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UN Concerned Over Forced Separation, Language Policies in Xinjiang

The UN experts were also informed of the exponential increase in the number of boarding schools for other Muslim and minority children in Xinjiang in recent years…reports Asian Lite News

The United Nations expressed concern over the allegations of a significant expansion of Xinjiang’s State-run boarding school system in China which fails to provide education in the children’s mother tongue and forcibly separates Uyghur and other minority Muslim children from their families and communities, leading to their forced assimilation, said an official press release from United Nations Human Rights.

“We are deeply concerned that boarding schools in Xinjiang are teaching almost exclusively in the official language with little or no use of Uyghur as medium of instruction and that the separation of mainly Uyghur and other minority children from their families could lead to their forced assimilation into the majority Mandarin language and the adoption of Han cultural practices,” the UN experts said, stressing the discriminatory nature of the policy and the violation of minorities’ right to education without discrimination, family life and cultural rights.

The release added that the experts received information about the large-scale removal of children, mainly Uyghur, from their families, including very young children whose parents are in exile or “interned”/detained. These children are treated as “orphans” by State authorities and placed in full-time boarding schools, pre-schools, or orphanages where the language used is almost exclusively Mandarin (Putonghua).

“Uyghur and other minority children in highly regulated and controlled boarding institutions may have little interaction with their parents, extended family or communities for much of their youth,” the experts said.

“This will inevitably lead to a loss of connection with their families and communities and undermine their ties to their cultural, religious and linguistic identities,” they said.

The release from the UN said that the Uyghur children placed in these boarding schools reportedly have little or no access to education in the Uyghur language and are under increasing pressure to speak and learn only Mandarin (Putonghua), as opposed to education aimed at achieving bilingualism in both Uyghur and Mandarin. Teachers can also be sanctioned for using the Uyghur language outside of specific language classes.

The UN experts were also informed of the exponential increase in the number of boarding schools for other Muslim and minority children in Xinjiang in recent years, and the closure of local schools where education through the medium of Uyghur and other minority languages could be provided. “The massive scale of the allegations raises extremely serious concerns of violations of basic human rights,” they said.

According to the release the United Nations experts have been in contact with the Chinese Government regarding these issues. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Pakistanis voice against Uyghur persecution in Xinjiang

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Chinese Uyhgurs asks to prosecute Xinjiang Governor in UK

China forcing marriages between majority Han Chinese and ethnic minority Uyghurs

WUC said that Xinjiang Governor Erkin Tuniyaz, was responsible for “severe human rights violations perpetrated against Uyghur people…writes Ashis Ray

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC), a London-based dissident group, have requested the British Attorney General for permission to arrest the Governor of the Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang and prosecute him if he visits London next week.

In a statement, the WUC said that Xinjiang Governor Erkin Tuniyaz, was responsible for “severe human rights violations perpetrated against Uyghur people and other Turkic groups in the Northwest of China which amount to torture”.

This is a part of China’s “deradicalisation” policy against the Uyghurs, who are mostly Muslims.

“Evidence has been passed to the (London) Metropolitan Police’s War Crimes team, SO15, for the investigation, which may lead to the arrest of Tuniyaz,” it added.

China has been running a vast network of concentration camps in the Uyghur region for years.

A man, Erbakit Otarbay, described by the WUC as a survivor of a camp, is represented by Michael Polak, an award-winning human rights lawyer.

Polak was quoted by The Guardian as asserting: “Because the client is in the US and an alleged victim of torture, he’s entitled to bring a case against Tuniyaz.”

Tuniyaz will be visiting the London at the Rishi Sunak government’s invitation.

Political refugee groups from Xinjiang expressed shock at the UK Foreign Office’s decision to invite him. One of them called it “incomprehensible”.

A section of British MPs were equally outraged. They alleged Tuniyaz had played “a central role in the persecution of Uyghurs”.

Two years ago, the British Parliament declared the treatment of Uyghur Muslims as genocide.

In 2021, the UnS sanctioned Tuniyaz and more recently a group of UN special rapporteurs protested against the separation of 1 million Tibetan children from their families.

