Day: July 7, 2022

Rabigul Haji Muhammed was stunned to see a former classmate on a leaked list of Uyghurs and other Turkic people detained in internment camps in China’s far-western Xinjiang region.

The doctoral student in Turkology at Hacettepe University in Turkey was searching through a trove of classified documents published by a U.S.–based human rights group in May. One of the group’s researchers had been given the information from an anonymous source.

Muhammad saw that Nurali Ablet had been detained for “engaging in online propaganda about violence and terrorism.” Ablet majored in the Uyghur language at the Central Nationalities University, also known as Minzu University, in Beijing and graduated in 2015, she said.

“I knew him very well from those five years in college. He was a very hard-working and active student at the university,” she told RFA. “People like Nurali are not just images for us, they are living beings like us and everyone else.”

Muhammad and other Uyghurs living in exile have scoured the Xinjiang Police Files since the document was first published by the Washington, D.C.-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation on May 24, searching for information about missing relatives or friends, or on the off chance they might know someone who unbeknownst to them had been detained by Chinese authorities.

Many say that the abducted Uyghurs are college-educated, law-abiding and working-class –– not “terrorists” in any sense of the word.

The extraordinary leak of evidence from internal police networks in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) describes prison-like “re-education” camps and provides fresh evidence of the direct involvement of top Chinese officials’ in the mass internment campaign.

The files were analyzed and authenticated by a team led by Adrian Zenz, a researcher at the foundation who is an expert on the region. They were peer-reviewed by scholarly research and investigative teams from several major global media outlets.

The documents include clear images and detailed information about camp detainees who were arrested in 2018 in Kashgar Kona Sheher (in Chinese, Shufu) county in Kashgar (Kashi), a southern city in the XUAR.

Among the county’s more than 3,700 detainees labeled as “trainees” in Chinese government documents, the youngest is 14 years old, and the oldest is 73. Some photos show police minders wielding batons standing next to the detainees.

Previously leaked Chinese government documents contained only the names and identification numbers of some detained Uyghurs. The new information includes photos and more information about their alleged crimes.

The documents also describe a “shoot to kill” directive should the trainees try to escape what the Chinese government has called “voluntary vocational training centers” and the Chinese media has described as ordinary places of education.

In one of the leaked documents, Chen Quanguo, former Chinese Communist Party secretary of the XUAR, said in a classified speech in May 2017 that if that “if they [trainees] try to escape, shoot them on the spot and report back later.”

“The Xinjiang Police Files prove that China’s so-called vocational training centers are really prisons,” said Andrew Bremberg, president and CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, in a statement issued in May.

“These documents conclusively demonstrate that Beijing has been lying about its gross human rights violations in Xinjiang,” he said. “The international community must take immediate and concrete action to hold China accountable for these atrocities.”

‘Revelations are very disturbing’

The police files were obtained by a third party through hacking into computer systems operated by the Public Security Bureau in Kashgar Kona Sheher country and in Tekes (Tekesi) county in Ili (Yili) Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. Both areas are dominated by Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups.

Zenz authenticated the documents in a peer-reviewed academic paper published in the Journal of the European Association for Chinese Studies and in a second paper published in the online magazine China File.

“These findings are significant because they provide us with frank policy implementation directives along with the thought processes and intentions that made them a reality,” Zenz said in the statement.

“This gives an unprecedented look into the personal attitudes of Chinese authorities and the personal involvement of [Chinese President] Xi Jinping,” he said. “Documents with this kind of insight have never before been published and their revelations are very disturbing.”

The leaker, who managed to access some of the encrypted material, attached no conditions to the provision or publication of the documents, though the person requested anonymity due to safety concerns.  

According to the files, Tajigul Tahir’s son was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2017 for being a “non-alcoholic and non-smoker” — signs, according to authorities, of his extremism. The 60-year-old woman was later arrested herself because she was the mother of an imprisoned Uyghur.

