Transnational Repression and Me – Remarks by David Matas
6 December 2025: At a forum hosted by Choose Humanity, David Matas joined fellow experts on a panel to explore how the CCP’s unrestricted warfare and foreign interference threaten Canada’s democracy, media, and values.
During the discussion, Matas stated “I personally have been subject to or witness to Chinese Communist Party transnational repression because of my work in opposing Party human rights violations. In this text, I set out a number of incidents either to which I have been subject or to which I personally was witness. I address incidents related to Israel, Canada, the United States, Australia, and Singapore.”
See below Matas’ prepared remarks as presented at the forum.
Transnational Repression and Me
Click HERE for the full text and footnotes/citations
Excerpt of the Conclusion:
I have no personal connections to China. I am not ethnic Chinese. I have no assets, investments or business enterprises in China. I have been to China only once, to change planes on my way from Ulan Bator in Mongolia back to Canada. I am not now and have never been a Falun Gong practitioner. Falun Gong practitioners have formed a variety of organizations. I have no affiliation with any of these organizations.
In my professional life, which takes up most of my working time, I am an immigration and refugee lawyer doing mostly Federal Court, advising and assisting other lawyers. Although I have spent a lot of time and effort on the issue of forced organ harvesting in China with prisoner of conscience victims, I am involved in a variety of other human rights issues involving other countries, other atrocities and other victims. For all of these human rights issues I function as a part time volunteer.
Given that all this is so, and given also that I have been either the target or witness of so many instances of Chinese Communist Party transnational repression over such a long time in so many countries, I shudder to think of the victimization of Chinese expatriates or China professional experts who rouse the ire of the Chinese Communist Party. Chinese Communist Party transnational repression is a global, persistent scourge. It deserves serious attention and pushback.