Earlier, it had branded the persecution of Uyghur Muslims as serious human rights violations.

Uyghur activists Rahima Mahmut and Rayhan Asat affirmed: “Engagement must have its limits. Meeting and greeting Chinese Communist party officials that have been accused of direct involvement in the implementation of genocidal policies, including mass forced sterilisations and concentration camps, must be a red line.”

The Foreign Office said: “We’ve agreed to meet him (Tuniyaz) at a senior official level, and intend to use the opportunity to press for change in China’s approach and to make requests on specific issues, including individual cases.”

Under Britain’s Universal Jurisdiction legislation, officials of foreign governments, other than heads of government, can potentially be prosecuted if they visit the UK.

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UN panel calls on China to probe Xinjiang rights violations

It asked Beijing to ensure that victims of human rights violations, including Uyghurs and other ethnic Muslim communities, are provided with adequate and effective remedies and reparation…reports Asian Lite News

A UN committee has called on China to immediately probe all allegations of human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), including those of torture, ill-treatment, sexual violence, forced labour, enforced disappearances and deaths in custody.

Acting under its early warning and urgent action procedure, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) also called on China to immediately release all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty in the XUAR, whether in so-called Vocational Education and Training Centres (VETCs) or other detention facilities. In a statement, UN Human Rights Office said the Committee urged the State party to immediately cease all intimidation and reprisals against Uyghur and other ethnic Muslim communities, the diaspora and those who speak out in their defence, both domestically and abroad.

It asked Beijing to ensure that victims of human rights violations, including Uyghurs and other ethnic Muslim communities, are provided with adequate and effective remedies and reparation.

According to OHCHR, the committee also recommended that China undertake a full review of its legal framework governing national security, counter-terrorism and minority rights in the XUAR to ensure its full compliance with its obligations as a party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Furthermore, it urged the State party to effectively implement its 2018 recommendations, as well as the 2015 Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture, and the UN Human Rights Office’s assessment of human rights concerns in XUAR of August 2022.

“CERD’s early warning and urgent action procedure primarily aim to consider situations which might lead to conflicts in order to take appropriate preventive actions to avoid full-scale violations of human rights under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD),” Human Rights Office said.

A total of 182 States are party to ICERD. They are required to undergo regular reviews by the Committee of 18 independent international experts on how they are implementing the Convention.

In 2018, the Committee reviewed the periodic reports submitted by China and issued Concluding Observations in which it expressed a number of concerns, including about human rights violations of Uyghur and other Muslim minorities in the XUAR. (ANI)

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China taps social media influencers to cover up right abuses

Under the increasingly authoritarian rule of Xi Jinping, the CCP’s oppression of ethnic minorities has worsened, with major crackdowns in Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia….reports Asian Lite News

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using social media influencers from troubled regions like Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia to whitewash human rights abuses through an increasingly sophisticated propaganda campaign, a report has claimed.

The report published on Thursday by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), described the videos by “frontier influencers” as a growing part of Beijing’s “propaganda arsenal”, The Guardian reported.

Under the increasingly authoritarian rule of Xi Jinping, the CCP’s oppression of ethnic minorities has worsened, with major crackdowns in Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia.

Global condemnation has mounted, with a recent United Nations report finding there was a likelihood it was committing crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.

The Chinese government has vociferously denied accusations it has detained an estimated 1 million people in re-education camps and suppressed religious and cultural activities, saying the policies are to counter extremism and alleviate poverty.

Traditional Chinese government propaganda is often unconvincing but in recent years the government has harnessed the popularity of social media influencers under orders from Xi Jinping to ‘tell China’s story well’, according to recent reports and analysts, The Guardian reported.

Thursday’s report examined what it suggested was a further evolution, using individuals from within the victimised communities to deny it was happening.

“The influencers’ less polished presentation has a more authentic feel that conveys a false sense of legitimacy and transparency about China’s frontier regions that party-state media struggle to achieve,” the report by the government-funded think-tank said, The Guardian reported.