Abdurrahman Qasim, a Uyghur based in Turkey, said he found the name of his former cellmate, Mehmutjan Nasir, in the leaked documents. They were in detention together in Hotan (Hetian), another city in southern Xinjiang, but met each other previously in Hotan when Nasir was a student at the Hotan Uyghur Medical College.

Authorities detained Nasir in 2010 for communicating with people who prayed. A few years earlier, he had posted his Chinese national identification card on WeChat, a Chinese instant messaging social media app, of which Qasim took a screenshot. Qasim said he was able to find Nasir’s ID details when the files were published.

“I searched the images in the files for people I know or any relative who might be among the images, and after looking at more than 1,000 images, I found Mehmutjan Nasir who was my cellmate in Hotan from late 2010 to early 2011,” Qasim said. “I was very saddened to find him on the detained Uyghurs’ list.”

At least 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities are believed to have been held in a network of detention camps in Xinjiang since 2017, purportedly to prevent religious extremism and terrorist activities.

Beijing had denied the existence of detention facilities in the XUAR until fall 2018 when it claimed that they were “vocational training centers” voluntarily attended by “students” to study Mandarin and the law and to obtain new skills.

But the government has continued to deny repeated and credible accusations from multiple sources that it has tortured people in the camps or mistreated other Muslims living in Xinjiang.

County teachers detained

A U.S.-based Uyghur who requested anonymity to speak freely without fear of reprisal said he recognized from the leaked pictures of Uyghur detainees the son of his former teacher.

“I found Nabijan Yusuf, who was the son of my elementary school teacher,” he told RFA. “I knew him Nabijan when he was a child. Later he went to Tianjin University. By looking at all the images I concluded that the Chinese government targeted more Uyghurs who were born in 1980s and ‘90s than other generations.”

Nursimangul Abdureshid, a Uyghur living in Turkey who lost contact with her parents and siblings in Kashgar Kona Sheher country in 2017, searched for information on her family in  the Xinjiang Police Files.

She recognized her childhood friends Buhelchem Memet, Memetjan Tursun and Qari Tahir. She also recognized family friends Baki Hussein and Hoshur Abliz, and Juma Tomur, a 60-year-old farmer.

Abduweli Ayup, a Uyghur rights activist and researcher based in Norway who is originally from Kashgar Kona Sheher county, recognized Tajigul Abdurusul and Iziz Atawullah, two Uyghurs who had been county primary school teachers for more than 20 years.

He also found a photo of his classmate, Matyar Ghopur, who used to work at the country’s water bureau, whom he described as a humble and calm person.

Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Activists in Myanmar marked the 60th anniversary of a military crackdown that killed at least 100 students in the commercial capital Yangon with protests in more than a dozen townships on Thursday, despite increased security measures by junta authorities.

The protests commemorating the July 7, 1962, crackdown were held in the Sagaing region townships of Salingyi, Yinmarbin, Tamu, Kani, Kale and Ayadaw; Tanintharyi region townships of Dawei and Launglon; Bago region’s Taungoo township; Kachin state’s Hpakant township; Mon state’s Thanbyuzayat township; as well as the cities of Yangon and Mandalay.

Speaking from Yangon, where more than 30 students joined protests at around 11 a.m., a member of the Botataung Strike Group named Jewel told RFA Burmese that anniversary activities took place unhindered by authorities.

“The July 7 protest is very important for every student movement and we observe it as a reminder to others so that people will never forget,” she said.

“There were surprise checks in earlier days but fortunately there were none today. [The soldiers] came to the spot where we held the protest only after we left. There were no arrests today.”

Thet Oo, a protester in Yinmarbin township, said people observing the anniversary event had to disperse after only 15 minutes of shouting slogans due to tight security.

“The slogan ‘Do not forget 7.7.62’ refers to the many students and youths who bravely gave their lives in the fight for the truth,” he said.

“In memory of that day, and to instill courage in people’s minds to fight like the fallen heroes for the freedom of the country, we members of the All Villages of the North Western Plains Strike Committee held this protest on the streets [despite the risk of arrest].”

