The U.S. Department of State released its 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on April 22, 2023. In its report on China, which includes Hong Kong, Macau and Tibet, the report says “genocide and crimes against humanity occurred during the year in China against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.”
The report mentions “arbitrary arrest and detention by the government including, since 2017, of more than one million Uyghurs and members of other predominantly Muslim minority groups in extrajudicial internment camps, prisons, and an additional unknown number subjected to daytime-only “re-education” training.”
On the overall human rights situation in China, the report states “enforced disappearances through multiple means continued at a nationwide, systemic scale,” and that “there were credible reports that authorities routinely ignored prohibitions against torture, especially in politically sensitive cases.” It states “many political prisoners remained either in prison or held under other forms of detention, including writer Yang Maodong (pen name Guo Feixiong); Uyghur scholars Ilham Tohti, Rahile Dawut, and Hushtar Isa, brother of World Uyghur Congress president Dolkun Isa; retired Uyghur medical doctor Gulshan Abbas; Uyghur entrepreneur Ekpar Asat; Tibetan Buddhist monk Go Sherab Gyatso; Tibetan Dorje Tashi; activists Wang Bingzhang, Chen Jianfang, and Huang Qi; pastors Zhang Shaojie and Wang Yi; Falun Gong practitioner Zhou Deyong; Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Shanghai Thaddeus Ma Daqin; rights lawyers and activists Xia Lin, Gao Zhisheng, Xu Zhiyong, Ding Jiaxi, Xu Yan, Yu Wensheng, Chang Weiping, and Li Yuhan; citizen journalist Zhang Zhan; Shanghai labor activist Jiang Cunde; and others.”
The Hong Kong section includes transnational repression carried out by Hong Kong authorities and mentions the arrests warrant issued in July 2023 for eight democracy activists living overseas – former lawmakers Nathan Law, Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok, lawyer Kevin Yam, unionist Mung Siu-tat, and activists Finn Lau, Anna Kwok, and Elmer Yuen – for alleged national security offences, including foreign collusion and incitement to secession and the fact that “the government offered a reward of one million Hong Kong dollars (HK$) ($128,000) for information leading to the arrest of each activist.”
The Tibet section covers a wide range of human rights abuses by the Chinese government including arbitrary arrests or detention, denial of fair public trial, detention of political prisoners, forced resettlement of Tibetan pastoral families, denial of freedom of expression, severe restrictions on freedom of movement and forced transfer of students to boarding schools where children are taught in Mandarin Chinese and denied access to traditional or culturally relevant learning. The report says, “the law provided for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, and repatriation. The government, however, severely restricted travel and freedom of movement for Tibetans, particularly Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns.”
For More:
2023 US State Department Report on Human Rights in China
