Inducing Compliance: Shaping Audiences' Perceptions in China's Cyber Crime Enforcement

ABSTRACT Through case studies in the South Pacific and an examination of Chinese sources, this article examines two dimensions of China's cybercrime enforcement beyond its borders: how it manages to repatriate cybercriminals in the absence of formal extradition agreements, and why these repatriations are surrounded by a high degree of performativity. The article finds targeting influential government figures and bilateral police cooperation agreements are used to bypass legal norms in the Pacific to repatriate Chinese criminal suspects. I argue highly stylized police operations in the Pacific and beyond reflect longstanding domestic norms around policing and campaign‐style governance, and the persistence of ideas that the best way to induce compliance among Chinese citizens is to humiliate and parade criminal suspects, thus tipping the “balance of awe” in favor of the Party‐state.