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Pohan Wu, a Taiwanese exchange student in Paris, stood behind barricades on Boulevard Saint-Germain, his eyes trained on the road where Chinese President Xi Jinping’s motorcade would soon pass. It was March 26, 2019, and Xi was in the French capital to discuss trade with European leaders.

Armed with a teal cloth sign that read, “I am Taiwanese. I stand for Taiwan’s independence,” Wu planned to protest Beijing’s policy that asserts Taiwan is part of China. He waited patiently until he saw the president’s custom Hongqi, a luxury Chinese car, and unfolded his banner. Within seconds, a French military officer grabbed Wu and stripped him of the sign. In a video he posted online, Wu can be heard shouting “Taiwan independence” in Chinese as the officer attempts to subdue him.

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It was not the only time a policing body outside China’s borders suppressed voices critical of the Chinese Communist Party, according to a new global analysis by ICIJ. During at least seven of Xi’s 31 international trips between 2019 and 2024, local law enforcement infringed on dozens of protesters’ rights in order to shield the Chinese president from dissent, detaining or arresting activists, often for spurious reasons. Across the seven visits, these activists were silenced for reasons including requesting permission to protest, practicing a spiritual movement banned in China or, like Wu, peacefully holding a sign on a city street. Experts characterized the incidents described to ICIJ as police overreach.

The arrests and detentions give a window into how China wields its extensive political and economic power to pressure foreign governments and institutions to bend to its will.

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"It is alarming that fundamental rights like freedom to peacefully protest or freedom of speech is being threatened or sacrificed on the altar of economic gain." — Audrye Wong, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California