On March 2, 1962, Gen. Ne Win led the military in a coup to control Myanmar, appointing himself prime minister and dissolving the country’s legislature. On July 7 of that year, troops were sent to restore order as students protested tuition increases at Yangon University. The troops fired on the protesters, killing at least 100 people, and arrested thousands of students, according to local media reports. The following day, the military blew up the Yangon University Students’ Union building, which had stood as a monument to the anti-colonialism movement in Myanmar since the 1920s.

Call to action

In a statement issued Thursday in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the crackdown, the All-Burma Federation of Students’ Unions called on people of Myanmar to take action in whatever way possible to overthrow the current military regime, which seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup.

Myat Min Khant, chairman of the Yangon District Students’ Union, called the announcement “a signal to end military rule.”

“There are two reasons that the All-Burma Students Union issued the statement. The first is to remind people that it isn’t just now that the fascist military is killing people in cities and towns without hesitation. They have done so in the past,” he told RFA.

“The second reason is to remind people we are still in the middle of the ‘Spring Revolution,’ fighting against the fascist military. We want to remind them that the fascist military and the 2008 constitution, which is the backbone of the fascist army, must be removed if they want real freedom.”

A spokesman for the Yangon University Students’ Union, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said students have always been at the forefront of the opposition to military rule in Myanmar.

“The July 7 protests we are commemorating now were also a fight against the Ne Win regime, which also seized state power,” he said.

“And then there were student protests in ‘74, ‘75 and ‘76. Students also joined hands with the people in the 1988 pro-democracy uprising. And now, in the 2021 anti-coup protests, students have actively participated in the ‘Spring Revolution’ against the military along with the people,” he added.

“Myanmar’s students are still fighting the military dictatorship in various ways.”

Junta authorities have killed at least 2,069 civilians since seizing power and arrested more than 14,500 others — mostly during peaceful anti-coup protests, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a Thailand-based NGO. At least 11,443 people remain in detention, the group says.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

NGOs are urging government authorities to enact tougher measures against Chinese drug lords operating in Cambodia, as methamphetamine use continues to surge in the Southeast Asian country.

The calls came following news this week of the arrest in Sihanoukville of seven Chinese nationals who set up a factory in the coastal province to make the drugs from smuggled ingredients.

Authorities also seized 14 tonnes (15.4 tons) of drug precursors and production equipment during the arrests, according to a report on the National Police Facebook page on Tuesday. The 7 arrested suspects will next be sent for processing in Cambodian courts, police authorities said.

Drug use has now spread from Sihanoukville city to the suburbs and will eventually spread even farther into the country, leading to kidnapping and violence by criminal gangs, Cheap Sotheary — provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc — told RFA this week.

All drugs confiscated by authorities should be immediately destroyed, she added.

“We are concerned that many of these confiscated drugs are being stored and that some may be taken out and removed, as some authorities in the past turned out to be drug traffickers themselves.

“Authorities should be taking strong action in every case,” she said.

Also speaking to RFA, Transparency International Cambodia Executive Director Pech Pisey said that Chinese drug lords began to come to Cambodia after they saw that the country lacked a strong rule of law.

“International criminals think they can produce and distribute drugs as much as they like,” Pech Pisey said. Cambodia must strictly enforce its laws if it wants to be kept off the Grey List of countries corrupted by money laundering released by the Paris-based watchdog Financial Action Task Force, he added.

Cambodian Minister of the Interior Sar Kheng said during a National Day for Combating Drugs on June 26 that Cambodian police had seized a combined total of more than 100 tonnes of finished drugs and drug ingredients from 2020 to 2021.

However, of the nearly 10,000 tonnes of the finished drugs that were seized, only 6,000 tonnes were then destroyed, he said.

Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Authorities in Laos have ordered a Vietnamese mining company to suspend its operations after it polluted local waterways, causing two rivers to run red, local media reported.

The Company of Economic Cooperation in Vietnam (Coecco) runs a mining operation in the Boualapha district of Laos’ southern Khammouane province.

