Homeland in your pocket: Chinese diaspora communities in Europe and their experience of information suppression

Homeland in your pocket is one of the very few studies tracing how Chinese migration to Europe has been transformed by technological advances. Where earlier generations of Chinese immigrants experienced genuine separation from home, today’s diaspora carries China in their pocket through apps like WeChat, in constant contact with family, news, and community. But this same connectivity comes with a darker undercurrent: the very platforms that collapse distance also extend Beijing’s surveillance across borders, reaching into European living rooms through monitored messages, pressured relatives back home, and a pervasive culture of self-censorship. Drawing on more than 20 interviews with members of the Chinese diaspora across Europe, Chu Yang traces how individuals navigate this tension, developing strategies ranging from complete digital disconnection to quiet, careful participation to open defiance, while building “third spaces” and parallel communities, from independent bookstores to feminist collectives, that allow them to exist between two worlds.

This minibook is the culmination of CHOICE’s Long Reads series on Chinese diaspora communities in Europe, bringing together the project’s research into a single, narrative-driven account. It was produced as part of the Horizon Europe–funded RESONANT project (No. 101132439), which examines Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI), including information suppression, across Europe. Rather than offering a tidy resolution, the book argues that integration for Chinese migrants in Europe is best understood as an ongoing negotiation rather than a fixed destination, shaped by surveillance that won’t disappear, but matched by resilience, community-building, and resistance that persist alongside it.