New Round of Pressure on Dissidents
Rights advocates within China have warned the treatment of citizen journalist Zhang Zhan (张展) and rights lawyer Lu Siwei (盧思位) could signal a renewed round of pressure on dissidents within China. Last month, police told Lu that prosecutors were currently determining whether to charge him after he attempted to flee China to the U.S. last year. Meanwhile, Zhang has faced repeated threats of rearrest following her release from prison last month. She had previously been charged in relation to her coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Belt and Road Rights Responsibilities ‘Worth Revisiting’
The European Journal of International Law has said the 2024 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice around Israel’s human rights responsibilities in Palestine underscores China’s human rights responsibilities within the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects in other territories. Amid reports of rights violations around BRI projects, the journal wrote that “the extraterritorial applicability of international human rights law obligations to this global network of infrastructure connectivity projects spanning most of the world’s population and territory is well worth revisiting.”
Four Companies Sanctioned
On August 8, the U.S. banned imports from four Chinese companies over their alleged involvement in rights violations in Xinjiang. The mechanism behind the sanctions was that the countries were added to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List. The companies included Rare Earth Magnesium Technology Group Holdings, Century Sunshine Group Holdings and Xinjiang Habahe Ashele Copper Co. These companies have links to solar panel manufacturing.
Genocidal Tourism
After a period of intense repression between 2017 and 2021, when nearly 10 percent of Xinjiang’s population was found to have been prosecuted by Human Rights Watch, a new era of “genocidal tourism” in the region has dawned in recent years, according to a new report by independent Russian investigative outlet The Insider.
The report notes that while thousands remain in prison, outwardly obvious methods of surveillance such as checkpoints have been reduced and replaced with methods such as mass collection of biometric data. At the same time, tourism budgets have increased hugely. The report says this is both to bring money to the region — to “win over” less rebellious people who live outside of camps — and to project that “everything is fine in Xinjiang.”
Retaliation Over Sanctions
After the U.S. State Department’s July 12 round of sanctions on Chinese officials for “their involvement in repression of marginalized religious and ethnic communities,” China launched counter sanctions on U.S. officials. A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “The U.S. has no right or qualification to comment on the human rights situation in other countries and make irresponsible remarks.”
U.S. Representative Sanctioned Over Tibet Meeting
U.S. Representative Jim McGovern has been banned from engaging in transactions in China or visiting China. China’s Foreign Ministry said this was a “countermeasure” against actions and rhetoric that “interfere in China’s internal affairs and undermine China’s sovereignty, security and development interests.” McGovern said he believed the sanctions came partly in response to his meeting with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama last month.
Pro-Democracy Activist Gave Out Information on Dissidents
Chinese American scholar Wang Shujun (王书君) has been convicted of giving out information on dissidents targeted by the Chinese government. Prosecutors said Wang lived a double life, using outward commitment to criticizing the Chinese government to get close to Hong Kong democracy protestors, Taiwanese independence advocates, and Uyghur and Tibetan activists. He would then pass on information to China’s Ministry of State Security.
Wang, who is 75, will be sentenced in the U.S. early next year, with the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison for offenses including conspiring to act as a foreign agent without notifying the attorney general.
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