As China forcibly tries to end protests against its oppression throughout the world, its collaborators include some of the Chinese Communist Party’s own victims.
In a December 29, 2023 article for Bitter Winter, May Yingjie writes that in addition to using violence to discourage protestors, the Chinese government also recruits agents to find vital information about them, including “phone numbers, vehicle plates, addresses, and photographs.”
Among those impressed into service are Tibetans and Uyghurs living abroad who are motivated by carrot and stick: “visa approvals to visit their native lands [and] threats against their family members back home.”
It is difficult to judge the actions of desperate persons without detailed knowledge of their circumstances. But many expatriate members of CCP-targeted groups who are subjected to similar pressure—not necessarily to act as CCP agents but at least to stop protesting against the CCP themselves—do not submit.
An example is Bakhtiar Semseddin, living in Montreal, who says that he gets calls threatening his family whenever he protests against the Chinese government’s treatment of the Uyghurs and other Muslims. “It’s not only for my family, it’s for all Uyghurs, for their human rights,” he says. “If I stop it, they’re going to continue.”
Also see:
CBC: “Montreal Uyghurs march to bring attention to China’s persecution of ethnic Muslim minorities”
“If he answers the phone, he says he’s likely to hear threats against his family who are still living in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China, or as he calls it, occupied East Turkestan. But Semseddin, who moved to Canada in 2008, says he doesn’t plan on stopping.”
VOA News: “China Tries to Muffle Those Living Abroad by Intimidating their Families”
“ ‘You speak Chinese, right?’ said an officer who identified himself as Hu. ‘No matter where you are, you got to remember you are Chinese, you have to remember all your families are Chinese.’ ”
Safeguard Defenders: “China Is Ramping Up Collective Punishment of Families of Rights Defenders”
“Under Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party is increasingly using collective punishment as a political tool to control human rights defenders and raise the personal cost of speaking up in China, according to a new report released today, International Human Rights Day.
“Families in Fear: Collective Punishment in 21st Century China [published December 2023] uses interviews and media reports to show how this feudal practice is being increasingly used both in terms of numbers and in type of punishment.”