When “red water” began flowing down the Sa-A and Xe Noi Rivers starting on June 21, the governors of Khamouane and the downstream Savannakhet provinces, along with the minister of Natural Resources and Environment, inspected three Boualapha district mining operations, local outlet Next Media reported.

Investigators discovered that Coecco’s mine was to blame and also discovered the company had been conducting illegal mining activities. On June 27, the Ministry of Energy and Mines issued a notice that ordered Coecco to stop all operations until the company completes construction of a larger waste treatment facility.

“Pollution has been affecting many villages along the Sa-A and Xe Noi Rivers,” an official of Savannakhet’s Vilabouly district told RFA’s Lao Service on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

“The most affected are four villages — Nateu, Katae, Na Yom and Hoei Phai — here in Vilabouly district,” the official said.

The water turns red when the mines wash iron and release waste into the river, a resident of Nateu, who like the rest of the sources in this story, declined to be named for safety reasons, told RFA.

“The river water becomes red, undrinkable and unusable. Some villagers here who are rich can dig wells and get [uncontaminated] groundwater, but the poorer folks have no choice but to use the red water,” the Nateu resident said.

The red water in the facility overflows when it rains, the villager said.

Prior to the ministerial order to halt operations, authorities and villagers in Vilabouly district wrote a letter demanding Coecco stop polluting, but the company did nothing.

Bathing in the red water leaves residue on villagers’ bodies, a resident of Hoei Phai told RFA.

“I took a bath in the Sa-A River on the other day. The red water stuck to my body, my arms and my legs,” the Hoei Phai resident said.

“The governors of Khammouane and Savannakhet provinces and the minister came down here, so this week the company agreed to stop operations. The company previously ignored the demand of the district authorities,” the Hoei Phai resident said

A resident of Nong Kapad village in te Boulapha district told RFA that residents there have been less affected by pollution even though the mine is located in the district.

“We live far away from the rivers, but a lot of villages in the south, especially those four in Vilabouly district in Savannakhet, have been badly affected. They can’t drink the water or take baths in the rivers,” the Nong Kapad villager said.

The residents are unhappy about the red water, a Khammouane province Natural Resources and Environment Department official, who was part of the inspection team, told RFA.

“The company must improve the [waste] treatment system as required by the governors and the minister. The waste reservoir is too small and substandard, so that is why the waste is flowing down into the rivers,” the official said.

The official said that the inspection team did not discuss the issue of building wells for the residents when they met with Coecco.

When asked if the red water was toxic, the official responded, “All the information regarding this matter is kept by the inspecting committee.”

The Lao government gave the concession to Coecco for rights to extract iron ore in a five-hectare (12.3-acre) plot in Boualapha district in July 2021. So far, the company has produced 36,000 tons of ore.

Foreign-invested farming, mining and development projects in Laos have been touted as a boon for development and employment in the impoverished nation. But the projects have sparked friction over land taken without proper compensation, harsh labor conditions and environmental pollution.

Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Authorities across China have stepped up mass testing and COVID-19 restrictions as cases continued to surge in major cities.

Millions stood in line in Shanghai to get tested on Thursday, as the local authorities said they had traced a renewed outbreak to an underground karaoke parlor, with residents of several districts ordered to take two PCR tests between Tuesday and Thursday.

Rapid self-tests are already mandatory to enter shopping malls or to use public transportation, while dozens of residential compounds were under lockdown.

Meanwhile, authorities in the northern city of Xian have imposed a seven-day lockdown from Wednesday, with the growing raft of zero-COVID restrictions already having an impact on supply chains.

Schools, restaurants and entertainment venues will be closed for seven days, including libraries, cultural venues and other indoor public places.

The health code tracker app will be used to ensure anyone entering other public places like supermarkets or restaurants for takeout has a green code denoting a negative PCR test from the past 48 hours.

