June 2021 Monthly Journal of Press

June 2021 Monthly Journal of Press [ 1 ] June 2021 Monthly Journal of Press CHINA’S TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION LEAVES UYGHURS NO SPACE TO RUN Beijing’s peaceful rise has been paralleled by the increasing repression of Uyghurs on China’s behalf around the world. Over the last quarter-century, as China’s back to China of over 851 Uyghurs across 23 “peaceful rise” carried the country to new countries,” the report, titled “No Space Left economic and geopolitical heights, Beijing to Run: China’s Transnational Repression was engaged in an ever-expanding campaign of Uyghurs,” states. From 1997 to March of transnational repression. From neighbor- 2021, the researchers identified 28 countries ing Pakistan and the states of Central Asia, to around the world which have been “complic- Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to Thailand, Cam- it in China’s harassment and intimidation of bodia, and Myanmar, China has seen through Uyghurs.” the detention and, at times, deportation of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities fleeing The dataset contains 1,151 cases of Uyghurs Beijing’s grasp. being detained in countries outside China and 395 cases of deportation, extradition, A new report and dataset put together by re- or rendition back to China. The researchers searchers Bradley Jardine, Edward Lemon, note that the dataset is just the “tip of the ice- and Natalie Hall under a joint initiative by berg,” as it relies on publicly reported cases the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs of repression. and the Uyghur Human Rights Project is an effort to comprehensively analyze the pat- China’s efforts have evolved over time, with terns of China’s transnational repression. the report identifying three distinct phases: from 1991 to 2007, 2008 to 2013, and 2014 “Between 1997 and December 2016, China to March 2021. was involved in the detention or deportation [ 1 ] Monthly Journal of Press June 2021 The early phase (1991-2007), coming in Pakistan Lu Shulin met with Tal- the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse, in- iban leader Mullah Omar, elic- cludes cases concentrated largely in neigh- iting assurances that the group boring Central and South Asia. Central Asia had no interest in interfering in was home to a large Uyghur diaspora and the China’s “domestic issues and peoples of the region share ethnic, linguistic affairs.” Although the Taliban and cultural ties. In the 1990s, as communi- ties in the newly independent states formed would later rebuff U.S. requests organizations dedicated to Uyghur culture to hand over al-Qaida leader and rights, Beijing grew increasingly con- Osama bin Laden, in 2000 the cerned of possible cross-border influence Taliban turned over 13 Uyghurs and separatism. According to the report, as it had previously granted “po- early as 1994, “China began using economic litical asylum” to China. statecraft … Chinese officials toured the region to promote trade deals in exchange for In 1997, as Pakistan grew closer to its cooperation in silencing the Uyghur diaspo- “all-weather” ally China, Islamabad deport- ra.” ed 14 Uyghurs who had been studying at Pakistani madrassas. After they were driven In Afghanistan and Pakistan in across the border, they were executed. Ac- this early period, China courted cording to the report’s dataset, this is the first the Taliban for its assistance too. instance of extradition of Uyghurs to China In 1998, Chinese Ambassador to at Beijing’s request. [ 2 ] June 2021 Monthly Journal of Press too, abetted by the introduction of algorithmic surveillance, which aided authorities in de- termining if an individual might be an extremist based on foreign ties and other “suspicious” fea- tures. This latest phase saw the participation of Muslim-majority countries across the Middle East and North Africa. Ironical- ly, ties with or travel to a country In that early phase, the researchers identified like Saudi Arabia is deemed by at least 89 Uyghurs from nine countries de- Beijing as “suspicious,” yet Saudi authorities tained or deported to China. In the second have had few qualms about backing China’s phase (2008-2013), Beijing’s efforts and Xinjiang policies and in the past four years reach expanded to 130 detained or returned have deported at least six Uyghurs to China from 15 countries. who were visiting Saudi Arabia on pilgrim- age or living there legally. The 2009 violence in Urumqi and ensuing crackdown triggered an exodus of Uyghurs, The researchers stress in the report’s con- many trying to reach Turkey — then per- clusion that transnational repression is but a ceived as a safe haven — via Pakistan and part of the wider patterns of “global authori- Southeast Asia. Many ended up stuck in tarianism” in which “autocratic regimes like Southeast Asia, with Chinese economic re- China actively cooperate with one another lations again a convenient tool for leverage and repurpose institutions to protect them- in countries like Cambodia, Laos, and Myan- selves from accountability for human rights mar. Thailand