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Tag: Uyghur

  • China putting pressure on Haqqani to extradite Uyghur militants

    China putting pressure on Haqqani to extradite Uyghur militants

    Chinese security experts have warned that even a small number of them will still pose a threat to China’s security….reports Mrityunjoy Kumar Jha

    Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Interior Minister of Afghanistan and chief of the dreaded terror outfit Haqqani Network is still living in shadow. But according to reports, he has been meeting frequently with Chen Wenqing, the Intelligence Chief of China. According to information, the last time Sirajuddin and Wenqing met was Tuesday. The meeting took place in Sirajuddin’s undisclosed location, not the Chinese embassy. It is believed that Chen conveyed China’s frustration because the New Taliban government has not broken its ties with the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) as promised.

    China had demanded that the Taliban break relations with all militant groups and take resolute action against the ETIM. But the Taliban has not fulfilled its promises so far. According to Afghan sources, the Chinese spy chief asked Sirajuddin Haqqani for extradition of prominent members of militant outfit ETIM.

    Though the Taliban has repeatedly told the media that they have asked the ETIM fighters to leave Afghanistan but various intelligence reports suggest otherwise. The Chinese Ambassador in Afghanistan asked the Taliban leaders for details.

    “Where have the members of the ETIM gone after leaving Afghanistan? How many of them are staying in the country? “he asked.

    Chinese security experts have warned that even a small number of them will still pose a threat to China’s security.

    ETIM militants are mainly located in Afghanistan’s provinces of Badakhshan, Kunduz and Takhar.

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    “Approximately 500 fighters of the group operate in the north and north-east of Afghanistan, primarily in Raghistan and Warduj districts, Badakhshan, with financing based in Raghistan, “Li Wei, an expert on national security and anti-terrorism at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times.

    Chinese experts are apprehensive that the Chinese demand for the extradition of ETIM members would be challenging not only because of the Taliban’s consistent rejection, no matter the cost, of requests for the expulsion of militants who have helped them in their battles.

    The Taliban had already made that clear two decades ago when they accepted the risk of a US invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 by refusing for the umpteenth time to hand over al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. There is little in Taliban 2.0 that suggests that this has changed.

    Furious, China has also raised the issue of ETIM on Wednesday in the UN. Referring to the US decision to remove the ETIM from its Terrorist Exclusion List in October last year, Chinese envoy in the UN, Geng Shuang blamed the US of condoning and shielding the group which is a UN-designated terror organisation.

    “We call for the unity and collaboration of the international community to prevent the ETIM and other terrorist forces from festering in Afghanistan, and to prevent the country from again becoming a haven and a fountainhead of terrorist activities, “the state affiliated media China Daily quoted Geng as saying.

    China was among the few countries which kept its embassy open during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and has been regularly engaging with their leadership. As per the Global Times, the Chinese have already planned the extension of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). But with the CPEC projects in Pakistan already facing attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an ally of the Taliban, leading to delays, China is wary about its investments in Afghanistan too.

    Will Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who himself is a designated terrorist with a bounty of $10 million, heed to the Chinese demand to extradite ETIM members to Beijing. Many experts don’t think so.

    “It’s hard to see a wanted man turning over someone who is wanted for similar

    reasons, “says an Afghan journalist.

    (The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

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  • China Justifies Uyghur Strategy

    China Justifies Uyghur Strategy

    Beijing alleged that the anti-China forces in the West have fabricated so-called “genocide” lies in an attempt to deceive the international community…reports Asian Lite News

     China has rejected the genocide allegations of Uyghur Muslims of Xinjiang province by launching an all-out propaganda drive to counter the reports of oppression. On September 26, the Information Office of the State Council of China published the white paper “Population Development in Xinjiang”, which introduced the population development of Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) with a large number of facts and detailed data.

    The report said that Xinjiang’s population development conforms to the universal law of world population development and is also a portrayal of the continuous development and progress of Xinjiang’s human rights cause. All this benefits from the continuous release of social stability dividends in Xinjiang, showing the world a successful example of a unified multi-ethnic country promoting the healthy development of ethnic minority populations.

    Beijing said that the anti-China forces in the West have fabricated so-called “genocide” lies in an attempt to deceive the international community, mislead international public opinion, and deter China’s development and progress, which have led to sanctions against XUAR officials, and moves by them to block Xinjiang products suspected of having been produced with forced labour.

