⚖️ Earlier today, in an appalling step backwards for human rights and judicial independence, the South Bangkok Criminal Court ruled Bai’s months-long detention “lawful.” His extradition hearing is now scheduled for 25 January 2027. Calling Bai’s detention lawful does not make it just. Bai is not a foreign national caught in bureaucratic limbo. He is a recognised refugee and journalist whose only “offence” was exposing corruption and telling the truth. By keeping him behind ba

Earlier today, 9 October 2026, the South Bangkok Criminal Court upheld the continued detention of 56-year-old investigative journalist Bai Zhaodong, ruling it lawful. This marks a dangerous step backwards for human rights and judicial independence in Thailand. By affirming the "lawfulness" of Bai’s arbitrary deprivation of liberty, the Thai judiciary risks becoming an active instrument in Beijing’s expanding apparatus of transnational repression. Bai is not merely a foreign n

⚖️ #StopTransnationalRepression | On 9 October, a Thai court will decide on the legality of Chinese investigative journalist’s months-long immigration detention in Bangkok. Bai should already be safe. He is recognised as a refugee by UNHCR, and a third country has already accepted him for resettlement… yet Thailand blocked his flight 𝙩𝙬𝙞𝙘𝙚. Now China wants him extradited. ⚠️ If returned, Bai faces political persecution, enforced disappearance and torture. 🚫 Bai’s case i

#StopTransnationalRepression | Bai Zhaodong, a 56-year-old Chinese investigative journalist and UNHCR-recognised refugee, has been unlawfully detained in Bangkok since January 2026. On 9 October, a Thai court will rule on the legality of his detention while China pursues his extradition. If he is forcibly returned, Bai risks grave threats to his life! 📰 Who is Bai? He has worked for more than two decades as an investigative journalist in China, most recently for Caijing maga

An authoritarian superpower seeking to silence its critics abroad needs to look no further than Thailand for a model partner-in-transnational repression. 🇹🇭🤝🇨🇳 Right now, Chinese human rights defenders and UNHCR-recognised refugees Bai Zhaodong and Zhou Junyi remain detained in Bangkok, within arm’s reach of the regime they fled. Their forced return will expose them to torture and enforced disappearance. Thailand has a choice: protect human rights defenders, or cement it