Following the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) enactment of a far-reaching new law on July 1 that purports to increase “ethnic unity” by mandating the teaching of communist ideology in schools and homes and holding individuals and organizations outside China liable for “undermining ethnic unity,” human rights advocates say that incidents of transnational repression committed by the communist regime have been increasing in the U.S. and Taiwan.

The new statute, known as the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law, bans any acts that “undermine ethnic unity or create ethnic division,” mandates that Mandarin Chinese be used in schools and government agencies as the primary language, dictates that classroom curriculum “forges a strong sense of the community of the Chinese people,” and decrees that parents must drill their children to “love the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people.” It also forces museums, libraries, and other civic institutions to center events on national prosperity and instructs local authorities to enforce ethnic integration in housing policies, which observers say will almost certainly lead to forced housing relocations.

Perhaps most brazenly, the new law stipulates that any individual or organization outside of mainland China who commits any act that is perceived to “undermine” ethnic unity or “create ethnic division” will be held liable, with observers noting that the decree is a further justification for Xi Jinping’s regime to continue its long history of tracking down, harassing, persecuting, and physically assaulting human rights advocates across the globe who have spoken out about the regime’s human rights abuses.

Experts like Bob Fu, the founder and president of ChinaAid and a senior fellow for International Religious Freedom at Family Research Council, are pointing out that a surge in transnational repression incidents has occurred since the institution of the “ethnic unity” law on July 1. In a memo authored by Fu and shared with The Washington Stand, he pressed Congress, the State Department, and federal law enforcement to investigate four incidents that have occurred in the two weeks since the “ethnic unity” law took effect.

On July 6, Akio Yaita, a journalist and dual citizen of Taiwan and Japan who Fu described as “one of the best-known critics of the CCP in the Chinese-speaking world,” was “violently assaulted in Taichung, Taiwan.” The alleged assailant was eventually captured by Taiwanese law enforcement as he attempted to flee the country and was found to be a Hong Kong resident. The investigation “indicated the attack was politically motivated and connected to China’s influence operations.”

On July 12, the home of Rev. Zhang Boli was burglarized and brutally ransacked in Corona, California while he was away preaching at his church. As noted by Fu, Zhang is “one of the most prominent leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Democracy Movement and one of the original 21 student leaders placed on the CCP’s national most-wanted list.” His home’s internet connection was disabled, the hard drive connected to the security camera system was stolen, “every room, cabinet, suitcase, and storage box” was “methodically searched,” every valuable item was stolen, and the house was left “intentionally devastated,” with the perpetrators “scattering and trampling personal possessions, including his wife’s wedding dress.”

While Zhang “cannot prove CCP involvement … he noted several highly suspicious features of the crime, including the apparent surveillance of his schedule, the professional disabling of security equipment, and years of documented online threats and harassment because of his outspoken criticism of the CCP’s persecution of Christians and democracy advocates,” Fu wrote.

On the same day, Fu reported, Chinese authorities “intensified pressure on relatives of Christians now living abroad” in the wake of the July 11 mass raids against house churches in Yueyang, Hunan Province. “[S]enior officials from the Yueyang Public Security Bureau reportedly warned the husband of Texas resident Zhang Mei that unless his wife and daughter returned to China, his retirement pension could be jeopardized.”

Three days later on July 15, Jie Lijian, chairman of the China Democracy Party International Alliance, “was brutally attacked by three unidentified men in Flushing, New York.” Fu reported that Jie “suffered severe head injuries, remained unconscious in intensive care for more than two days, and continues recovering.” Notably, “The attack occurred less than one week after Jie filed a federal civil lawsuit against the Chinese government and the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles concerning alleged acts of transnational repression. He has also reportedly cooperated with ongoing federal investigations involving CCP influence operations.”

Fu recommended that Congress hold public hearings to address Beijing’s transnational repression and urged the FBI, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of State “to coordinate investigations into these incidents, evaluate possible connections to foreign-directed intimidation, strengthen protection for high-risk political refugees and religious leaders, and ensure that suspicious crimes involving known CCP targets are reviewed through a counterintelligence and national security framework.”

“The United States has successfully exposed illegal CCP overseas police stations and prosecuted agents engaged in transnational repression,” Fu concluded. “These recent incidents suggest that authoritarian intimidation may be evolving toward increasingly aggressive tactics. Democratic governments must respond collectively to ensure that political refugees, journalists, religious leaders, and human rights defenders remain safe to exercise their constitutional freedoms without fear of foreign retaliation.”