    Uyghur

    The report asserts that population growth in Xinjiang since 1949 refutes a series of reports on mass internment, forced birth control and other Chinese policies to reduce the proportion of Uyghurs in the region has angered the Uyghurs, while experts accused Beijing of cherry-picking the numbers.

    The State Council Information Office’s Xinjiang population white paper comes amid vigorous Chinese efforts to avoid scrutiny and condemnation of a litany of documented abuses in the region, including mass internment camps, sexual assaults, forced abortions, and forced labour.

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    Amid a surge in international awareness of the situation in Xinjiang that began about three years ago, a territory the size of Alaska or Iran, the US and other western states have determined that the treatment of Uyghurs constitutes genocide and crimes against humanity.

    State media and Chinese diplomats regularly vilify the scholars who revealed the mass internment and birth control programs, and Xinjiang officials hold frequent news conferences to promote Beijing’s views. China has not, however, permitted the UN or other independent outside observers to visit the region to investigate.

    China blames faith of Uyghur Muslims for concentration camps in Xinjiang. (source:uyghurcongress.org)

    The report cites census data indicating that of the region’s total population of 25.85 million, ethnic minorities in Xinjiang totalled 14.93 million up from 4.45 million in 1953 while Han Chinese comprising the rest. The number of Uyghurs increased from 3.61 million in 1953 to 11.62 million in 2020, and accounted for nearly 84 per cent of the population in the four prefectures in southern Xinjiang, where the Uyghurs are concentrated, the white paper said.

    The report says the Uyghur population grew at a 1.67 per cent compound annual growth rate during the first two decades of the current century is much higher than that of the overall ethnic minority population of China, which increased at the rate of 0.83 per cent since 2020.

    President of the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress exile group said the report “attempts to present the so-called normal and natural growth of the Uyghur population as if China hasn’t arbitrarily locked up millions of Uyghur people in concentration camps, forcibly sterilised hundreds of thousands of Uyghur women, separated Uyghur children from their parents, aborted countless Uyghur babies, forced Uyghur women to marry Chinese men, and coerced tens of thousands into forced labour”.

    “China will never be able to escape its criminal responsibility for the commission of genocide and crimes against humanity in East Turkestan by manipulating and manufacturing the Uyghur population growth data,” he said.

    Chinese human rights lawyer Teng said that the government’s statistics, including the national population census, are meant to serve the political aims of the Chinese Communist Party.

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    ALSO READ: Paris being rocked by protest against China’s Uyghur repression

  • Paris being rocked by protest against China’s Uyghur repression

    Paris being rocked by protest against China’s Uyghur repression

    The protest saw the participation of hundreds of Uyghur youth who had travelled from various European countries as well as public figure…reports Asian Lite News

    More than 2000 people gathered in Paris on October 2 and demonstrated against the ongoing rights violations of Uyghurs in Xinjiang by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

    The protest was organised by multiple Uyghur organisations including the World Uyghur Congress and the Uyghur Institute of Europe. The protest saw the participation of hundreds of Uyghur youth who had travelled from various European countries as well as public figures like Raphael Glucksmann, Member of European Parliament (MEP) and French actress Lucie Lucas.

    Thousands protest in Paris against China’s rights violation in Xinjiang. Pic credits : Philarty

    The protestors marched from Bastille square to place de ka Republique shouting slogans ‘genocide in progress’ and ‘Save the Uyghurs’ and carrying banners and East Turkestan flags. During the speeches, a call was made to the international community to cancel all agreements between the European Union and China as well as boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022.

    Further, many speakers denounced the complicity of multinational fashion companies like Zara, Hugo Boss and Uniqlo, who continued to buy products produced by forced Uyghur labour.

    Earlier, the same day, the NGO ‘SumofUs’ in association with the World Uyghur Congress, held a protest outside the flagship Zara store in Paris’s Champs-Elysees, against the brand’s sourcing material from China that used Uyghur labour. This protest, timed to coincide with the Paris Fashion Week, was intended to draw the attention of other fashion brands to stop sourcing commodities from Xinjiang.

    Thousands protest in Paris against China’s rights violation in Xinjiang. Pic credits: Philarty

    Assal Khamraeva -Aubert, the World Uyghur Congress’s representative in France and co-organiser of the event called on the French government to consider halting imports of products from Xinjiang that were produced using forced Uyghur labour. She added that the WUC hoped that apart from the international community recognising the Uyghur genocide, which would be a ‘symbolic victory’ it was also important to have an impact at the “economic level’.

