Human Rights Watch said in its annual report that China is in the midst of its darkest period for human rights since the Tiananmen Square massacre.
But 2020 was also the year that world governments found ‘security in numbers’ to push back China’s policy of repression, with less fear of retaliation.
The exacerbation of ethnic minority persecution in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Tibet, targeting whistleblowers, the repression of Hong Kong and efforts to disguise the coronavirus outbreak were all part of the deteriorating situation under President Xi Jinping, the organization said. said.
“It was the darkest period for human rights in China since the massacre in 1989 that ended the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square,” reads the report on global human rights violations.
“The Chinese government’s authoritarianism was fully apparent in 2020 as it hit the deadly coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan province,” the report said, describing the initial cover-up of the outbreak by the authorities and the punishment of doctors with whistleblowers, including Li Wenliang. and journalists like Zhang Zhan, who reported on the Wuhan lockdown and on surveillance and harassment of families of virus victims.
At the same time, Beijing’s repression – which demanded political loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party – deepened across the country, “he said.
“In Xinjiang, Turkish Muslims are still being held arbitrarily on the basis of their identity, while others are being subjected to forced labor, mass surveillance and political indoctrination. In Inner Mongolia, protests erupted in September when education authorities decided to replace Mongolians in a number of classes in the schools of the region with Mandarin Chinese. ”
And in Tibet, authorities have continued to ‘severely restrict religious freedom, speech, movement and assembly, and they cannot address local miners’ concerns about mining and land grabs, which often involve intimidation and illegal use of force by security forces’.
The demand for political loyalty has also increased in the special administrative region of Hong Kong. After more than six months of protests in 2019, Beijing has implemented internationally criticized national legislation on national security across the city and even banned benevolent acts of opposition such as crimes of secession, rioting, foreign conspiracy and terrorism. About 90 people have been arrested under the law since June.
Internet censorship, mass surveillance and attempts to “cynicize” religion have also deepened in China, the report said. Prominent critics, human rights defenders and journalists have been jailed, disappeared or forced into exile, much accused of ‘inciting undermining’ or ‘picking up strife and causing problems’ – a common charge against dissidents and activists.
“Since Xi Jinping came to power, oppression has generally gotten worse and worse, in every aspect of Chinese society you can see the party becoming intolerant of any kind of independent activity,” said HRW researcher Yaqiu Wang , said.
The 386-page report focused largely on China due to the international response to the deteriorating repression there. HRW said the rest of the world had become more confident in criticizing Beijing because they had previously feared retaliation.
Retaliation continued to occur: China and the US entered into a trade war, traded sanctions and new regulations on visas, diplomats and journalists, and closed embassies. Australia has been subject to harmful tariffs and bans after it issued a “robust” investigation into the origin of the coronavirus.
HRW was critical of the EU’s response to China, and in particular the conclusion of a trade agreement with Beijing late last year.
“If the EU were serious about ending forced labor in Xinjiang province in China, they could insist on it before agreeing to the investment agreement,” said Kenneth Roth, head of HRW.
But by 2020, many world governments have ‘found security in numbers, reflecting Beijing’s inability to take revenge on the entire world,’ HRW said. Fewer members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation – which previously tended to support China – supported Xinjiang policies, and several statements of condemnation were made at the UN.
The US has enacted numerous legislation targeting the abuse of China, while the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US have all torn the extradition agreements with the country over the fact that it has suppressed Hong Kong.
“The growing international willingness to condemn the Chinese government has forced it to respond,” the report said, and Beijing confirmed for the first time the number of Uighur and other Turkish Muslims detained in Xinjiang. reveals that 1.3 million people have gone through what are called “vocational training centers”.
Every UN statement is opposed to statements in support of Beijing, which HRW said were “usually signed by many of the world’s worst human rights violators”, and appear to involve economic leverage.
The HRW report said the setback was particularly notable for the U.S. ‘peripheral’ role, as the Trump administration was often uninvolved or unreliable.
‘The lesson of recent years for other governments is that they can make a big difference, even without Washington. Even under a more rights-friendly US government, this broader collective defense of rights must be upheld ‘.