When I found out I was followed by the man, I called the police, and they intervened and basically told him to step away. I continued to go on to return to my home. Then I saw the same person come back to me and continue to follow me, so I called the police again. They intervened and asked him to go.
When I talked to the officer, he said that, because it is not a repetitive pattern, they couldn't arrest this person. They couldn't do anything about it. From that, I think I see a problem with a lack of training with our police, the local police, and law enforcement about transnational repression.
The situation is that, a lot of times, these things don't happen. They're not conducted by only one person; they're conducted by multiple people who are under the network of the United Front. It's really hard to track, if we're only targeting one person and say they only started this as the time that we take action.
We know that, afterwards I was contacted by the investigative agencies about this, and I learned that, after COVID, that person who was following me went back to China and he never came back. Even though the U.S., certain agencies, were able to identify him as spying on me under the order of the United Front or the Chinese government, they were not able to enforce any law and they were not able to take any action, because that person had already left the country. They're never going to come back, because China is just going to swap another person in now that they know this person has gotten attention.
It was a terrifying experience and, again, it has instilled a lot of anxiety in my life since then. I think that it shows lack of action and lack of training among agencies on this issue of transnational repression.
Right now, in the past few years, we have improved a little more with more training, but I think a lot more needs to be done. The definition of transnational repression needs to be written in the law, and these acts should be criminalized.