    Ibrahim Bechrouri, campaign manager of “SumOfUs” warned that similar protests would be organised in other European capitals including in Spain.

    Some of the protestors specified the demands made by the movement, in particular, “the cancellation of the treaties signed between the European Union and China but also the cancellation of the Olympic Games in Beijing 2022”, due to the “massacre” of Uyghurs. (ANI)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFdghqxWz40

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  • US lawmakers form bipartisan Caucus to address Uyghur plight

    US lawmakers form bipartisan Caucus to address Uyghur plight

    This Caucus will give new power to voices in Congress who have championed the Uyghur cause….reports Reena Bhardwaj

    US lawmakers Tom Suozzi and Chris Smith on Thursday announced the creation of the Congressional Uyghur Caucus that they said would raise awareness of the Chinese Community Party’s (CCP) “systemic human rights violations against the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.”

    “Put simply, we’re talking about the largest coordinated human rights abuse campaign of the 21st century being perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party,” said Representative Suozzi. “Not only as Members of Congress, but as human beings we have a responsibility to uphold the values of fundamental human dignity and religious freedom abroad,” the lawmaker added.

    “The ongoing genocide and mass internment of Uyghurs and other predominantly-Muslim ethnic minorities like the Kazakhs are egregious crimes perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party,” said Representative Chris Smith.

    Speaking to ANI, Rushan Abbas, executive director for the Campaign for Uyghurs, praised the creation of the caucus. “The Congressional Uyghur Caucus represents a strong recognition of the brutal Uyghur genocide and bipartisan support from the US lawmakers to stop it. When we made the request to Representative Tom Suozzi to establish the caucus, we knew that we were trying to organize a coalition that will represent Uyghur human rights within the democratic system in the United States and with the leadership of Reps Suozzi and Chris Smith, we have paved the road for that journey,” Abbas added.

    Uyghur

    The activist strongly believes that the newly formed coalition will give new power to voices in Congress who have championed the Uyghur cause. She says it is encouraging to see organising at this level, with real and practical implications for policy moving forward.

    This Caucus will allow them to bring in more elected officials who aim to enact policy in support of the Uyghur people. Support within Congress has already helped the Senate pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, and now the Caucus will be able to assure its swift passage in the House of Representatives as well.

    “The United States cannot be silent as Xi Jinping tortures and seeks to eradicate an entire population. In solidarity with the oppressed, the Uyghur Caucus will call attention to the Communist Chinese government’s atrocious human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and work to end one of the world’s worst human rights tragedies,” Smith added.

    United Nations human rights experts believe that “Uyghur Genocide” continues to devastate East Turkistan, while more nations come to the conclusion that the atrocity must be addressed.

    Activists are of the opinion that the recent hearing on corporate sponsors for the Olympics is proof that there needs to be even more pressure from governments in the absence of any material effort on the part of corporations to ethically regulate themselves. (ANI)

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  • Netherlands’s Arnhem cuts ties with Wuhan over Uyghur genocide

    Netherlands’s Arnhem cuts ties with Wuhan over Uyghur genocide

    Majority of the Arnhem city council voted for an immediate break of ties over human rights violations that are taking place on a massive scale in China…reports Asian Lite News

    Terming Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs as ‘genocide’, Netherland’s Arnhem city broke cooperation chains with their sister city of Wuhan.

    In a surprise decision, the majority of the Arnhem city council voted against the mayor’s plan to continue the relationship with Wuhan and stay in dialogue with China about human rights, a majority of political parties of the Netherlands voted for an immediate break of ties, NL Times reported.

    “We believe that human rights violations are taking place on a massive scale in China and the situation of the Uyghurs and other minorities in China is deteriorating by the day and that under these circumstances it is immoral to maintain city ties with China,” political parties said during the discussion.

    The lower house of Dutch parliament also agreed that the way in which China treats the Uyghur people should be called genocide, GroenLinks, Partij van de Arbeid, Christian Democratic Appeal, PvdD, DENK, ChristenUnie, 50Plus and two individuals from Netherland parliament supported the Democrats66’s proposal for the Dutch government to stop mincing words around this issue, NL Times reported citing European media reports.

    LEAD — Chinese President Xi Jinping (Source twitter@ChinaAmbUN) (3)

    “This involves terrible abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority. We should not mince words and call it genocide,” D66 parliamentarian Sjoerd Sjoerdsma said.

