Editor’s note: The “CDT Report Collection” column contains report information related to freedom of speech and other human rights issues in China. These reports come from a variety of sources, including institutional surveys, academic research, media reports, and netizen aggregators. Readers are also welcome to recommend reports of concern to us.
The world-renowned UN report on human rights in Xinjiang was released this week, and China Digital Times also made a special report on it: 【CDT Report · Feature】The past and present of the UN report on human rights in Xinjiang: Can the Chinese authorities launder crimes against humanity? , welcome to read.
1. Uyghur Human Rights Project: Worse than silence, Arab countries and China partnered to persecute Uyghurs
The Uyghur Human Rights Project, a non-profit organization that won the “Liu Xiaobo Conscience Award”, released a report on August 30, accusing Arab countries of partnering with China to suppress Uyghurs across borders. The report stated that the Arab world was once considered a safe area by Uyghurs, but “with the strengthening of relations between China and Arab countries, since 2001, 292 Uyghurs have been detained or deported by Arab countries at the behest of the Chinese government”.
The cover of the report, the picture comes from the Uyghur Human Rights Project
The report identified five main mechanisms of transnational persecution in China against Uyghurs in Arab countries: transnational digital surveillance, narratives of the global war on terror, Islamic educational institutions, pilgrimages as a tool of control, and the weaponization of passports.
First, the CCP has established a transnational digital surveillance system. At present, the CCP has developed an algorithmic monitoring system, the Integrated Joint Operation Platform (IJOP), for the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. However, in order to deal with Uyghurs in Arab countries transnationally, the platform has been internationalized, “capable of tracking and closely monitoring Uyghurs living abroad”. Second, when the U.S. declared its Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) in 2001, the CCP took advantage of this Western GWOT narrative. This became its reason for detaining Uyghurs or extraditing Uyghurs overseas to China.
Third, “the Islamic educational institutions where Uyghur students attend have also become the target of the CCP’s attack.” Even the Al-Azhar Mosque and University in Cairo, Egypt, with a history of thousands of years, also participated in the CCP’s arrest of its Uyghur students. Fourth, “Saudi Arabia’s Hajj and Umrah activities, which the CCP-state uses to monitor or detain Uyghur pilgrims”. Fifth, the CCP weaponized citizen passports “by refusing to issue travel documents to Uyghurs in Arab countries, making them stateless and thus vulnerable to deportation to China”.
Finally, the report makes the following recommendations to Arab governments and educational institutions:
Adopt measures to protect Uyghur refugees
Strengthen refugee resettlement programs with increased quotas and simplified procedures
Relevant governments should prioritize policy and diplomatic efforts to combat complicity by third-country governments in transnational persecution in China
adhere to the principle of non-refoulement
Targeted sanctions against Chinese and Arab officials responsible for transnational persecution
Appointment of a UN Special Rapporteur on Transnational Persecution
Improve digital security for UNHCR and other international NGOs working with refugees
To solve this problem through the International Islamic Organization
Leveraging international support for China’s Uyghur policy
University officials must engage with their governments to urge the immediate release of Uyghur students
Facilitating the registration process for Uyghur students
Ensure that foreign students of other nationalities are not harassed by security services that hinder their studies
Second, the U.S. State Department and a number of non-governmental organizations call on the Chinese authorities to stop enforced disappearances
August 30 is the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance. Several official and private organizations have called on the Chinese government to end enforced disappearances within China. U.S. Secretary of State Blinken issued a statement saying, “The United States stands with all those affected by the crime of enforced disappearance. This behavior prohibited by international law is a serious violation of human rights, yet continues to be used to suppress dissent and attack civil society.” .
US Secretary of State Blinken, the picture comes from the official website of the US State Department
On the same day, Amnesty International, Freedom House and Chinese Human Rights Defenders jointly issued an open letter calling on China to stop enforced disappearances. The open letter, citing the third disappearance of “China’s conscience” human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng as an example, criticized China’s official forced disappearance, stating that “the Chinese government ignored the appeals of the people and continued to refuse to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The Chinese government has also ignored requests to visit China by the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances for more than nine years, including the most recent request for a visit on January 7, 2022. During this time, individual disappearance cases submitted to the Working Group The number has surged, reaching 214 by 2021, 98 of which remain unresolved. The open letter also stated that UN experts and civil society participants have documented many practices by the Chinese authorities amounting to enforced disappearances, mainly residential surveillance in designated locations (RSDL), Detention system, psychiatric incarceration (Ankang), enforced disappearances in Tibet and enforced disappearances in Uyghur areas.