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How China is ramping up surveillance in Xinjiang

The report by the outgoing UN rights chief contains victim accounts that substantiate mass arbitrary detention, torture, and other serious human rights violations and recommends world to take action to end the abuses….reports Asian Lite News

China recently launched thousands of 5G base stations throughout its Xinjiang region, raising concerns the technology will be for greater digital surveillance of Uyghurs rather than the state use of economic development, according to US government-funded news service.

China’s Information Technology Ministry last month announced the number of 5G base stations in use across China has exceeded 1.96 million.

“The high-quality industrial internet network covers over 300 cities in China, accelerating the transformation and upgrading of traditional Chinese enterprises,” ministry official Wang Peng was quoted saying by state media outlet Xinhua.

With the aim to fully digitize its economy and society, Beijing’s build-out in Xinjiang is part of the expansion of the 5G tech for broadband cellular networks that started in 2019.

Xinjiang has the largest land area of all the provinces and autonomous regions in China with an area of 642,800 square kilometres, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported.

“The 5G network rollout across the entire region will augment an existing pervasive digitized system that monitors the movement of residents through surveillance drones, facial recognition cameras, mobile phone scans as part of China’s efforts to control the predominantly Muslim population,” RFA quoted experts as saying.

Josh Chin, a journalist with The Wall Street Journal, said, “It’s definitely an interesting development. I have to imagine it will only make surveillance that much more pervasive and efficient.” The rollout of 5G base stations across the vast, sparsely populated region is “overkill,” according to Geoffrey Cain, a U.S. journalist and China analyst.

“It’s very extreme, and it also strikes me as very suspicious,” he told RFA.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet in her long-awaited report in August said the Chinese government has committed abuses that may amount to crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic communities in Xinjiang.

The report by the outgoing UN rights chief contains victim accounts that substantiate mass arbitrary detention, torture, and other serious human rights violations and recommends world to take action to end the abuses.

It outlined China’s crimes against humanity due to its “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of Uyghurs and other Muslims.

Adrian Zenz, in an interview with ANI, termed this bombshell report as ‘overall positive, very conservative and cautious in its approach’. Zenz is a Senior Fellow and Director in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, Washington, DC.

“My assessment of the report is overall positive, it’s useful but of course, it’s not perfect at all and there are some shortcomings in it. The report is very conservative and cautious in its approach,” Zenz said. (ANI)

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China’s Xinjiang industrial plan is a threat to Uyghurs

China’s efforts to turn its far-western Xinjiang into a manufacturing powerhouse could force more Uyghurs to work against their will and make it harder to track whether the country’s exports are made with forced labour, according to a new report from a Washington, DC-based research group, th media reported.

The Centre for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), which studies global conflict and trans-national security issues, said China is establishing industrial parks, providing more financial assistance from state-owned enterprises, and connecting manufacturers within its borders as part of a long-term objective to bolster supply chains, RFA Uyghur reported.

“The Chinese government is undertaking a concerted drive to industrialize the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), which has led an increasing number of corporations to establish manufacturing operations there,” the report says.

“This centrally-controlled industrial policy is a key tool in the government’s efforts to forcibly assimilate Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples through the institution of a coerced labour regime,” RFA Uyghur reported.

The report, analyses publicly available data and case studies to detail the political nature of China’s industrial transfer in the Xinjiang, the patterns through which it takes place, and the scale at which abuses in the region are embedded within Chinese and global supply chains.

“Forced labour is a major component of these human rights abuses,” the report says.

“It occurs not only within extrajudicial detention centers and through the placement of detainees in factories but also through the threat of detention to pressure Uyghurs into jobs across XUAR and throughout China.

“Both state-owned and private corporations are significant perpetrators of human rights abuses, implementing coercive working conditions, indoctrination and mass surveillance.”

The main mechanism for the central government’s industrialisation drive in the XUAR is a program to pair Xinjiang counties and municipalities with wealthier provinces and municipalities on the east coast. The effort began 25 years ago and was expanded in 2010, the report says, RFA Uyghur reported.

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UK TO BAN XINJIANG PRODUCTS

British ministers are preparing to ban the government from buying health goods made in China’s Xinjiang region, amid mounting pressure from Conservative MPs over Beijing’s treatment of the Uyghur people

The British government will stop procuring goods from China’s Xinjiang region.  The Government has accepted amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill to ban the import of goods from regions linked to slavery such as Xinjiang in China.

