A damning new report has provided further evidence of widespread human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in China - but while the New Zealand Government is calling on Beijing to act, our opposition seems more conflicted
The Government has supported the release of a United Nations report suggesting the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang may amount to crimes against humanity, calling on Chinese authorities to uphold its human rights obligations.
However, the National Party has seemed to downplay the significance of the UN findings, supporting Beijing’s anti-terrorism intent and suggesting New Zealand should not “wave a banner of purity” over reports of forced labour.
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Thursday (NZT) released a long-awaited report into the plight of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, following claims of mass detention camps and other human rights abuses in the region.
Among its findings are that the arbitrary and discriminatory detention of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity”.
While the Chinese government said its actions in Xinjiang were about countering violent terrorism, definitions of terrorism and extremism in the country’s legislation were “based on vague and broad concepts” that gave officials significant leeway in how to interpret and apply them.
The report says it is “reasonable to conclude that a pattern of large-scale arbitrary detention occurred…at least during 2017 to 2019”. Those placed in so-called “vocational education and training centres” had no access to a lawyer before being sent to the facilities, with a heavy security presence and none able to leave of their own choice.
Two-thirds of former detainees who spoke to the UN for its report had been subjected to torture or other forms of ill-treatment. Re-education efforts were described as an “omnipresent” aspect of time in the detention centres, with one interviewee saying: “We were forced to sing patriotic song after patriotic song every day, as loud as possible and until it hurts, until our faces become red and our veins appeared on our face.”
“It requires some action to be taken by China to recognise that human rights violations have existed…it’s hard to refute a report of that repute from a UN organisation.” - Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta
The report says there have also been credible reports of rape and other sexual violence, while several women interviewed by the UN had raised allegations of forced birth control including through abortions and the use of IUDs.
Labour initiatives at the centres, and for those outside them, appear to have been supported through “various coercive methods” based on publicly available evidence.
Among the UN’s recommendations are that the Chinese government “takes prompt steps to release all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty”, clarify the whereabouts of missing people in Xinjiang, review its legal frameworks related to national security and counter-terrorism, and “provide adequate remedy and reparation to victims of human rights violations”.
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta told media she had not yet read the report in full, but said New Zealand had supported Bachelet’s investigation and was pleased it had been released.
“It requires some action to be taken by China to recognise that human rights violations have existed…it’s hard to refute a report of that repute from a UN organisation.”
Mahuta said the Government would now go through the report “with a level of vigilance” to assess the findings and recommendations, as well as the broader implications in terms of any action from New Zealand.
But National Party foreign affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee focused on the report’s comments about the anti-terrorist intent of the Chinese government’s actions, and what he viewed as the similarity between its security legislation and that of New Zealand.
“If you read the piece published from the Chinese anti-terrorism law, the intentions of that are…not significantly different to those of our own New Zealand legislation - the issue is, of course, how that's interpreted and the way in which the alleged terrorists are pursued.”
Asked by Newsroom whether the approach taken by officials was disproportionate given the length of time since the last terror attack in Xinjiang, Brownlee said he could not comment but added: “It's quite some years, 22 years since we saw the attacks in New York that changed the way the rest of us think about terrorism as well.”
He cited the report as saying many of the detention centres being run in Xinjiang had now been closed; however, the report also observes that “even if the…system has since been reduced in scope or wound up, as the [Chinese] government has claimed, the laws and policies that underpin it remain in place”.
Brownlee was hopeful China would take up the report’s recommendations and engage with the UN to address the concerns which had been raised, saying such an approach would “further assert the leadership role that China is starting to assume within the world”.
On the issue of whether products made using forced labour in Xinjiang should be banned from New Zealand, he said it would need to be proven, adding: “I don't think New Zealand should stick its hand up and start waving a banner of purity when you look at some of the situations that RSE workers are currently facing.”
"The worst thing I can see happening is we become fearful of the Chinese Communist Party, and we don’t talk about these issues for fear of alienating our trading partner." - Brooke van Velden, ACT MP
ACT Party foreign affairs spokeswoman Brooke van Velden, who last year put forward a parliamentary motion declaring “grave concern” over severe human rights abuses in Xinjiang, told Newsroom the report further strengthened the credibility of Uyghurs and others who had come forward to share their own experiences of human rights violations.
“The most important thing we can do as New Zealanders is to be open to debate, being able to talk about what is happening internationally on human rights - the worst thing I can see happening is we become fearful of the Chinese Communist Party, and we don’t talk about these issues for fear of alienating our trading partner,” van Velden said.
The report was released just minutes before the end of Michelle Bachelet’s term in office, with the Chinese government having fought both its release and any independent visits to Xinjiang.
Wang Xiaolong, China’s ambassador to New Zealand, has already criticised the report on Twitter as “full of lies with zero evidence to back them up”.
“The whole world knows who are the masterminds behind the report, which is nothing but a weapon to contain China. And again, the accusations will be proven baseless, and the attempt at smearing China will fail!” Wang said.