“Now there are people infected in every district, so starting yesterday (Tuesday), everyone has to test twice over three days,” a Shanghai resident surnamed Wu told RFA. “Residents are allowed to go out, but you can’t get into hospitals, supermarkets or other stores without a code showing a PCR test in the past 48 hours.”

In Wuxi city, Jiangsu province, authorities are also scrambling to prevent further community transmission after reporting 172 newly confirmed cases.

Supply concerns

A resident of Wuxi surnamed Shen said that a number of factories are now operating in “closed-loop” bubbles, meaning that some supplies were unable to get through.

“Many people are worried that supply chains will be disrupted again,” Shen said.

Since June 26, 13 cities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui have reported outbreaks of cases totaling more than 1,000.

Constitutional scholar Zhang Lifan posted video clips to his Twitter account on Wednesday showing a gathering of people and police at the Beijing Institute of Technology, in protest at current COVID-19 restrictions on campus.

An employee who answered the phone at the university on Tuesday declined to comment when contacted by RFA.

“Protest? Who is this?” the employee said, before hanging up the phone.

Zhang said strict controls on people entering and leaving the campus had prompted the protest after the school authorities required anyone passing through a checkpoint at the gate to give a day’s notice of their movements.

A lecturer surnamed Zhou said staff could use the “normal channels” to complain about school policies.

“I will listen to your suggestions at any time,” Zhou said. “We have a meeting this afternoon, and we are willing to listen.”

“I would like to take public opinion into account, but some people think one thing, and the rest another; it’s all different,” he said.

Police beating followed by suicide

Meanwhile, residents of the northeastern city of Dandong were left reeling after the suicide of a 93-year-old man who was beaten up by police after he tried to get a PCR test certificate to attend a hospital appointment.

Police beat him after he started to drop his pants to show them his hernia, then lost his grip, leading to what the police said was “indecent behavior.”

Wuhan-based activist Zhang Hai, who has campaigned for compensation after losing his father to COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic, said the treatment of the old man was unacceptable.

“This 93-year-old man just wanted to see a doctor, and he was a bit slow and unsteady,” Zhang said. “Instead of treating him like an old man, they handcuffed him, and beat him up.”

He said such police violence is very common in China.

“When they beat someone, they call it law enforcement, but if people fight back, that’s assaulting a police officer,” Zhang said. “Police should be held legally responsible for beating people.”

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Authorities in Hong Kong Thursday suspended flight bans on specific routes and boosted COVID-19 testing requirements for newly arrived passengers, in an apparent bid to send a message that it remains an international city despite U.S. sanctions on its leader John Lee.

Since being sworn in by ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping on July 1, Lee has called on people to tell the rest of the world about Hong Kong’s “stories and achievements,” echoing Xi’s call for state media to “tell good stories about China.”

But critics pointed to a lack of space in mandatory government quarantine facilities and a plummeting international reputation on human rights and freedoms, both of which will likely hamper Lee’s efforts to rebrand Hong Kong.

“Further enhanced and more frequent [PCR] testing for inbound persons is more effective in halting the importation of cases,” the government said in a statement. “[We have] has therefore decided to suspend … the route-specific flight suspension mechanism until further notice.”

Earlier, Lee had urged members of the city’s Legislative Council (LegCo) and media to “tell others about Hong Kong’s stories and achievements.”

“This will create a sense of identity, including an international identity, and everyone will feel proud to be from Hong Kong,” Lee said, adding: “We have to work together to build this awareness.”

A EuroCham survey found in March 2022 that 25 percent of companies that responded to its poll had said they will “fully relocate” out of the city during the next 12 months, citing highly restrictive COVID-19 measures.

More than 50 percent said they were having trouble attracting talent from overseas, the survey said.

Sanctions for crackdown

But Hong Kong’s international image is also being marred by the fact that Lee and many of his senior officials are subject to U.S. sanctions as individuals deemed responsible by Washington for implementing a draconian national security law, that ushered in a citywide crackdown on political opposition and peaceful dissent in the wake of the 2019 protest movement.

