cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/56820592
- The Chinese government exploits the vulnerability of separated Uyghur families as an opportunity for surveillance and strict monitoring of the Uyghur community in Australia, which has a chilling effect on diaspora activities.
- Australia and other governments should respond to Beijing’s intimidation of the Uyghur diaspora with public statements, clear travel advisories, safe reporting channels, criminal investigations, and support for family reunification.
...
The Chinese government is interrogating Uyghur Australians visiting Xinjiang, pressing them to collect information on Uyghurs in Australia, Human Rights Watch said today as its executive director, Philippe Bolopion, visited Australia.
Chinese authorities have long engaged in transnational repression—human rights abuses committed beyond a country’s borders to curtail dissent—against Uyghurs living abroad and their relatives in Xinjiang, by targeting activists critical of the Chinese government. By pressing visitors to provide information about Uyghur activists, organizations, and language schools in Australia, the authorities are repressing the rights of Uyghurs in Australia to freedom of expression, association, culture, and family life.
“The Chinese government exploits the vulnerability of separated Uyghur families as an opportunity for surveillance and disruption of communities abroad,” said Philippe Bolopion, executive director at Human Rights Watch. “Interrogating Uyghurs visiting Xinjiang and strict monitoring of diaspora activities have a chilling effect emblematic of Beijing’s transnational repression in Australia.”
...
Uyghurs in Australia who have been unable to visit their families in Xinjiang said they have no information about relatives there or can communicate with them only under strict official surveillance, with Chinese government officials monitoring their calls.
...
In recent years, the Chinese government has permitted Uyghurs from Australia and elsewhere in the diaspora to make restricted visits to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Such visits are important for many Uyghur families who have been separated since the government’s abusive Strike Hard Campaign in Xinjiang began in 2016. However, these visits have also provided the local authorities with opportunities to question or interrogate visitors and monitor their movements.
...
Three Uyghur Australians, who are not activists, described traveling to Xinjiang on Australian passports under this visa-free program. They said their families in Xinjiang had to seek permission from local authorities before their visits.
One said they first had to check in at a government-designated hotel, rather than their family home, and that their relatives in Xinjiang told them they would face problems with the authorities if they did not comply. The visiting Australians also said they had to report their daily activities in Xinjiang to local authorities and were kept under heavy surveillance, especially when traveling outside Urumqi, the regional capital, where restrictions seem less severe than in other cities.
I renounced my [Chinese] citizenship more than a decade ago, but the police had all the information about me. They asked me about everything—my connection to Xinjiang, even [pressed me] to tell them the primary school I went to. They also repeatedly asked questions about my life in Australia, my friends, family, and others in the diaspora. They specifically asked for addresses, phone numbers, and other information about multiple prominent activists. I told them I didn’t know and that I don’t go to political events. Then they said, “You have to give us something.”
Then they started asking me to monitor Uyghur organizations [in Australia] and provide them with more information about their activities. “If possible, take photos of people in community gatherings,” they said. “We know it is difficult for you and looks suspicious, but you can try.”
...
Another Uyghur Australian said authorities interrogated him more than a dozen times, once for more than seven hours: “They asked for addresses and phone numbers of several prominent Uyghur activists in Australia.” When he said he did not have that information, the police pressed him to monitor the activists’ activities upon returning to Australia and photograph them during events.
I had to register with local authorities and report my everyday activities to the point-of-contact person, including places I visited and people I met. They interrogated me once and started asking questions about my life and people I know in Australia.... I don’t think I will return. I didn’t feel safe. I felt like they could do anything or detain me.... How could I say no to anything they asked me to do? In that situation, I panicked and only thought about complying with everything and returning to Australia safely.
...
A third person who was also interrogated by the police in Xinjiang said she was put under severe pressure because she feared for her and her family’s safety.
From what I have witnessed, every Uyghur I met back home lives in fear. Children speak [Mandarin] Chinese at school, and when they accidentally speak Uyghur, it can escalate with local authorities [concluding that] parents have ideological problems. When I tried to go to an Eid [Islamic] prayer during my visit, I went to four different mosques and they were all closed. No one [around me] dared to go to a mosque anyway. Everyone back home says things are getting back to normal in public settings. But in private, some people told me about horrible things that happened over the last 10 years.
...
In July, China’s new Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress took effect. The law contains provisions having extraterritorial application that could be used to deny rights to Uyghurs abroad, and other diaspora groups. Article 63 broadly states that “organizations and individuals outside the territory of the People’s Republic of China” that “undermine national unity and progress or incite ethnic division” will be held “legally accountable.”
...
The Australian government and other affected governments should adopt measures to protect their citizens and residents from Beijing’s acts of transnational repression, Human Rights Watch said.
“The Chinese government’s transnational repression poses a serious threat to the rights and freedoms of Uyghur Australians who wish to maintain family ties in Xinjiang while preserving their culture and identity in Australia,” Bolopion said. “Australia and other affected governments should take meaningful steps to address these concerns.”
...