Human Rights, Freedom and Solidarity
RFA. 20 April 2021
Below is an article publisjed by RFA. Photo:RFA listener.
Authorities in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have leased a mosque in Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining) city to a Han Chinese businessman from the capital Beijing, who turned the place of worship into a tourist hotel, according to sources.
Read morePolitco. 28 April 2021
Below is an article published by Politco. Photo:Michele Tantussi/Getty Images.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday urged German Chancellor Angela Merkel to boost trade ties but stay out of “internal affairs” such as human rights and the political situation in Hong Kong.
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NZ Herlad. 27 April 2021
Below is an article published by NZ Herald. Photo:George Novak.
The Act Party today plans to ask Parliament to debate a motion to declare China’s oppression of the Uighur ethnic minority an act of “genocide”.
Its motion would ask MPs to vote on whether human rights abuses in the Chinese region of Xinjiang amount to genocide, a move that could compel the Government to take stronger action in condemning the nation, Stuff reports.
Similar motions have passed in the UK and Canada.
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Politco. 25 April 2021
Below is an article published by Politco. Photo:Nelson Ching/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
The European Union’s stance on China is hardening, and that should go down well in Washington.
Only four months after Beijing and Brussels concluded the principles of a landmark investment agreement, ahigh-level internal report seen by POLITICO shows the EU is now increasingly pessimistic about keeping business interests separate from political concerns over what it calls President Xi Jinping’s “authoritarian shift.” This tougher language reflects a new approach in the EU’s official communications on China.
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South China Morning Post. 24 April 2021
Below is an article published by Soutch China Morning Post. Photo:TNS.
The United States will urge its Group of Seven (G7) allies to increase pressure on China over the use of forced labour in its northwestern Xinjiang province, home to the Muslim Uygur minority, a top White House official said on Friday.US President Joe Biden will attend a meeting of the G7 advanced economies in person in Britain in June, where he is expected to focus on what he sees as a strategic rivalry between democracies and autocratic states, particularly China.Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser to Biden and deputy director of the National Economic Council, said the G7 meeting in Cornwall would focus on health security, a synchronised economic response to the Covid-19 pandemic, concrete actions on climate change and “elevating shared democratic values within the G7”.
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BBC. 23 April 2021
Below is an article published by BBC. Photo:PA Media.
More than a million people are estimated to have been detained at camps in the region of Xinjiang.
The motion approved by MPs does not compel the UK to take action, but is a sign of growing discontent towards the Chinese government in Parliament.
In response, China said the UK should “immediately right its wrong moves”.
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ABC News. 21 April 2021
Below is an article published by ABC News. Photo:Carlos Barria/File.
Australian trade unions are calling for the federal government to invest in local manufacturing of solar energy components in Australia, amid growing concerns that solar products from China could be linked to forced labour.
Read moreABC News. 19 April 2021
Below is an article published by ABC News. Photo:Grace Tobin.
Melbourne woman Mehray Mezensof has been married for five years, but her husband has been absent for most of that time.
Instead, he has been in and out of detention centres and concentration camps multiple times in China’s far north-western region of Xinjiang.
Ms Mezensof has never spoken publicly before, fearing it would make an already perilous situation more dangerous for her husband Mirzat Taher.
Read moreHuman Rights Watch. 19 April 2021
Below is an article published by Human Rights Watch. Photo:Thomas Peter/Reuters.
The Chinese government is committing crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in the northwest region of Xinjiang, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Chinese leadership is responsible for widespread and systematic policies of mass detention, torture, and cultural persecution, among other offenses. Coordinated international action is needed to sanction those responsible, advance accountability, and press the Chinese government to reverse course.
Read moreForeign Policy. 15 April 2021
Below is an article published by Foreign Policy. Photo:OZAN KOSE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES.
On his way out of office on Jan. 19, then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a determination that China “has committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.” Nobody in the U.S. policy community seriously disputes that atrocities are occurring in Xinjiang—but some analysts have zoomed in on the term “genocide.” Sometimes it seems to be a way of trying to force policies back toward the failed engagement of the past rather than confronting what’s happening in China and rethinking policy accordingly.
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