On July 15, 2025, HRAG founder and co-chair David Matas joined British lawmakers Lord Alton, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, and Marie Rimmer, as well as Falun Gong practitioners and activists in a seminar titled “FoRB in China and the CCP’s Accelerating Transnational Repression.” The seminar highlighted the growing threat of transnational repression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ahead of the publication of the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ report ‘Transnational Repression in the UK.”
The seminar recognized that Falun Gong practitioners are among the most highly targeted groups of the CCP. Matas in particular detailed the growing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, including the expanding practice of transnational repression. He called for a coherent approach on foreign interference and transnational repression. Matas noted that while various laws may be used to combat particular forms of repression, such as foreign agent registry legislation and the prohibition against threats, “[t]he fact remains that right now there is more or less nothing anywhere directed specifically against transnational repression.”
