Thailand: Urgent Call to Thai Government to Halt the Forcible Return of Journalist Bai Zhaodong to China

In September 2024, Bai became the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the Public Security Bureau of Yulin City on fabricated charges of "extortion". Since then, Thai authorities have prevented him from relocating to a safe third country and barred him from leaving Thailand. He has been held in immigration detention since January 2026. 

If returned to China, Bai would face a grave, foreseeable, personal, and real risk of political persecution, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, and other serious human rights violations. His forced return would therefore undeniably violate Thailand’s obligations under international and domestic torture prohibitions (non-refoulement). 

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Andrea Bolaños Vargas, has urged the Thai authorities to “immediately halt any deportation proceedings, facilitate his prompt relocation, and ensure his safety and access to adequate healthcare.” 

Bai Zhaodong has worked as an investigative journalist in China for more than 25 years, most recently for the respected Caijing magazine in Beijing. His reporting uncovered a large-scale corruption and financial fraud network involving money laundering and other illicit financial activities. The investigation implicated both local government officials and senior figures within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

Because of the senior officials implicated and the sensitive nature of his reporting, Bai became the target of intensified surveillance, intimidation, and sustained harassment by both local and central Chinese authorities following the publication of his investigation. 

Throughout his career, Bai has faced repeated retaliation for his investigative reporting on corruption and financial fraud in Shaanxi Province. Chinese authorities have subjected him to six separate rounds of criminal charges, interrogations, and detention in connection with his journalistic work. 

The Chinese government routinely uses vague and politically motivated charges, including "espionage," "subversion," and "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," to prosecute journalists, writers, scholars and activists. China is currently the world's largest jailer of journalists, with 120 journalists imprisoned. It ranks 178th out of 180 countries and territories in Reporters Without Borders' 2026 World Press Freedom Index. 

We therefore urge the Thai government to: 

1. Immediately halt any deportation or forcible return of Bai Zhaodong to China. 
2. Facilitate Bai Zhaodong's safe transfer to a third country willing to provide him with international protection. 
3. Refrain from cooperating with requests from the Chinese authorities that would result in the persecution of journalists, writers, scholars, activists or other individuals at risk of serious human rights violations. 

Signatories: 

1. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 

2. Safeguard Defenders (SD) 

3. World Uyghur Congress 

4. The Uyghur Center for Democracy and Human Rights 

5. Legal Initiatives for Vietnam 

6. Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities 

7. Grupo de Apoio ao Tibete-Portugal 

8. World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders 

9. The Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM) 

10. International Tibet Network 

11. Aus-Hong Kong Connex 港人匯坊 

12. Hongkongers in Britain (HKB) 

13. Asian Lawyers Network (ALN) 

14. GreatFire 

15. International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) 

16. Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) 

17. Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders 

18. Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) 

19. The Rights Practice 

20. Reading UK Stands with HK 

21. The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation 

22. Dandelion Solidarity 

23. ARTICLE 19 

24. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders 

25. Center for Uyghur Studies 

26. Dialogue China 

27. European Values Center for Security Policy 

28. PEN International 

29. Lady Liberty Hong Kong (LLHK) 

30. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation 

31. Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) 

32. Human Rights Foundation (HRF) 

33. Tibet Action Institute 

34. Human Rights First 

35. PEN America 

36. Fortify Rights 

37. Hong Kong Watch 

38. Bay Area Friends of Tibet 

39. Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) 

40. Freedom House 

41. American Society of Journalists and Authors 

42. Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) 

43. Society of Professional Journalists 

44. Viet Tan 

45. US Hongkongers Club 美國香港人會館 

46. Milk Tea Alliance Japan (MTAJ) 

47. Swedish Tibet Committee 

48. Amnesty International 

49. Taiwan Economic Democracy Union 

50. Index on Censorship 

51. PEN Sweden 

52. Doublethink Lab 

53. Prachatai 

54. The Swedish Media Publishers’ Association 

55. Taiwan Association for Human Rights 

56. Judicial Reform Foundation (JRF) 

57. Human Rights in China (HRIC) 

58. Human Rights Watch 

59. Hong Kong Labour Rights Monitor (HKLRM)