From hiding the infections of coronavirus, which pushed the world back and distorted almost every economy to the repression of minorities in Xinjiang; the People’s Republic of China’s reputation in civil-liberties have been aggravating under president Xi Jinping’s administration.
Allegations of human rights violation always surmount on the Chinese government. But a recent report published by Human Rights Watch; a leading advocacy group shows that China is going through one of the ‘darkest periods of human rights’.
Human rights violation inside China
Xingjiang
Some satellite images divulged by CNN shows that; more than 100 long-established cemeteries of the Uyghur community have being demolished by the government. The condition of minority groups like Uyghurs and Turkic Muslims are exacerbating in the People’s Republic of China; especially under President Xi Jinping’s administration.
Acknowledging the accusations of right groups and journalists; in August 2020, Buzzfeed released the images which show that about 260 substantial detention camps are made. Media reports claim that the Chinese government is capriciously incarcerating many Turkic Muslims in these camps; what they call “vocational training centre” merely based on their identity.
The report also dictates that in the name of “poverty alleviation,” the few released detainees were coerced by the government to work in factories and fields; within and outside Xinjiang. According to an Australian Think Tank; more than 82 global brands whose manufacturing factories is established in China, use these detainees as forced labour.
Xinjiang is geographically vital for China’s Belt and Road initiative. It has provided the International Human Right communities with an insight into the injustice with the minorities and a chance of applying diplomatic pressure in the ways of Sanctions. Though China has denied mass internments of the Uighurs; nations like the UK are demanding the government to ensure that their supply chains are free of forced labours.
Hong Kong
The forced implementation of the controversial National Security Law in Hongkong denies people free trial rights. NSL enabled the authorities to ban protest anthem “Glory to Hong Kong” in schools, arrest peaceful protests and organisers of the pro-democracy rally. The leading figure of the pro-democracy protest; Professor Benny Tai was also sacked from the Hong Kong University, to defeat the protest.
Activist are protestors were also banned from leaving the mainland. The Chinese authorities intercepted 12 pro-democracy protesters trying to reach Taiwan; they were kept as detainees in the time of writing without having access to lawyers.
During the protest, press-freedom highly deteriorated. Journalists like Mc Nicholas of Hong Kong Free Press were rejected of visa to work in HongKong. According to the report, the demand for political allegiance has also increased in and around the areas of HongKong.
Repression of freedom to expression and privacy
The Chinese government is being criticized for wiretapping its citizen within and outside the country from time to time. The press in the country is privately-owned and work closely with the Communist party. The government punishes the whistleblower like Dr Li Wenliang and journalist Zhang Zhan; who tried to inform the world about harassment of infectious’ families.
During the first outbreak of COVID19 in China, the government “detained people for “rumour-mongering,” censored online discussions of the outbreak, and curbed media reporting” says the report. Chinese authorities were also criticized of detaining Fang Bin (businessman), Chen Qiushi (journalist) and many others from reporting independently about the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.
Furthermore, the Chinese government has also prosecuted many netizens from posting content online which spreads rumours and seems to insult the country’s leaders. China has blocked almost all the big social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, limiting the local’s interaction with the world. The government is blamed for expanding its censorship jurisdiction to subdue the internet contents, which goes against their “core socialist values”.
Freedom of religion, speech, assembly and movement in Tibet is severely restricted. The government is also not taking any actions against the forcible land grabs by local officials in the area. Government’s 13th Five Year Plant for Tibet (2015-2020), will force a few thousand Tibetians to relocate; which further can cause “marginalization and dispossession of Tibet’s rural majority”.
Attempts to protecting the Human Rights in China
The Human Rights Watch 2021 report has just highlighted the injustice we have heard for a long time. The report has also talked about the US’s peripheral role, which under Trump’s administration lacked in standing against the human rights injustice. But at the same time is binding new hopes that the Biden administration might stand firm against the violation of the rights in the region.
The world together is passing various sanctions addressing the human right abuse inside China. As a Guardian report says, “the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US all tore up extradition treaties with the country over its crackdown on Hong Kong“.
Amnesty International China’s team head, Joshua Rosenzweig says; “Without decisive action now, things will only get worse. It is urgent for UN member states to work together and ensure that violations committed by Beijing are officially monitored and meaningfully challenged. No state should be above the law.”