Hong Kong current affairs commentator Chung Kim-wah said Lee will find it hard to leave Hong Kong, as any company — including banks and credit card companies — with a presence in the U.S. is now proscribed from doing business with him.

“He has been sanctioned, so it’s hard for him to leave Hong Kong,” Chung told RFA. “He can only use cash, so how can he tell a good story about Hong Kong?”

“It doesn’t matter how well he tells it; there are so many places he can’t actually get to … [including] important trading partners of Hong Kong, places where he might go to attract investors,” he said.

Nearly all of Lee’s predecessors since the job was created with the 1997 handover, including shipping magnate Tung Chee-hwa, former financial chief Donald Tsang and pro-Beijing stalwart Leung Chun-ying, made sure that their first overseas trip after taking office was to Washington, where they tried to boost trade and economic ties with the U.S.

But key members of Lee’s cabinet, including second-in-command Paul Chan and security chief Chris Tang, are themselves the targets of U.S. sanctions for their part in the suppression of Hong Kong’s promised rights and freedoms.

The city’s human rights record will also be up for review at the United Nations from July 7-12, inviting further public scrutiny of the impact of the national security crackdown on the city’s seven million people.

The bid to “talk about stories and achievements” is also part of an ongoing attempt by the authorities to erase collective memory of the city’s former freedoms and once vibrant political life, which once included one of the freest media sectors in the world.

“[The handover anniversary on] July 1 always used to mean a demonstration, because there was nothing to celebrate about the return of Hong Kong [to Chinese rule],” former Polytechnic University social science lecturer Lake Lui, now based on the democratic island of Taiwan, told RFA.

“There was always a march, from 2003 onwards. The first, back when I was in college, was in protest against [national security legislation],” Lui said. “Later, it was to fight for fully democratic elections.”

Net outflow of emigrants

The people of Hong Kong may still be marching, but this time away from their beloved city.

Immigration statistics for the first three months of 2022 showed a net outflow of more than 140,000 people from Hong Kong, far exceeding the number of arrivals.

A Chinese University of Hong Kong poll last year found that nearly 60 percent of 800 respondents aged 15 to 30 wanted to leave the city.

Wang Ssi-yue chose to study in Hong Kong after graduating from high school in 2011.

“I probably wouldn’t choose to study or work in Hong Kong if [I were graduating] now,” she said. “There’s too much that’s unstable about living there, and a sense that it could be risky.”

She remembers the city as being far freer than it is now.

“There was no sense of self-censorship, even on sensitive topics. People would just joke about it,” Wang said. “[We felt] nothing would happen to us because it was Hong Kong.”

“I didn’t expect that to end so abruptly,” she said. “It’s really scary; it’s like watching a city die.”

Waning confidence

Former Hong Kong Baptist University sociology professor Yao-Tai Li agreed.

“Since the national security law was implemented, people have less and less confidence in Hong Kong as an international city,” Li said. “Many of my former colleagues in academic and financial circles have now left.”

“Hong Kong is slowing losing what once made it unique, which was the intersection of Chinese cultural traditions and Western values of democracy, freedom and human rights,” Li said.

“I think Hong Kong will become more and more like a so-called first-tier city in mainland China, like Shanghai or Beijing,” Li said.

Wang said many of her friends in Hong Kong have now deleted their social media accounts, and no longer openly discuss politics or current affairs.

“I think we may see a war on memory over the next 25 years, and the official narrative becoming stronger and more complete,” she said. “They will implant this in the minds of people of all ages via the education system.”

There are signs that this is already happening.  On July 1, the 25th anniversary of the handover, just three years after some of the most promising students had formed human chains in support of the 2019 protest movement, the city’s education bureau got high-school students to turn up and sing patriotic Chinese songs in Mandarin, as opposed to Cantonese, the current lingua franca of Hong Kong.

As the pro-democracy families leave to seek a liberal education for their children overseas, their school places are being taken up by pro-government families, turning the city’s once-prestigious schools into bastions of Chinese patriotism.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.