Skirting International Law or Unlawful? China's Pursuit of Forced Repatriation of Certain Chinese Refugees from Other Countries

This article considers the lawfulness of the measures taken by the Chinese government to pursue the forced repatriation of certain Chinese refugees. Those measures generally fall into two categories: (1) exerting diplomatic pressure and providing economic incentives, and (2) with the host country's consent, dispatching Chinese officials and vehicles/aircraft to take over the targeted Chinese refugees and transporting them back to China. The central arguments of this article are: (1) it is unlikely that China violated its obligation to perform the Refugee Convention in good faith; (2) in certain cases, China should be held indirectly responsible for the internationally wrongful act of refoulement committed by the relevant host countries under article 16 of the ARSIWA; and (3) the second category of measures constitutes a violation of China's obligation not to commit arbitrary deprivation of liberty under customary international law of human rights.