The U.S. human rights organization “Uyghur Human Rights Project” (UHRP) recently released a report stating that the Chinese government has confiscated and auctioned their assets while accusing many Uyghur businessmen of crimes such as “financing terrorism or extremism” in recent years. Doubt the legitimacy of these cases of deprivation of assets.
The report, entitled “Under the Auction Hammer: Uyghur Assets Confiscated and Auctioned Online”, records more than a dozen cases of detained Uyghur assets being auctioned on the Taobao judicial auction platform, and this is probably just an iceberg. A corner.
The report pointed out that most of these auctions were executed by the Luopu County Court in Hotan, Xinjiang, and the Uyghur settlements in southern Xinjiang, such as Hotan and Kashgar, are the key areas where the Chinese government has implemented ethnic oppressive policies in recent years. In addition, considering that almost all of these cases occurred after 2016, this human rights organization believes that these Uyghur businessmen are the victims of a new round of Xinjiang’s repression that has been going on for about five years.
The author of the report and the project manager of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, Nicole Morgret, told our reporter on Monday that these cases once again confirmed the opacity of the authorities’ Xinjiang policy.
“I think they highlight the mystery of the Uyghur people’s various experiences and the overall impact they have on Uyghur society. Obviously, Uyghurs from all walks of life have been imprisoned or sentenced outside the law, and this obviously affects those who are often communities. The leader of the Uyghur rich.”
Taobao auctions Uyghur assets
In recent years, the Chinese government’s concentrated repression of Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang has been deemed “genocide” by many human rights organizations, legal experts, and the national government. This action swept the Uighur elite, including public figures such as intellectuals and religious leaders previously reported, but businessmen among them were rarely mentioned, and this report tried to fill this gap.
Omer Kanat, executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, said in a press release: “During this genocide, the issue of deprivation of Uyghurs’ assets is still under-reported, and the confiscation of assets has historically It’s not uncommon to see genocide in China. I hope this report can pave the way for in-depth research on this critical issue.”
Five of the twelve cases described in this report have been publicly reported, and another seven have never been reported before. One of the most informative examples is the Uyghur businessman Abdujelil Helil.
Hailili was once one of the richest people in Kashgar, Xinjiang, and was also the chairman of the local chamber of commerce. He was arrested in May 2017. Kashgar authorities accused him of supporting terrorist activities and sentenced him to 14 years in prison. In addition, the government also confiscated his personal assets worth up to 73 million yuan, including a three-story commercial building adjacent to the Etigar Mosque, the largest mosque in Xinjiang. In August 2019, the building was auctioned on Taobao, an e-commerce platform under Alibaba, and was bid for by a man named Chen Chuhong for more than 53 million yuan in October last year.
Public information shows that the Kashgar Public Security Bureau has also frozen Hailili’s shares in a mining company and a real estate company worth millions of yuan.
Ma Ningke said that in the auction cases disclosed in this report, relatively high-value assets are usually won by Han Chinese. The reasons behind this are also thought-provoking.
“Although some of the foreclosure assets are expensive, I don’t think it will significantly improve the financial situation of the local government. If there are reasons behind this, I think this is to further punish these Uyghurs and weaken their strength. “
Unclear facts of the crime
In addition, the report also tells what happened to the Ababek brothers in Moyu County, Hotan, who appeared in a Xinjiang documentary broadcast by China’s CCTV a few months ago. The film claims that Shirzat Bawudun, the former deputy secretary of the Xinjiang Political and Legal Committee, has long colluded with foreign terrorist forces in an attempt to disrupt Xinjiang’s counter-terrorism work from within. For many years, he has “supported” the businesses of the two brothers Afimiti and Abdul Aheiti in Moyu County to provide financial assistance to the foreign terrorist organization “East Iraqi Movement”, and the two brothers Ababek With his encouragement, he joined the Eastern Iraqi Movement.
Abdul Salamu, the son of Abdul Miti, told this station that his father was once the largest white sugar wholesaler in southern Xinjiang, and his uncle Abdul Aheti specializes in Silk Road passenger transport, but this is theirs. The bank is not “supported” by Bawudong and has no connection with terrorist organizations.
The report pointed out that the assets of Moyu County Makani Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. registered by the two Ababek brothers, worth tens of millions of dollars, were auctioned on Taobao in February this year, including three of them worth more than 15 million yuan. Eighteen unfinished apartments and office rooms, Makani Automobile Transportation Co., Ltd.’s shares worth more than 40 million yuan, Arimite’s two apartments in Urumqi with a total value of more than 3 million yuan, etc. .
Teng Biao, a legal scholar in the United States who participated in the preliminary review of the report, said that because the facts of the crimes of these parties are not clear, these auctions are likely to violate their rights.
“Many judicial auctions did not comply with the provisions of the law, and completely deprived the parties and their families of the basic rights, such as the separation of company property and personal property, and so on.”
Therefore, the report calls on the Chinese government to publish the specific allegations and related evidence of Uyghurs found to have committed crimes such as “terrorism” and “extremism”, and to clarify which assets of Uyghurs have been deprived of in this “People’s War on Terrorism” , And compensate those who have been deprived of assets due to politicization accusations, or return their assets.
Radio Free Asia reporter Jiaao Washington reports Editor: Shen Hua Web Editor: Hong Wei