U.S. senators on Tuesday unveiled a bipartisan legislative effort aimed at strengthening penalties for foreign government actors who intimidate, coerce or harass people while operating on U.S. soil. The measure, sponsored by Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat, and Senator John Curtis, a Republican, is designed to address what officials describe as a growing pattern of "transnational repression" carried out by certain states.
The legislation, known as the Stop Transnational Repression Act, would for the first time enshrine a federal definition of transnational repression and expand criminal penalties for those convicted. If enacted, the bill would raise the maximum possible prison term for offenders by up to an additional 10 years, according to Senate staffers.
Sponsors and backers point to recent developments overseas as catalysts for the proposal. One proximate stimulus cited by Senate aides was the implementation on July 1 of China's ethnic unity law, which Beijing states provides it with authority to pursue certain critics beyond its borders. Senate staffers told reporters that the Chinese measure directly influenced the draft of the Stop Transnational Repression Act.
Lawmakers framed the bill as a necessary tool to respond to increasingly assertive efforts by some foreign governments to silence or intimidate dissidents and activists living abroad. "This is a bipartisan effort to counter a national threat that reports show is only expanding in scope, with new and brazen efforts by countries like China trying to expand its intimidation of those not in lock step with the regime," Schiff said. Curtis described transnational repression as "an attack on both our sovereignty and our freedoms."
The bill offers a legal definition that covers actions by a foreign state's agent or proxy "to harass, coerce, or threaten a person, including by force or reasonable fear of death." Backers argue that codifying the term in U.S. law will increase deterrence against those foreign actors.
Advocacy groups and members of some Chinese communities in the United States have reported incidents they attribute to Beijing, alleging harassment, surveillance and intimidation targeting critics of the Chinese Communist Party, pro-democracy activists and supporters of Taiwan, Tibetan and Uyghur causes. Chinese officials have rejected accusations that they carry out such operations; the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the proposed legislation.
Human rights organization Freedom House has documented a large number of cases attributed to China, reporting 319 instances of transnational repression linked to the country since 2014. Congressional staff cited such tallies when describing the scale of the problem.
Recent criminal prosecutions in the United States underscore how U.S. authorities have treated such allegations. In May, a New York man was convicted of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government after prosecutors said he operated a "secret police station" on behalf of Beijing in Manhattan. Separately, U.S. prosecutors said two men were sentenced this year to 10 years and 15 years in prison for what the Department of Justice described as a plot directed by Iran's government to stalk and kill an Iranian-American human rights activist.
The proposed legislation aims to create clearer statutory tools to pursue and penalize those who carry out or facilitate transnational repression, while sponsors emphasize its bipartisan character. How Congress, affected communities and foreign governments respond to the bill as it moves through the legislative process will shape whether the United States establishes a uniform federal standard and tougher criminal consequences for these actions.