Category Archives: Uyghurs

Beijing using its financial muscle to target Uyghurs living abroad – report

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Cases of transnational repression found in 28 countries are ‘just the tip of the iceberg’, say rights researchers

China is using its unprecedented economic clout across vast swathes of Asia and the Middle East to target Uyghur Muslims living beyond its borders through a sprawling system of transnational repression, a new report says.

Beijing’s crackdown on Xinjiang province, where more than 1 million people are thought to have been detained in a network of internment camps in recent years, has coincided with a rise in efforts to control Uyghurs living overseas, the report found.

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Unions join call for Australian anti-slavery law to prevent profiting from forced labour, including in Xinjiang

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Coalition facing growing pressure – including from own MPs – to join international efforts to curb modern slavery

A top union leader has called on the Morrison government to urgently introduce laws to prevent Australian businesses from “profiting by importing goods made by slavery”, as the push gains support from across the political spectrum.

The president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Michele O’Neil, told Guardian Australia it “should appall all Australians that there is no ban on the importation of goods produced by forced labour”.

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UN warns of worst ‘cascade of human rights setbacks in our lifetimes’

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Rights chief calls for concerted global action, citing recent violations in China, Russia and Ethiopia

The UN rights chief has called for concerted action to recover from the worst global deterioration of rights she had seen, highlighting the situation in China, Russia and Ethiopia among others.

“To recover from the most wide-reaching and severe cascade of human rights setbacks in our lifetimes, we need a life-changing vision, and concerted action,” Michelle Bachelet told the opening of the UN Human Rights Council’s 47th session.

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Hungary’s LGBT protests and Juneteenth Day: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms from China to Colombia

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China’s Uyghurs living in a ‘dystopian hellscape’, says Amnesty report

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Widespread internment, torture and rights abuses have been claimed by former detainees as Beijing continues a policy of denial

Amnesty International has collected new evidence of human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region of China, which it says has become a “dystopian hellscape” for hundreds of thousands of Muslims subjected to mass internment and torture.

The human rights organisation has collected more than 50 new accounts from Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities who claim to have been subjected to mass internment and torture in police stations and camps in the region.

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EU parliament ‘freezes’ China trade deal over sanctions

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Tit-for-tat sanctions over Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs puts halt on investment agreement

The European parliament has voted overwhelmingly to “freeze” any consideration of a massive investment deal with China, following recent tit-for-tat sanctions over Beijing’s treatment of its Uyghur population in Xinjiang province.

According to the resolution, the parliament, which must ratify the deal, “demands that China lift the sanctions before parliament can deal with the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI)”. Some MEPs warned that the lifting of the sanctions would not in itself ensure the deal’s ratification.

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‘I can’t be that careless’: Australian Uyghur activist targeted online

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Nurgul Sawut, who has been named on a Chinese blacklist, says she’s experienced online trolling, nasty messages and malware

A Uyghur activist in Australia who has been the target of cyber-attacks by hacker groups in China says the Australian government needs to do more to educate the Uyghur community in Australia to protect themselves online.

Uyghur activists outside of China are frequently the target of hackers based in China.

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Chinese Uyghur policy causes ‘unprecedented’ fall in Xinjiang birthrates

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Research finds figure fell by almost half between 2017-2019, backing claims of coercive fertility policies

Birthrates in Xinjiang fell by almost half in the two years after the Chinese government implemented policies to reduce the number of babies born to Uyghur and other minority Muslim families, new research has claimed.

The figures show unprecedented declines which were more extreme than any global region at any time in the 71 years of UN fertility data collection, including during genocides in Rwanda and Cambodia, according to the authors of the report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (Aspi).

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Refugees and the Armenian genocide: human rights this fortnight in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Colombia to China

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Where is New Zealand’s ‘values-based’ foreign policy when it comes to the Uyghurs? | Guled Mire

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Other small nations also feel vulnerable to Chinese aggression but it hasn’t stopped them speaking out over the Uyghur genocide

After the Christchurch terror attacks, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern donned a hijab as she comforted the relatives of the 51 Muslims who were killed simply for practising their faith. The image spread across the world and she was lavished with international praise.

Yet her apparent turning away from the active erasure of China’s Uyghur Muslim minority population may undo that reputation. On Wednesday, New Zealand’s parliament backed away from calling what is happening in Xinjiang a “genocide,” opting instead for the watered-down language of “human rights breaches”.