The Health and Care Bill 2021/22 outlines major changes to NHS rules and structures in England. The Bill is the largest legislative shake-up of the NHS in a decade and undoes many of the changes introduced by the Coalition government in the last round of major NHS legislation back in 2012.

British ministers are preparing to ban the government from buying health goods made in China’s Xinjiang region, amid mounting pressure from Conservative MPs over Beijing’s treatment of the Uyghur people, the Politico reported. Health Secretary Sajid Javid is pre-empting the threat of a major rebellion from his own party next week with an amendment to the bill that would seek the “eradication” of slavery from health care supply chains.

The legislation could require private companies obtaining NHS contracts to meet criteria on modern slavery grounds, potentially creating a blacklist of companies that have failed the U.K.’s test.

China has been accused of forced-labor abuses in Xinjiang. Uyghur campaigners and international experts say China is seeking to control the Muslim population there through forced sterilizations, brainwashing in camps and the destruction of mosques.

A parent sharing their woes with BBC journalist John Sudworth (TV Grab)

Anti-slavery campaigners, meanwhile, hailed the move as “the biggest advance in modern slavery legislation” since Britain launched its crackdown on the practice in 2015.

Responding to the news, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Layla Moran MP said: “This is long overdue. It should not have taken a pandemic to shine a light on the hugely concerning links between supply chains involving forced labour – including those in Xinjiang – and PPE and other items used in our healthcare sector.

 “The Government cannot stop here. We need a concerted effort across to ensure that UK supply chains are not tainted by modern slavery. That starts by following the lead of the US, and banning goods from Xinjiang altogether. It is also beyond time for this Government to recognise the genocide taking place against the Uyghurs.”

Amazon Link

Amazon is reportedly employing suppliers in China with links to forced labour of ethnic minorities from the Xinjiang region.

A report from research group the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), has accused Amazon of continuing to work with these suppliers, despite evidence of their association with Uyghur labour camps.

“Amazon’s public list of suppliers, which produce Amazon devices and goods for Amazon’s private brands, includes five companies that have been linked directly or indirectly to forced labour of ethnic minorities from China’s Xinjiang region,” TTP said in its report that came out late on Monday.

Amazon last “comprehensively updated” its supplier list in June 2021, but details about the five suppliers’ links to forced labour were public before then.

The findings raise questions about Amazon’s exposure to China’s repression of minority Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and the extent to which the e-commerce giant is adequately vetting its supplier relationships.

Amazon says that its suppliers “must not use forced labour” and that it “does not tolerate suppliers that traffic workers or in any other way exploit workers by means of threat, force, coercion, abduction, or fraud”. But its supplier list tells a different story.

  In China, programmes euphemistically called “labour transfers” move workers from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a predominantly Muslim area in western China, to factories in other parts of the country.

  “Three Amazon suppliers are reported to have used forced labor directly: Luxshare Precision Industry, AcBel Polytech, and Lens Technology. Another two, GoerTek and Hefei BOE Optoelectronics, are themselves supplied by factories that have been implicated in forced labour,” the report mentioned.

  “Amazon continued to include one company, Esquel Group, on its supplier list for more than a year after the US government imposed sanctions on an Esquel subsidiary for involvement in forced labour in China,” the report noted.

 In a response to The Information, Amazon said it expects all items sold in its stores to comply with its supply chain standards, adding that the company takes action if it receives proof of forced labour.

  “A month later, however, Amazon continued to include the Luxshare and AcBel subsidiaries on its supplier list,” said the TTP report.

  TTP also found an example of a Chinese seller on Amazon simply deleting references to “Xinjiang” from its description of bedding, with no discernible change to the underlying goods — raising questions about Amazon’s monitoring of such sellers.

  “Amazon’s continued use of companies with well-documented ties to forced labour in Xinjiang cast doubt on the tech giant’s stated intolerance of human rights abuses in its supply chain,” the report stressed.

