to use coercion to silence critics in their diasporas,” according to Emile Dirks, a senior research associate at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, who specializes in Chinese politics and state repression.

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Today, more than 2.2 million Afghan girls are banned from attending school beyond primary school, latest UN data shows. And in total, up to seven million children are not in class because to the ban and other constraints.

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The first clue that something had changed in the U.S. approach to selling military equipment to Europe came as Denmark neared a decision on the purchase of a multibillion-dollar air-defense system. For weeks, American and French negotiators had aggressively pursued the deal. But as the deadline approached, the Pentagon suddenly lost interest.

“We couldn’t understand why,” a contractor who had been tracking the discussions told me. “It seemed like a no-brainer, but they just weren’t into it.”

The comments surprised some State officials, but they soon learned that it wasn’t just Denmark having its access cut off. Current and former administration officials told me the Pentagon has identified some weapons as being in short supply, and is moving to block new requests for those systems coming in from Europe. It wasn’t immediately clear to those I spoke with how long the hold will last, how many weapons are on the list, or if it could expand to include even more weapons. Few exemptions will be granted.