    Meanwhile, a group of protestors including Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, and human rights defenders from Hong Kong, Japan and China demonstrated against the human rights abuses by Beijing and called upon the world community to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

    They pleaded for the world to act and save the lives of ethnic minorities inside mainland China, as also the political and civil rights of the people of Hong Kong. (ANI)

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  • US Senate passes bill to ban goods from China’s Xinjiang

    US Senate passes bill to ban goods from China’s Xinjiang

    The bill has currently received unanimous consent, and has to mandatorily pass the House of Representatives before being sent to President Joe Biden to be signed into law…reports Asian Lite News

    The US Senate passed a bill on Wednesday to impose a ban on the import of all products from or manufactured in China’s Xinjiang region. The ban will only be waived if importers can prove that the products weren’t made with forced labour, thereby marking the US’ latest effort to punish Beijing for their treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim groups.

    The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act reportedly needs the US Department of Homeland Security to form a list of entities working with the Chinese government to suppress Uyghurs and other groups. The bill would create a “rebuttable presumption” assuming that all products made in Xinjiang are done with forced labour and thus banned under the 1930 Tariff Act, unless importers can prove otherwise.

    The bill has currently received unanimous consent, and has to mandatorily pass the House of Representatives before being sent to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. Republication Senator Marco Rubio – who introduced the bill, with Democrat Jeff Merkley, called for fast action on the bill by the House.

    “We will not turn a blind eye to the CCP’s ongoing crimes against humanity, and we will not allow corporations a free pass to profit from those horrific abuses,” Rubio said in a statement.

    Democrat Merkley, on the other hand, highlighted that no US corporation “should profit from these abuses” and that no US consumers should be “inadvertently purchasing products from slave labour”.

    The US administration has consistently criticised Beijing over its actions against ethnic groups, saying they amount to genocide and crimes against humanity. In 2018, UN experts cited that anywhere from tens of thousands to over 1 million Uyghurs have been detained in China, and coerced into taking jobs under a labour-transfer programme. After this, the US put a ban on Xinjiang solar products, tomatoes, and cotton. Besides the US, the European Union (EU), Canada, and the UK have declared sanctions on China for their treatment of ethnic groups. However, China, in retaliation, has called the allegations the “biggest lie of the century,” stating that the country’s policies are to lift it out of poverty, counter-extremism, and uplift the economy.

    Last week, the US included 34 new entities to its blacklist, including 14 Chinese ventures with alleged links to human-rights abuses in the Xinjiang area of China. If passed, the latest Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act also brings in the chance of visa and asset-blocking sanctions in connection to Xinjiang to include foreign people and entities.

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  • China Fear Revival of Turkistan Islamic Movement Amid US Troop Pull Out

    China Fear Revival of Turkistan Islamic Movement Amid US Troop Pull Out

    In November 2020, the former Donald Trump administration removed Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) from America’s terror list, saying at the time there was “no credible evidence” that ETIM still exists, reports Asian Lite News

    Amid the ongoing US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, China is worried about the instability to come in the country, a revival of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), its cross-border agitation and terrorism in Xinjiang region, said scholar Salman Rafi Sheikh.

    The ETIM, also known as the Turkistan Islamic Movement, is an ethnic Uyghur group active in Afghanistan that has long sought to achieve independence for Xinjiang, which it envisions as a future “East Turkestan.”

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    The ETIM is also active in Syria’s civil war, where battle-hardened fighters have largely been grouped in Idlib and other northern regions. The United Nations has categorised the group as a “terror organisation” since 2002.

    In November 2020, the former Donald Trump administration removed ETIM from America’s terror list, saying at the time there was “no credible evidence” that ETIM still exists.

    Turkistan

    In an opinion piece in Asia Times, Sheikh said as the Taliban surges north in the wake of America’s troop withdrawal, it seems likely only a matter of time before the group overruns Kabul and its US-backed government, and establishes in its place a new “Islamic Emirate”, as it has repeatedly said it aims to do.

    “A Taliban takeover, analysts and observers believe, will open new space for groups like ETIM to recruit and radicalize Uyghur youth, many of whom are already reportedly deeply disaffected by reports of Beijing’s Uyghur “vocational camps” and authoritarian control of Muslim religious practices in Xinjiang,” Sheikh added.

    He further stated that for Beijing, however, the concern is not merely the spread of radical ideas among Uyghur Muslims in neighboring Afghanistan. Rather, it is the threat a resurgence of extremism could pose to its strategic Belt and Road Initiative in the region, not least in Pakistan.

