Young Taiwanese Offered Tours of Xinjiang
The Xinjiang Provincial Federation of Taiwan Compatriots has advertised a tour of Xinjiang on Taiwanese social media platform PTT. Calling for participants aged 16-40, they would pay $24,800 New Taiwan dollars ($755) per person for a nine-day tour, with “tour fees, transportation, accommodation and insurance all covered by the Chinese hosts.”
Amnesty Calls for Activists’ Release
Amnesty International has called on the Chinese government to release human rights defenders imprisoned after attending a social event in 2019.
Human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi (丁家喜) and legal scholar Xu Zhiyong (許志永) attended a dinner in Xiamen in December 2019. Alongside five others, they disappeared, before re-emerging in government detention.
“The Xiamen crackdown epitomizes the Chinese authorities’ all-out assault on civil society and the cruelty with which they treat peaceful rights advocates,” Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s China Director, said.
House of Lords Criticism
Members of the U.K. House of Lords have criticized the Chinese government’s human rights violations across a number of regions, including Tibet and Hong Kong. Lord Martin Callanan said China had tried to systematically erase Tibet’s historical status.
“The Chinese Communist Party’s decades-long campaign to erase Tibetan culture, religion and identity is a stain on the conscience of the international community,” Callanan said. “Let us not forget that, not that long ago, Tibet was an independent country, but nobody now refers to it as that; it has in effect been absorbed into China, and the Tibetan people have been slowly eradicated.
U.S. Congressional Report
The U.S. Congressional Executive Commission on China’s annual report emphasized severe human rights violations in Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Released December 20, it notably focused on the “complicity of American and other Western corporations in such human rights abuses.”
Sanctions and Counter Sanctions With Canadian Government
The Canadian government has released a statement condemning sanctions against Canadian rights organizations by China. The sanctions, which focused on organizations including the Canada Tibet Committee and the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, plus 20 human rights activists, followed Canadian sanctions on eight Chinese officials for what it said was “government-led repression of ethnic and religious minorities in China.”
“On December 22, 2024, the Government of the People’s Republic of China arbitrarily targeted two Canadian civil society organizations and twenty human rights campaigners with sanctions,” Global Affairs Canada said. “Global Affairs Canada expresses solidarity with the members of the Canadian Tibet Committee and the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and condemns the decision by the Chinese government to punish them for speaking out for human rights.”
The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile also condemned China’s sanctions against the sanctions.
Tibet Hydropower Dams
Human rights groups have warned plans for new dams built across a gorge in the Himalayas damage local ecosystems and displace local communities.
The plans involve building dams around the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River. While the Chongyi Water Resources bureau estimated the hydropower output of the dams as three times that of the Three Gorges Dam, The Washington Post noted that in February, Tibetan communities staged protests “against a dam that rights groups said would flood six Buddhist monasteries, some of which house wall paintings dating from at least the 16th century.”
BYD Human Trafficking Accusation
Brazilian labor authorities have said workers at a BYD (比亞迪) factory in Camacari, Brazil are victims of human trafficking and have been working in “slavery-like conditions” that included beds without mattresses and bathrooms shared between 31 people. BYD, an electric vehicle manufacturer, and contractor Jinjiang Group (錦江國際集團有限公司) have agreed to put the 163 workers up in hotels until a deal to end their contracts can be reached, Brazil’s Labor Prosecutor’s Office said. A meeting between Brazilian prosecutors and the companies is planned for today (January 7.)
China’s foreign ministry said China protects workers’ rights and requires Chinese companies to operate in compliance with the law.
Japanese Woman Detained for Spying
A Japanese woman was detained in China in 2015 over allegations she spied in Japan. The Chinese-born former executive of a Japanese language school was detained in Shanghai during a business trip, having allegedly told the Japanese government a Chinese diplomat’s opinions on the Senkaku Islands, which both Japan and China claim as their own. This is the first time that actions taken in Japan have been used as the basis for a criminal prosecution in China.
Documentary Maker Sentenced to Prison
Documentary maker Chen Pinlin (陳品霖) has been sentenced to three years in prison for making a documentary about protests against China’s COVID lockdowns in 2022. Chen was convicted of picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”
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