(Bangkok) – The Thai government should not forcibly return detained Chinese dissidents to China, Human Rights Watch said today. At least four Chinese dissidents detained at the Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok face possible deportation to China. The Chinese government has increasingly pressured Thai authorities ahead of Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s scheduled visit to China from July 16 to 20, 2026.
“Successive Thai governments have found it easy to cast aside Thailand’s international obligations to please Beijing,” said Sunai Phasuk, senior Thailand adviser at Human Rights Watch. “Thailand is damaging its reputation by complying with Chinese government requests to unlawfully deport Chinese dissidents instead of allowing them to travel to safe third countries.”
Human Rights Watch has learned that three known Chinese dissidents and a critical journalist are at risk of deportation:
- Bai Zhaodong (白兆东), 56, a prominent former investigative journalist at Caixin, China’s leading media outlet, known for his reporting on high-level corruption in rural areas and on the impact of President Xi Jinping’s signature poverty alleviation initiative on vulnerable populations.
- Tan Yixiang (谭翼翔), 49, a Catholic and vocal advocate for Tibetan and Uyghur rights. He entered Thailand in 2022 and was arrested by Thai police later that year. He was released on bail in mid-2023, but in February 2024 police rearrested Tan and placed him in immigration detention.
- Zhang Xinyan (张信燕), 56, a practitioner of Falun Gong, a persecuted religious group, and an activist from China who fled to Thailand in 2014. In July 2025, Hong Kong police issued arrest warrants and a HK$200,000 (US$25,000) bounty against Zhang and 14 other activists from the “Hong Kong Parliament” diaspora group, alleging that they had committed “subversion” under the draconian Hong Kong National Security Law. In May 2026, Thai police arrested Zhang for allegedly overstaying her visa. On July 8, Thai authorities reportedly blocked Zhang from flying to Canada for resettlement.
- Zhou Junyi (周俊义), 54, a member of the banned China Democracy Party. He escaped to Thailand in 2015, but the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reportedly rejected his refugee application. He has been living in Thailand ever since. In June 2025, Bangkok police arrested Zhou over visa violations shortly after he organized a memorial event for the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. Although denied refugee status 10 years ago, Zhou has a credible basis for a sur place refugee claim – obtaining refugee status because of events after leaving one’s home country – because of the prominence of his activities as a critic of Beijing while in exile.
UNHCR has recognized Bai, Tan, and Zhang as refugees.
In recent years, successive Thai governments have forcibly returned dissidents and other wanted individuals to China, where they faced persecution, torture, and other ill-treatment. In February 2025, Thai authorities sent 40 Uyghur men to China, where their circumstances remain unknown. In July 2015, Thai authorities forcibly transferred more than 100 Uyghur men to the custody of Chinese authorities, who flew them from Bangkok to China.
A Chinese human rights activist, Jian Xing (邢鉴), was arrested in Bangkok in 2019 for overstaying his visa and threatened with forced return to China. But he was allowed to leave and resettle in New Zealand in 2020.
In 2015, Thai authorities forcibly returned the rights activists Dong Guangping (董广平) and Jiang Yefei (姜野飞) to China, despite UNHCR having recognized them as refugees and arranged their resettlement to Canada. They were later imprisoned in China for “inciting subversion” and “illegally crossing national borders.” Dong fled China again in 2026 by driving an inflatable boat to South Korea and has since been resettled in Canada.
Hu Junxiong (胡俊雄), a Chinese dissident who lived as a refugee in western Thailand for 10 years before resettling in Canada in 2025, told Radio Free Asia in 2023 that the situation of Chinese political refugees in Thailand had worsened due to pressure from Beijing. He said that he had faced “repeated harassment” from Thai immigration police, despite his good relationship with the local community and local police.
Thailand is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and has no refugee law or effective national mechanisms to assess asylum claims. The Thai government is obligated to respect the international law principle of nonrefoulement, which prohibits countries from returning anyone to a place where they would face a real risk of persecution, torture or other serious ill-treatment, a threat to life, or other comparable serious human rights violations. Refoulement is prohibited by the UN Convention Against Torture, to which Thailand is a party, as well as customary international law. The prohibition on refoulement is also incorporated in Thailand’s 2023 Act on Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearances.
Other countries will review Thailand’s human rights record at the UN Human Rights Council—of which Thailand is currently a member—during its Universal Periodic Review in November. During its last review, Thailand supported three recommendations, including one to implement legal measures to protect refugees and asylum seekers.
“Concerned governments should press the Thai authorities to protect the rights of people seeking safety in Thailand, rather than sending dissidents back to China and into harm’s way,” Phasuk said. “Thailand should demonstrate that it has earned its membership on the UN Human Rights Council.”