“[The police] threatened that if I did not cooperate with them they would sentence me to jail time, I’d lose my job, my family would leave me and I’d lose my reputation for the rest of my life,” said one person quoted in the report, identified only as Li. “I was only 39 years old, my hair turned white with the enormous pressure and torture of it all.”

Peter Dahlin, a former China-based NGO worker from Sweden, he had violated Chinese law in a televised confession in 2016. He said the purpose, especially when foreigners were involved, was to shape the conversation from the beginning and preempt any international criticism.

“This goes to show this is not done simply by police for murky propaganda purposes but directly by the state as a part of foreign policy,” he said.