    Four of China’s six so-called Silk Road networks, including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), emanate from or pass through Xinjiang. Those roads aim to connect China with Russia, Central, Southern, and Western Asia, reaching the Mediterranean Sea.

    Specifically, Silk Road networks other than the CPEC that run through Xinjiang include the China-Central Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor, the New Eurasia Land Bridge Economic Corridor, and the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor.

    Sheikh said that while the departure of US and NATO forces from neighboring Afghanistan is no doubt broadly welcomed by China, it also puts Beijing in a new strategic quandary – one that could make or break its BRI ambitions in the region.

    “Beijing’s concerns about the ETIM in Afghanistan are not simply an exaggerated threat assessment to justify its authoritarian control of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. In 2008, China’s Ministry of Public Security released a list of eight “terrorists” linked to ETIM with detailed charges against them, including threats to bomb the 2008 Beijing Olympics,” Sheikh added.

    Citing the recent United Nations Security Council report, Sheikh said, despite the Trump administration’s denials ETIM not only exists and operates in Afghanistan but is also pursuing a “transnational agenda.”

    According to the report, ETIM is among the “foremost” foreign terror groups operating in Afghanistan. The report said ETIM is situated mainly in Badakhshan, Kunduz and Takhar provinces and that Abdul Haq (Memet Amin Memet) remains the group’s leader, he said.

    The report goes on to say approximately 500 ETIM operate in the north and northeast of Afghanistan, primarily in Raghistan and Warduj districts, Badakhshan, with financing based in Raghistan. Those northern areas connect with China through the narrow Wakhan Corridor, a potential passageway for Xinjiang-bound militants.

    The UN report said ETIM collaborates with Lashkar-e-Islam and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, two banned Pakistani groups. It also said ETIM “has a transnational agenda to target Xinjiang, China, and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, as well as Chitral, Pakistan, which poses a threat to China, Pakistan and other regional states,” he said.

    US soldiers prepare to depart from Kunduz, Afghanistan. (Brian Harris Planet Pix ZUMA_dpa_IANS)

    Citing another report, Sheikh said that it indicates Beijing is trying to get a grip on the situation in Afghanistan. According to media reports, in December 2020, a Chinese spy ring was arrested in Afghanistan.

    Although Beijing denied the allegation, Ahmad Zia Saraj, the chief of Afghanistan’s National Directorate Security, confirmed to the Afghan Parliament that the arrests had indeed been made. What information the reputed spies may have gathered and transmitted to Beijing before their apprehensions, however, is unknown, he added. (ANI)

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  • Protest outside Chinese embassy in London

    Protest outside Chinese embassy in London

    According to officials, a total of 197 people died, with 1,721 suffered injuries in the riot…reports Asian Lite News.

    Members of the Uyghurs and the Tibetan communities protested outside the Chinese embassy in London to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the Urumqi massacre.

    On July 5, 2009, violent riots broke out in Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang. The Chinese government launched a crackdown against Uyghurs protesting against the killing of two Uyghurs. Thousands of protestors were killed, disappeared or injured.

    According to officials, a total of 197 people died, with 1,721 suffered injuries in the riot.

    Uyghur-run mosques were temporarily closed. By November 2009, over 400 individuals faced criminal charges for their actions during the riots. Nine were executed in November 2009, and by February 2010, at least 26 had received death sentences.

    Reports from non-governmental organisations based on interviews with eyewitnesses indicated that security forces deliberately used live ammunition during the protest.

    To mark the 12th anniversary of the riots, protests were organised in several cities around the world.

    In London, a peaceful protest was held outside the Chinese embassy. This annual anniversary, attended by about 50 people, coincided with the monthly protest organised by the Uyghur Solidarity UK.

    Uyghur

    Pro Uyghur organisation, World Uyghur Congress (WUC), is commemorating the “Urumchi Massacre.”

    Meanwhile, on Sunday, members of the Uyghur community held a protest march in Japan’s Tokyo.

    On July 4, a 15-day walking protest has been launched against China’s massive human rights abuses of Uyghur Muslims by the East Turkistan Association of Canada. (ANI)

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  • Blinken meets Uyghur internment camp survivors

    Blinken meets Uyghur internment camp survivors

    Early this year, the US became the first country in the world to declare the Chinese actions in Xinjiang as “genocide….reports Asian Lite News

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday virtually met Uyghur internment camp survivors, and relatives of individuals detained in Xinjiang, and expressed Washington’s commitment to pressure China to halt ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs minority.

