Sawt Falasteen - Chinese activist held in Bangkok finds Canada refuge

Beijing has long sought to clamp down on dissidents overseas, and campaigners accuse authorities in the Southeast Asian country -- where several notable activists have moved over the years -- of complicity in China's efforts.

Zhang, 55, told AFP that while she was being held, "every day, what scared me the most was that I could be deported at any time".

Once a teacher in Shenzhen, Zhang said she fled to Thailand in 2014 after the school principal threatened to report her for promoting Falun Gong, a spiritual movement which Beijing deems an illegal cult.

In exile she was granted UN refugee status and spoke up on issues such as democracy for the Chinese finance hub of Hong Kong.

And last year she was named to a shadow Hong Kong parliament in an unofficial online poll organised by a Canada-based activist group.

Police in Hong Kong accused the participants of subversion under the territory's national security law and offered a bounty on her of more than $25,000.

Zhang was arrested by Thai authorities in May for overstaying her visa and placed in immigration detention -- fuelling concerns that Beijing would intervene to seek her deportation to Hong Kong or mainland China.

- 'Cooperating' with repression -

Thailand is not party to the UN Refugee Convention, but is bound by the international legal principle of non-refoulement, which bars countries from sending people back to places where their lives or freedom are in danger.

Nonetheless Bangkok deported 40 Uyghurs to China in February last year over the objections of activists, who said the men could be tortured or mistreated.

Thai authorities also sent back two rights activists to China in 2015, and both were later jailed.

"For many years, Thailand has been cooperating with China's transnational repression by tracking down those wanted by Beijing, arresting them, and sending them back to China in total disregard of concerns for their safety," said Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch.

At Bangkok's Suan Phlu immigration detention centre, Zhang was not allowed to use her phone and could not read the news -- effectively cut off from the outside world, she told AFP.

AFP was unable to independently verify reports that Beijing tried to block her departure to a third country.

But following legal and diplomatic interventions, she was put on a flight to Vancouver, where she landed on Monday.

Zhang declined to elaborate on her arrest, detention or departure from Thailand, saying she "had agreed to not to say too much".

But she said Thailand was "caught in the middle" between China and the West, adding: "I understand that it's difficult for a smaller country."

- Others at risk -

Hong Kong has issued 34 bounties on overseas figures since 2023, which Western countries and campaigners have condemned as an extension of Beijing's long arm of authoritarian control.

Zhang was among four Chinese detainees in Thailand whose cases were highlighted last month by Human Rights Watch, which said they risked deportation.

They also include Chinese investigative journalist Bai Zhaodong, who reported on politically sensitive issues before fleeing to Thailand in 2024.

Bai is currently kept at the same Bangkok lockup where Zhang was held.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said last month that Bai was suspected of extortion and bribery, adding that an extradition request had been submitted.

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Bai's life would be at risk if he were deported to China.

The group's Aleksandra Bielakowska said that a country -- she did not specify which -- had offered Bai asylum, but Thai authorities had twice cancelled his flight and extended his detention.

Lawyer Nadthasiri Bergman, who represents both Zhang and Bai, called on Thailand to grant the journalist permission to leave the country.

"Thailand should place the highest priority on human rights rather than compromising them for economic or diplomatic relations," she said.

Canada's immigration and refugees department declined to comment on Zhang's case specifically, citing safety and privacy concerns, but said in a statement that the country had a "long and proud tradition" of resettling refugees.

Thailand's foreign ministry declined requests for comment.

Q.Najjar--SF-PST