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EU ‘suspends’ ratification of China investment deal after sanctions

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Massive trade agreement stalls after tit-for-tat sanctions prompted by Chinese policy in Xinjiang

The European Commission has said that efforts to ratify a massive investment deal with China have been in effect suspended after tit-for-tat sanctions were imposed over China’s treatment of its Uyghur population in March.

“We now in a sense have suspended … political outreach activities from the European Commission side,” said the commission’s executive vice-president, Valdis Dombrovskis, on Tuesday. He said that the current state of relations between Brussels and Beijing was “not conducive” for the ratification of the deal, which is known as EU-China comprehensive agreement on investment.

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New Zealand draws back from calling Chinese abuses of Uyghurs genocide

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Parliament will not debate motion and will instead discuss rights abuses in more general terms

New Zealand’s parliament will not debate a motion that would label the abuses of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, China, as acts of genocide.

Parliament opted instead on Tuesday to water down the language, and discuss concerns about human rights abuses in the region in more general terms.

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Revealed: UK solar projects using panels from firms linked to Xinjiang forced labour

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Investigation finds up to 40% of UK solar farms were built using panels from leading Chinese companies

Solar projects commissioned by the Ministry of Defence, the government’s Coal Authority, United Utilities and some of the UK’s biggest renewable energy developers are using panels made by Chinese solar companies accused of exploiting forced labour camps in Xinjiang province, a Guardian investigation has found.

Confidential industry data suggests that up to 40% of the UK’s solar farms were built using panels manufactured by China’s biggest solar panel companies, including Jinko Solar, JA Solar and Trina Solar.

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Yemen, Myanmar and George Floyd: human rights this fortnight in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Cambodia to Peru

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UK MPs declare China is committing genocide against Uyghurs in Xinjiang

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Vote does not compel government to act but marks further decline in relations with China

British MPs voted to declare that China is committing genocide against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang province.

The motion passed on Thursday does not compel the government to act but is likely to mark a further decline in relations with China.

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Campaigners call for global response to ‘unprecedented’ oppression in Xinjiang

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Human Rights Watch urges more coordination by governments to tackle China’s treatment of Turkic Muslims

The Chinese government is committing crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, where it has escalated its oppression of Turkic Muslims to unprecedented levels, Human Rights Watch has said, as the NGO called on governments to take direct action against officials and companies that profit from labour in the region.

HRW also recommended the EU delay ratifying its recent trade agreement with China until forced labour allegations were investigated, victims compensated, and there was “substantial progress toward holding perpetrators to account”.

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Sanctions only escalate tensions. It’s time to tackle the Uyghurs’ plight differently | David Brophy

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The west needs to make a credible case that its opposition to China’s policies is not geopolitical manoeuvring

“Wholly counterproductive”, was how Newcastle academic Joanne Smith Finley described China’s sanctions on her, along with a series of British politicians and lawyers, as punishment for their advocacy for the Uyghurs. That was putting it mildly. But is it the case that western sanctions on China will be, by contrast, productive? Sadly, that seems unlikely.

International outrage at China’s policies of incarceration and social coercion in Xinjiang continues to grow. As someone who has been engaged with the region for two decades, I see that as much needed. But it’s crucial the energy being generated is put to good use. The gloves may be off, but what is the strategy?

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China launches musical in bid to counter Uyghur abuse allegations

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Beijing is attempting to draw attention away from reports it is holding at least one million in Xinjiang internment camps

A new state-produced musical set in Xinjiang inspired by the Hollywood blockbuster “La La Land” has hit China’s cinemas, portraying a rural idyll of ethnic cohesion devoid of repression, mass surveillance and even the Islam of its majority Uyghur population.

China is on an elaborate PR offensive to rebrand the north-western region where the United States and other western nationals and human rights groups say genocide has been inflicted on the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

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‘Wings of Song’: China launches ‘idyllic’ musical set in Xinjiang – video

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A new Chinese state-produced musical set in Xinjiang portrays a rural idyll of ethnic cohesion devoid of repression, mass surveillance and even the Muslim religion of its majority Uyghur population. The musical appears intended to culturally reframe the debate on the region. Western countries, including the US and UK, have imposed sanctions on Chinese officials they say are involved in the mass interment of up to one million Uyghur Muslims.

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