    The State Department said Blinken wanted to hear directly from the seven former detainees, relatives of others and advocate about conditions that they and the Uyghur community more broadly face.

    “Today Secretary Blinken met with seven Uyghur internment camp survivors, advocates, and relatives of individuals detained in Xinjiang to express the United States’ commitment to work with allies and partners in calling for an end to the People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s ongoing crimes against humanity and genocide against Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

    China has been rebuked globally for cracking down on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities and sending members of the community to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination.

    Uyghur

    ALSO READ: China accuses US of posing biggest cybersecurity threat

    Early this year, the US became the first country in the world to declare the Chinese actions in Xinjiang as “genocide.

    Recently, US State Department released its 2021 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) placing China among the worst countries in human trafficking following its increasing repression of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

    The report accused China of using surveillance technologies and criminal charges to abduct and detain more than one million Muslims, including Uyghurs, ethnic Hui, ethnic Kazakhs, and more, in up to 1,200 state-run internment camps.

    The United States will continue to place human rights at the forefront of our China policy and will always support the voices of activists, survivors, and family members of victims who courageously speak out against these atrocities, said the spokesperson. (ANI)

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  • China’s Uyghur Persecution Reaches Nearly 30 Countries

    China’s Uyghur Persecution Reaches Nearly 30 Countries

    The majority of targeted Uyghurs are located in Muslim-majority countries including Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey…reports Asian Lite News

    China’s persecution of Uyghurs overseas has spread to nearly 30 countries around the world, largely because the governments of these host countries fear Beijing’s power and influence, claims a new report.

    At least 28 countries across the world complicit in China’s harassment and intimidation of Uyghurs, with countries in the Middle East and North Africa as worst offenders, reported Voice of America (VOA), says the report compiled jointly by rights group Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs and the Uyghur Human Rights Project.

    Titled ‘No Space Left to Run, China’s Transnational Repression of Uyghurs’, it argues that Beijing uses a number of methods to intimidate Uyghurs living in other countries, including everything from the use of spyware and hacking, to releasing red notices against targeted individuals through Interpol.

    “Since 2017, the most common method for silencing overseas dissent is to threaten an individual’s relatives residing within China’s borders with detention, and in some cases, have a target’s close family issue public statements as part of government smear campaigns designed to undermine an activist’s credibility,” Bradley Jardine, research director at Oxus Society and one of the authors of the report, told VOA via email.

    The majority of targeted Uyghurs are located in Muslim-majority countries including Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which have been called the largest offenders of transnational repression of the Uyghurs, according to Jardine. He said that some of these countries have no legal protections for vulnerable minorities and the rule of law tends to be weak or susceptible to political interference.

    “This has made the Middle East fertile ground for China’s campaign of global intimidation,” Jardine added.

    According to the report, the first such case happened in Pakistan in 1997, when the Pakistan government deported 14 Uyghurs to Beijing who were accused of being separatists. All of them were executed upon arrival in China, VOA reported.

    Between 1997 and December 2016, China was involved in the detention or deportation back to China of more than 851 Uyghurs across 23 countries. Since 2017, Beijing’s actions have expanded dramatically, resulting in at least 695 Uyghurs detained or deported to China from 15 separate countries, the report said.

    ALSO READ: China Targets Uyghurs Living Abroad To Suppress Protest

    Additionally, upon Beijing’s request in 2017, Egyptian police detained scores of Chinese students of the Uyghur ethnic minority. Some had to flee to Turkey, others were sent back to Beijing.

    The report indicated that often, these major offenders are economically dependent on China. They tend to use Uyghurs living overseas as bargaining chips when negotiating with Beijing.

    “The main motivations tend to be opportunism. The major offenders in the report tend to have very strong economic or security ties with China, cracking down on Uyghur minorities in exchange for investments, concessions or military hardware,” Jardine told VOA.

    Close to two million Uyghurs are currently held in internment camps in Xinjiang. Rights organisations and former detainees refer to them as concentration camps, while Chinese officials maintain them as “vocational education centres established in accordance with the law in the face of frequent violence and terrorism in the past.”

    China has been globally rebuked for cracking down on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps to undergo some form of forcible “re-education or indoctrination”.

    Over the past four months, the Canadian, Dutch, British, Lithuanian, and Czech parliaments adopted motions recognising the Uyghur crisis as genocide. (ANI)

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