is actually the largest source abuses.” This, in part, explains the paradoxi- identified in the report, given a group of 424 cal support of Muslim-majority authoritarian Uyghurs who were detained in 2014. Thai states for the repression of Muslims in Chi- authorities sent around 170 women and chil- na. Economics also forms an important teth- dren on to Turkey but extradited 109 men to er. Of the top 10 countries where China used China and continue to detain the remainder. transnational repression against the Uyghurs, “The fact that Thailand has been the largest the report notes that China is the largest cred- source of China’s transnational repression itor in four (Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia in terms of numbers is as much a factor of and Myanmar). The Belt and Road Initiative, Thailand’s poor record regarding refugees as in both its political and economic aspects, it is of Chinese influence in the country,” the undergirds China’s increasing reach. researchers noted. By Catherine Putz The third phase, from 2014 to the March 2021, marked an even sharper rise: a total of 1,327 detained or deported to China from 20 countries. As Chinese pressure and repression in Xinjiang reached new heights, its global efforts to pursue Uyghurs intensified [ 3 ] Monthly Journal of Press June 2021 MORE THAN 40 COUNTRIES URGE CHINA TO LET UN HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF INTO XINJIANG AS CONCERNS FOR UYGHURS MOUNT More than 40 countries urged China on Tuesday to allow the UN human rights chief immediate access to Xinjiang to look into reports that more than a million people have been unlawfully detained there, some subjected to torture or forced labour. The joint statement on China was read out “We urge China to allow immediate, mean- by Canadian Ambassador Leslie Norton on ingful and unfettered access to Xinjiang for behalf of countries including Australia, Brit- independent observers, including the High ain, France, Germany, Japan and the United Commissioner,” it added, referring to Mi- States to the UN Human Rights Council. chelle Bachelet. Beijing denies all allegations of abuse of Ms Bachelet told the council on Monday that Uyghurs and describes the camps as voca- she hoped to agree on terms for a visit this tional training facilities to combat religious year to China, including Xinjiang, to exam- extremism. “Credible reports indicate that over a million people have been arbitrarily detained in Xin- jiang and that there is widespread surveillance disproportionately targeting Uyghurs and members of other minorities and restric- tions on fundamental freedoms and Uyghur culture,” the joint statement said. [ 4 ] June 2021 Monthly Journal of Press ine reports of serious violations against Mus- China and its allies called for an investiga- lim Uyghurs. tion into the discovery of the remains of indigenous children in Canada at the site of a Her office has been negotiating access since former boarding school, prompting an angry September 2018. response from Canadian Prime Minister Jus- Chinese diplomats dismiss statement as ‘po- tin Trudeau. litically driven’ The remains of 215 children were found at Jiang Yingfeng, a senior diplomat at China’s the Kamloops Indian Residential School in mission to the United Nations in Geneva, re- British Columbia that closed in 1978, the jected the statement on Tuesday as interfer- Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation said on ence driven by “political motives”. May 28. “We welcome the visit by the High Com- “We call for a thorough and impartial in- missioner to China, to Xinjiang,” he said. vestigation into all cases where crimes were committed against the indigenous people, “This visit is for promoting exchanges and especially children, so as to bring those re- cooperation rather than an investigation sponsible to justice, and offer full remedy based on so-called presumption of guilt,” he to victims,” Jiang Duan, a senior official at told the council without giving a timeline. China’s mission to the United Nations in Ge- neva, told the Human Rights Council. The Canadian-led statement cited reports of torture, forced sterilisation, sexual violence Mr Trudeau, condemning what he called “the and forced separation of children from their systemic abuse and human rights violations” parents. in Xinjiang, said a Canadian truth and reconciliation commission had worked from 2008 It decried a law imposed a year ago in Hong to 2015 to address the mistreatment of the Kong against what China deems secession indigenous population. and terrorism. The first trials are due to begin this week of “Where is China’s truth and people arrested under the legislation. reconciliation commission? Where is their truth? Where is “We continue to be deeply concerned about the openness that Canada has the deterioration of fundamental freedoms in always shown and the respon- Hong Kong under the National Security Law sibility that Canada has taken and about the human rights situation in Ti- for the terrible mistakes of the bet,” it said.

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