Chinese government Abuse Uighurs within the Chinese borderIt is hunting them abroad to curb criticism of Beijing’s crackdown on Islamic minorities with the help of countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
The scale of efforts by the Chinese National Security Ministry to harass, detain, and hand over Uighurs from around the world, and cooperation from governments in the Middle East and North Africa, is a new report, “The Great Steel Wall,” Woodrow, China and the United States. According to the Kissinger Institute at the Wilson Center.
More than 5,500 Uighurs outside China were targeted in Beijing and were hit by cyberattacks and threats to families remaining in China, forcing more than 1,500 Uighurs to be detained or returned to China. .. Face imprisonment and torture Reportedly in police detention.
“This is the first major study to put the humanitarian crisis in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in a global context and shows the international side of Beijing’s campaign to suppress Uighurs,” said report author Wilson. Bradley Jardin, Schwartzmann Fellow and Research Director at the Center, said. At the Oxus Association for Central Asian Issues.
Deportation to China is underway.
On April 13, Saudi Arabia deports a Uighur woman and her 13-year-old daughter to China at risk of being detained there. A vast network of “re-education camps” in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of western China.. The girl’s father and another Uighur, a Muslim scholar, continue to be detained in the kingdom. It is unknown if any of them were formally billed.
Anthropologist Adrian Zenz, who studied and documented the systematic oppression of Beijing’s Uighurs, states that Beijing is leveraging the gifts of economic power and infrastructure projects. Belt and Road Initiative — Putting pressure on countries, including those with a majority of Muslim populations who may sympathize with Uighur plight.
“Chinese are very afraid of what Muslims think about the treatment of Uighurs and have made special efforts to influence the government and public opinion of these countries,” communism said. Zenz, a senior researcher in Chinese studies at the Victims Memorial, said. Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Washington.
Camp for Uighurs
Chinese authorities in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region began rounding up women and men in 2017. They are mainly Uighurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz minority Muslims. Restrain them in the camp Designed to eliminate the tendency of terrorists and extremists.
1 to 2 million Uighurs and other ethnic minority members of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Held at the campAccording to direct reports with human rights groups, they are forced to study Marxism, abandon their religion, work in factories, and face abuse. Beijing says these “re-education camps” are necessary to provide vocational training and fight radicalism. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment on this article.
From online harassment to detention and deportation, what scholars call “cross-border oppression” has taken place in 44 countries, with Uighurs throughout the United States, Japan, and the European Union, according to the report. Being threatened and threatened. Since 1997, more than 1,500 detentions and forced returns to China have occurred, of which more than 1,300 have occurred since 2014.
The report divides the crackdown into three different stages. Between 1997 and 2007, 89 Uighurs were detained or deported, primarily by local security agencies in South and Central Asia. In the second phase from 2008 to 2013, 126 Uighurs targeted mainly Southeast Asia. And in the ongoing third phase from 2014 to the present, 1,364 Uighurs were detained, handed over, or handed over from 18 countries concentrated in the Middle East and North Africa.
This report is based on a database called “Cross-Border Repression of the Uighur Dataset in China” built by Jardin in collaboration with the Uighur Human Rights Project and the Oxus Association for Central Asian Issues. Researchers screened news reports and government documents, conducted interviews with Uighurs, and compiled a comprehensive list of documented cases of persecution outside China. Jardine and NBC News report that the scale may be broader than officially reported.
The database contains 424 Uighur cases that have been forcibly returned to China since 2014, when the Chinese Communist Party launched its own “war on terrorism.”
According to the report, China’s secret services often rely on foreign governments, and in some cases on Interpol to assist in the repatriation of Uighurs they want to control.
“This reveals that China is not only abusing Uighurs within its borders, but is also pursuing Uighurs internationally on a large scale, both through legal and illegal channels. Will change the story of the Uighurs, “said Robert Daley, director of Kissinger at the Wilson Center. Laboratory. “China is tracking, harassing, detaining, and returning to China for punishment as much as possible, in pursuit of Chinese Uighurs around the world.”
Many of the Uighurs in the database were detained without being charged with crime and sent back to China, but some faced accusations ranging from lost passports and visas to terrorism. Some have been accused of making or dating individuals who have made political statements critical of Beijing’s oppressive policies in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, while others have been deported simply because they learned religion abroad. There is also. The database contains 60 documented cases of Uighurs who have been accused of promoting or participating in separatism or terrorism, or of being associated with radical groups.
In Morocco, Uighur human rights activists and journalists who are critical of Chinese policy remain imprisoned following Interpol’s red notice to him issued at Beijing’s request. Interpol later withdrew the notice because of the by-laws prohibiting persecution for political, religious, or ethnic reasons, but a Moroccan court approved a request for delivery by China in 2021.
In a statement to NBC News, an Interpol spokesperson said the “Professional Task Force” would review all red notification requests and take into account the information available at the time of publication to comply with organizational rules. I confirmed that I was doing it and said that I could review the notification. As in Morocco, new information will emerge. “”[Interpol’s] The Secretariat is constantly reviewing, evaluating and updating the procedure to ensure the highest level of integrity of the system and to trust its work, “said a spokesman.
Saudi Arabia, which is on China’s list of “suspicious” countries where Uighurs travel, is increasingly cooperating with Beijing. According to the report, Saudi officials have deported at least six Uighurs who have pilgrimaged to Mecca or have legally lived in the country to China in the last four years.
“This is complete apathy [on the part of Saudi Arabia] I know what happens to these Uighurs when they arrive in China, “Sentz said. “The Chinese government wants to cleanse Uighurs around the world so that there are no Uighur pockets outside the Chinese border, which is not in line with the story of Beijing.”
In 2017, Egyptian police brought together Uighur students at a university in Cairo and deported them to other parts of China and the Middle East. Some reportedly fled to Dubai, where they were detained.
“From an interview with Uighur sources in the United Arab Emirates, we learned that Chinese police have coordinated Egyptian crackdowns with Dubai. Uighur students trying to flee from Egypt to the United Arab Emirates Was picked up as part of this adjustment, “Jardin wrote in the report.
In a statement emailed to NBC News, the UAE’s Strategic Communications Department wrote that the UAE government “resolutely rejected” the allegations and called them “unfounded.”
“The UAE follows all recognized global norms and procedures established by international organizations such as Interpol in the detention, cross-examination and transfer of fugitives required by foreign governments.”
In 2020, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates joined 42 other countries in signing a letter supporting China’s mass detention campaign in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Embassyes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco did not respond to requests for comment.