Finally, the open letter said: “We stand in solidarity with all those who have disappeared and their loved ones who long for their return alive.”
The participating institutions are as follows:
Amnesty International
China Against the Death Penalty
China Aid Association
Chinese Human Rights Defenders
Freedom House
Front Line Defenders
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Grupo de Apoio ao Tibete Portugal
Hong Kong Democracy Council
Hongkongers in Britain
Hong Kong Watch
International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)
International Campaign for Tibet
International Commission of Jurists
International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
International Society for Human Rights
International Tibet Network
Lawyers for Lawyers
Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada
Northern California Hong Kong Club
Objectif Tibet, Sciez, France
PEN America
Safeguard Defenders
The Rights Practice
The 29 Principles
Tibet Initiative Deutschland
Tibet Justice Center
Tibet Support Group Ireland
Students for a Free Tibet
Swiss Tibetan Friendship Association
Uyghur Human Rights Project
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
World Uyghur Congress
3. Human Rights Network: August “Monthly Report on Political Prisoners and Prisoners of Conscience Detained in Mainland China”
On August 31, the Citizen Rights Protection Volunteer Network Organization Rights Protection Network released the August “Monthly Report on Political Prisoners and Prisoners of Conscience Detained in Mainland China”. The number of new criminal detentions has increased compared with the previous month. According to the report, 20 people were released and 2 people were sentenced in the online rights protection list. This month, 66 people were newly detained, “sickened” and sentenced. speech, human rights activities and religious activities, etc.
A well-known Tibetan entrepreneur sentenced to 18 years in prison, the picture comes from the Central Tibetan Administration
The newly added 66 prisoners of conscience list and the sentenced persons on the previous list are as follows:
1. This month, I learned the list of 2 people who were sentenced in the previous list
4 years: Zhu Yufang
1 year and 3 months: Geng Zejun
2. 6 persons under criminal detention, the list is as follows:
Wu Jianwei, Chen Baiqing, Long Kehai, Mao Huibin, Ye Guoqiang, Shi Xinhong
3. 1 person who was “mentally ill”, the list is as follows:
Yu Aiming, detained in Fujian Fuyuan Psychiatric Hospital
4. Sentenced 59 persons. The list and terms of sentences are as follows:
18 years: Tenzing Qupei
10 years: Zhang Xunju
9 years: Hu Jinhui
7 years: Jia Jingwen, Li Yun, Luo Yuanying, Ma Qin
5 years and 6 months: Zhuang Shrimp Chang
5 years: Chen Zhongguo, Yu Guizhen, Cheng Meihua, Zeng Xingyang
4 years and 6 months: Gang Liu
4 years and 3 months: Liu Chang’e
4 years: Feng Ruiying, Xu Yanzhen, Wu Yongfeng, Yan Lijun, Zhang Xiaona, Liu Hongxia
3 years and 7 months: Zhang Chunqiu
3 years and 6 months: Liu Yan, Huang Hongwei, Huang Boming, Deng Fang
3 years and 2 months: Zhang Chunying
3 years: Deng Diran, Xue Yuchun, Fu Shengping, Zhang Yingling, Jin Xiaomei, Yan Lin, Zeng Yueling
October 2: Yin Jun
2 years and 8 months: Wu Fangling
2 years and 6 months: Li Xintian, Chen Lin, Kang Guiyun, Li Yanxia
2 years and 4 months: Yang Jinxiang
2 years and 3 months: Guo Shufen
2 years: Mei Yufeng, Yan Huiyu, Wang Jimei, Wang Yulan, Duan Yanlin
1 year and 10 months: Han Shimin
1 year and 6 months: Jiao Ting’e, Chai Huiqin, Ding Yao, Yao Zhongmei, Bi Guiying
1 year 4 months: Guo Jinshan
1 year: Wang Yuan, Dai Qingping, Liu Yurong, Li Shufang, Chen Wenxue
Sentence unknown: Sun Daluo (formerly known as Sun Zhiming)
As of press time, there are currently 1,422 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in custody in China. Among them, 11 were suspended from death, 17 were sentenced to life imprisonment, 1,198 were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment, and 196 were not sentenced to custody. A large number of people were “mentally ill” and enforced disappearances were not fully recorded.
In addition, according to the non-profit organization China Labor Bulletin, there were 14 safety incidents in July, 33 collective actions by workers, and 112 workers seeking help. Geographically, Shandong, Henan and Guangdong are the areas with high incidence of workers seeking help in August.
Picture from China Labour Bulletin
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