TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION
Italian authorities order expulsion of Chinese agents responsible for spying on dissidents
The Interior Ministry acted days after local media reported that Chinese state actors in 2024 hacked the database of a police unit assigned to protecting Chinese dissidents.
In a rare move, Italian authorities have issued expulsion orders for eight Chinese nationals suspected of spying on political dissidents on behalf of the Chinese government.
The orders by the Interior Ministry came after officials found that the Chinese agents had sought to locate regime critics living in the country in order to intimidate and harass them, raising “national security” concerns, according to Italian daily Il Foglio.
Three of the suspects were repatriated immediately, while one is currently detained in Rome pending expulsion procedures, the media report said. The other four had already left Italy.
The case marks the first time Italy has ordered an expulsion specifically on transnational repression grounds, Laura Harth, a human rights advocate with Safeguard Defenders, told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. “I’m pleasantly surprised that we finally see action,” Harth said.
Other countries have actually prosecuted Chinese nationals for spying on dissidents residing on their territory. Another such case is currently pending in the United Kingdom.
While Italian authorities didn’t prosecute the latest suspects, the case shows Italian authorities are paying attention, Harth said.
“There is clear concern and attention within the specialized police on this issue,” Harth said. “However, I do think we still have an issue of political motivation to actually deal with this.”
In 2022, Safeguards Defenders revealed that Chinese business associations and other civilian community service groups around the world, including in Italy, had been acting as secret surveillance hubs.
Through a spokesperson, the Interior Ministry declined to comment on the media report about the expulsion orders.
Physical and online surveillance of political dissidents is one of the many tactics adopted by the Chinese government against regime critics living overseas, according to ICIJ’s 2025 China Targets investigation, a 10-month cross-border investigation of 42 media partners that uncovered the sprawling scope and terrifying tactics of Beijing’s campaign to target regime critics living overseas.
An internal police textbook and 2013 confidential security guidelines obtained by ICIJ detailed how domestic security officers should identify and control targets, including pressuring dissidents’ family members, internet monitoring and digging up targets’ “immoral behavior.”
As the practice of what European Union officials and the United Nations call transnational repression has intensified in the last decade, activists and members of targeted minorities from China and Hong Kong have grown increasingly reluctant to speak out for fear that authorities would retaliate against relatives back home.
ICIJ and partners in 23 countries interviewed 105 targets of Beijing’s tactics, including one living in Italy. The activist, most known by his social media handle “Teacher Li,” was targeted by Chinese authorities and their proxies after amassing 1.9 million followers on the social media platform X posting about demonstrations and discontent from within China during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a 2025 email to ICIJ and its media partner L’Espresso, the activist said he had been “threatened by strangers” after the Chinese authorities found his Italian address.
ICIJ found that Teacher Li’s acquaintances outside Italy were also targeted by Chinese security officials. Jiang Shengda, an artist and activist living in France, said in an interview that his father in Beijing was interrogated by officials who said his son should stop working with Teacher Li.
Safeguard Defenders reported the recent expulsion of the Chinese national by Italian authorities followed years-long investigations into the harassment of Teacher Li.
In a statement published on X this week, the activist thanked the Italian government for taking action against his harassers.
“This represents not only protection for us, but also the defense of fundamental democratic principles and the rule of law,” he wrote.
While Harth called the ministry’s action a “positive” outcome, she said it is unlikely that it would deter the Chinese government and its proxies from going after regime critics.
It also shows that European authorities are still slow to protect the victims, she said.
The European Parliament recently adopted a resolution condemning transnational repression by China and other autocratic governments. But it is up to each country’s law enforcement to monitor threats and help the victims. The resolution itself “doesn’t really change anything on the ground,” Harth said.
In Italy, the newspaper La Repubblica recently reported that, between 2024 and 2025, Chinese hackers linked to the government had infiltrated the database of the special counter-terrorism police with information on 5,000 Italian agents and the investigative files of the Chinese dissidents they were protecting.
The Chinese Embassy in Rome did not respond to ICIJ’s request for comments.