Authoritarian regimes increasingly rely on transnational repression to silence exiled dissidents, yet we know far less about how host state authoritarianization shapes these practices and restructures the everyday lives of targeted diasporas. While existing research highlights the expanding repertoires of cross-border repression, less attention has been paid to how domestic authoritarianization enables such practices and reshapes diasporic political possibilities. This article examines how China’s transnational repression of the Uyghur diaspora becomes embedded within the political, administrative, and discursive structures of an increasingly authoritarian host state, and analyses the forms of impact this repression produces on the diaspora. The study shows that transnational repression is a relational process co-produced by authoritarian cooperation. Specifically, the weakening of rule-of-law institutions alongside rising economic dependency in host states creates fertile ground for the extension of homeland coercive practices. The case of Turkey demonstrates that China’s repertoire of transnational repression operates in interaction with the host state’s administrative and ideological apparatus, and that this repressive architecture progressively erodes the diaspora’s security, organizational capacity, and political agency.
Ahmet Ertan Çölgeçen (Wed,) studied this question.