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UN Human Rights chief set to visit Xinjiang in May

Back in June last year, the UN rights chief had expressed hope to agree on terms for Xinjiang visit to look into reports of rights abuse against Uyghurs….reports Asian Lite News

United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet is set to visit China in May, including a trip to Xinjiang, after reaching an agreement with Beijing.

“My Office and the Government of China have initiated concrete preparations for a visit that is foreseen to take place in May of this year,” Bachelet said while delivering her annual report to the UN rights body. “Preparations will have to take into account COVID-19 regulations,” Bachelet said.

Back in June last year, the UN rights chief had expressed hope to agree on terms for Xinjiang visit to look into reports of rights abuse against Uyghurs.

Media reports said the approval for a UN visit has been granted, for a period, after the conclusion of the Beijing Winter Games. However, reports also add that Bejing has placed a condition that the trip should not be framed as a probe.

On Tuesday, some 200 rights groups demanded that Bachelet’s office release its long-postponed report on the rights situation in China’s Xinjiang province.

“The release of the report without further delay is essential – to send a message to victims and perpetrators alike that no state, no matter how powerful, is above international law or the robust independent scrutiny of your office,” the 192 groups, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty, wrote in an open letter.

HRW executive director Kenneth Roth said that rights groups have become increasingly concerned that the UN human rights office has still not published its long-awaited report on Xinjiang.

“It defies credibility to believe that China will allow meaningful unfettered access that will enable human rights defenders, or victims and their families, to speak to the High Commissioner safely, unsupervised and without fear of reprisal. Today’s announcement of a planned visit by the High Commissioner should not provide an excuse for her to avoid publishing her report on Xinjiang abuses without further delay, as she has repeatedly promised.”

China’s permanent representative to the UN Office at Geneva Chen Xu said China welcomes the visit by the UN rights office to China, including Xinjiang.

“We will work with the High Commissioner’s Office to make preparations for the visit,” Chen said at the ongoing 49th session of the HRC. (ANI)

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UK High Court allows Uyghur forced labour case to proceed

Rights groups also argued that a 19th-century law prohibiting the importation of prison-made goods is being violated by the purchase of cotton goods produced by forced labour, reports Asian Lite News

The High Court of England and Wales on Wednesday allowed Uyghur rights advocacy group to proceed with a forced labour case against UK authorities for permitting the importation of cotton goods produced with Uyghur forced labour in China.

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) of Munich, Germany, and the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) had registered a case against states and actors involved in human rights violations, alleging that cotton goods produced by Uyghurs in detention camps in Xinjiang are entering the UK, reported Radio Free Asia.

Roseanne Gerin, writing in Radio Free Asia said that rights groups also argued that a 19th-century law prohibiting the importation of prison-made goods is being violated by the purchase of cotton goods produced by forced labour.

GLAN said a court win would set a “world-first precedent” by confirming that the UK’s Proceeds of Crime Act — originally targeting money laundering and other illegal activities of organized crime — also applies to proceeds companies accumulate from so-called atrocity crimes, GLAN’s statement said.

Witness statements, leaked government documents, satellite imagery, a secret memorandum from within the textile industry, and documents that the Chinese government has attempted to remove from the internet will prove the case, GLAN said in a statement.

“All evidence points to cotton made using forced labour coming into the UK from the Uyghur region, East Turkestan,” Siobhan Allen, a GLAN legal officer, said in a statement.

“Living in a free country which upholds respect for human rights, it hurts so much to know that the products that are used in this country are the fruit of the enslavement of my people,” Rahima Mahmut, WUC’s UK Director, said in the statement.

Chinese authorities have used Uyghur forced labour in the cotton industry as part of its systematic persecution of the roughly 12 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities who live in Xinjiang.

China is the UK’s third-largest trade partner, with total trade in goods and services between the two countries amounting to Pound 93 billion (USD123 billion) in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021, according to government figures, reported Radio Free Asia.

Earlier this year the UK Parliament voted unanimously to declare that genocide and crimes against humanity were taking place against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, said Gerin.

In the US, Congress a week ago passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which will block the importation of goods produced by forced labour in Xinjiang. The White House has said that President Joe Biden will sign the legislation into law. (ANI)

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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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