The Chinese Communist Party’s global repression campaign against Uyghur Muslims is even broader than previously known, a new book contends, with more than 5,500 Uyghurs abroad targeted for intimidation, along with thousands detained and hundreds sent back to China.
The Trump administration determined, and the Biden administration reaffirmed, that the United States believes the CCP is conducting an “ongoing genocide” against the Uyghurs and other religious and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. The FBI has repeatedly warned about China’s “Operation Fox Hunt” — a global extrajudicial repatriation aimed at forcing Uyghurs and other Chinese dissidents abroad to return to China. A new book sheds even more light on the CCP’s Uyghur repression.
Bradley Jardine of the Wilson Center released Great Wall of Steel: China’s Global Campaign to Suppress the Uyghurs on Monday, saying the Chinese government engaged in “transnational repression” in 44 countries from 1997 through January 2022, with 1,574 publicly reported cases of detentions and forcible returns of Uyghurs to China, where they then faced prison and torture at the hands of law enforcement. The report said 689 registered incidents happened in the Middle East and North Africa region, while another 668 cases of transnational repression occurred in South Asia.
The author said he put together a dataset in partnership with the Uyghur Human Rights Project and the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs containing “5,532 cases of Uyghurs facing intimidation, 1,150 cases of Uyghurs detained in their host country and 424 cases of Uyghurs deported, extradited, or rendered back to China.” He added that of the 523 cases with the most details, there were “108 deportations, 89 incidents of Uyghurs being coerced to return to the XUAR, 11 renditions, and nine extraditions.” He called these “just the tip of the iceberg,” with evidence indicating the scale is likely much more extensive.
The State Department’s human rights report earlier this year said China’s crimes against humanity include “the arbitrary imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty of more than one million civilians, forced sterilization, coerced abortions, more restrictive application of the country’s birth control policies, rape, torture of a large number of those arbitrarily detained, forced labor and draconian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and freedom of movement.”
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The new book “recorded 5,532 additional cases of China’s government targeting Uyghurs abroad using intimidation and harassment to monitor and silence them.” Tactics included “digital threats, phishing attacks, malware, and coercion via threats to relatives” still living in Xinjiang.
The Chinese government’s techniques also include “asset freezes, passport controls, cyberattacks and malware, intimidation and surveillance from its embassies and consulates, pressure on families and coercion-by-proxy, spying through informants, smear campaigns, abuse of Interpol, abuse of extradition treaties, and use of partner security services to detain Uyghurs wherever they reside.”
The book says China’s transnational repression “is a growing phenomenon” and points to three broad phases: From 1997 to 2007, security services in South and Central Asia deported or detained 84 Uyghurs across nine countries; from 2008 to 2013, security services targeted 126 Uyghurs across 13 countries located mostly in Southeast Asia; and from 2014 to the present, 1,364 Uyghurs have been “detained, extradited, or rendered” from 18 countries, mostly in the Middle East and North Africa.
Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into law just before Christmas. The Commerce Department has blacklisted numerous Chinese companies that it contends are complicit in Uyghur repression.
Last month, the Justice Department unsealed a criminal complaint against an agent of the Chinese government and charged him with participating in the CCP’s transnational repression campaign in the U.S. targeting the Chinese diaspora. The Justice Department separately accused Chinese intelligence of attempting to undermine the congressional candidacy of a former Tiananmen Square protest leader-turned-retired U.S. Army chaplain in a criminal harassment and intimidation scheme.
The new book points to a “web of institutions and frameworks” deployed to assist in China’s transnational repression, including the Chinese government’s Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of State Security and China’s overseas embassies and consulates. It also points to the exploitation of Interpol, as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which comprises China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
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Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said in March that China is the “absolutely unparalleled” long-term priority for the U.S. intelligence community. FBI Director Christopher Wray said in February the growing economic and national security threat posed by the CCP is graver than ever.
Republican senators are urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to reconsider the Department of Justice’s decision to shutter the China Initiative.
