China’s mass exodus: number of asylum seekers surpasses one million under Xi
safeguarddefenders.com
Over the past two years, a growing number of dramatic attempts to escape the People’s Republic of China have been covered by global news media. Some of the individuals in question successfully managed to find refuge and asylum, while others were – and unfortunately continue to be – sent back to China by Governments friendly or subservient to the CCP.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17960182

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Over the past two years, a growing number of dramatic attempts to escape the People’s Republic of China have been covered by global news media. Some of the individuals in question successfully managed to find refuge and asylum, while others were – and unfortunately continue to be – sent back to China by Governments friendly or subservient to the CCP [Chineses Communist Party].

Often missing from these stories is the wider picture: each of these individuals – often human rights defenders – is but one in a rapid escalation of individuals desperate to leave China since Xi Jinping came to power.

Data released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) show a clear trend: between 2012 and mid-2024, over one million Chinese have sought asylum abroad.

The number is even more staggering considering the increasing exit controls (including exit bans) placed on determinate categories of Chinese citizens by Chinese authorities. The continuing upward trend also serves as a stark reminder that China’s domestic human rights abuse is not the mere “internal affair” as it so often likes to claim.

Highlights:

[…]

  • The number of asylum seekers in 2024 is up 169% compared with the Pre-Covid period (2019: 104,259)

  • The number of asylum seekers in 2024 is up 1426% compared with the year Xi Jinping rose to power (2012: 12,362)

  • In 2024, the number of Chinese asylum seekers since Xi Jinping took power in 2012 broke the one million mark (2012-2024: 1,158,739).

  • To put things into perspective: in 2022 alone, the number of Chinese asylum-seekers abroad was the same as during the entire 10-year Hu Jintao era.

[…]

Data for 2021: the United States remained by far the most popular choice, with 88,722 persons seeking asylum there. The only other place that has been consistently popular is Australia, with 15,774 Chinese asylum-seekers last year.

Canada, Brazil, South Korea, and the UK also saw thousands of Chinese asylum-seekers.

Europe was far less popular, with Spain taking in 900, compared to Germany’s 379 and France’s 248. Other European countries, as well as most Asian and African countries, received almost no requests in 2021.

[…]