In a world of espionage with few rules, China's secret services are showing a notable lack of inhibition, according to France's General Directorate of Internal Security, (DGSI, the domestic intelligence service) and the Paris Police Prefecture. In notes accessed by Le Monde, they revealed the presence of state officials belonging to Chinese security services during an attempt to forcibly repatriate a Chinese dissident on March 22, and during an aborted "intimidation action" against a Uyghur political refugee on May 8.
In both these cases, French security services noted that the Chinese agents acted publicly. They never sought to operate undercover, nor did they seek to flee France after being forced to abandon their project following police intervention. Other foreign services – notably Russian, Turkish and Chechen – have attempted similar actions in the past, but all strove to conceal their responsibility.
On May 8, according to the Police Prefecture, the anti-crime squad from Paris's 18th arrondissement was called to the home of Gulbahar Jalilova, a Kazakh woman of Uyghur origin, on suspicion of an attempted kidnapping. She had arrived in France in October 2020, after spending a year and a half in a Chinese concentration camp in the Xinjiang province. When police arrived on the scene, they came face to face with "a dozen men dressed in black." They also identified the hit squad vehicle parked nearby.
The police reported that these men "rang the intercom" and attempted to chase the political dissident. Of the six people checked, the police discovered "a security service passport" on the person who appeared to be in charge. This document linked the individual to the Chinese embassy. According to Dilnur Reyhan, a lecturer at the French National Institute for Eastern Languages and Civilizations and founder of the Uyghur Institute of Europe, Jalilova has been traumatized by this episode, which echoed another kidnap attempt on her, in Turkey. "She was chased by three men in black in a car in Istanbul," said Reyhan.
When Jalilova was released in China, agents warned her: "If you dare to speak out, no matter where you are, China has a very long arm, we can always bring you back," said Reyhan, who is considering filing a complaint for "harassment" alongside the dissident. On May 5, during a demonstration in front of the Madeleine church against Xi Jinping's visit to France the following day, some young men intervened, brandishing crossed-out portraits of Uyghurs and shouting "lies," before being chased away by the police. Jalilova declined to comment.
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