China Energy | Society | East Asia
Abuduwaili Abudureheman has gone lacking after texting that he was interrogated by police at Hong Kong’s airport.
A Uyghur scholar has been lacking in Hong Kong for greater than two weeks since he despatched a message saying he was being interrogated by Chinese language police on the metropolis’s airport, a human rights group mentioned Friday.
Amnesty Worldwide mentioned Abuduwaili Abudureheman, who was born in Xinjiang in western China, traveled to Hong Kong from South Korea, the place he’s finding out for a Ph.D., to go to a buddy on Could 10. He has not been heard from since he texted his buddy about being interrogated after his arrival.
“The unknown destiny of Abuduwaili Abudureheman is deeply worrying, given the background of crimes towards humanity dedicated towards Uyghurs by the Chinese language authorities in Xinjiang, and its ongoing pursuit of Uyghurs who’ve traveled abroad,” Amnesty Worldwide China researcher Alkan Akad mentioned in an announcement.
He mentioned the scholar seems to have been detained and interrogated, and that raised questions in regards to the Hong Kong authorities’s potential involvement in human rights violations dedicated towards Uyghurs by the Chinese language authorities.
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The Hong Kong authorities didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Hong Kong is a former British colony that returned to Chinese language rule in 1997 with a promise that it might retain its Western-style freedoms and autonomy for 50 years. However critics say Beijing is growing its management over the territory and decreasing its liberties.
Most controversially, a Nationwide Safety Legislation imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing in 2020 stipulates that crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism, and “collusion with a overseas nation or with exterior components” could be punished by life in jail. People charged below the regulation – which applies to each Hong Kongers and foreigners, together with those that are simply visiting the town – could be despatched to mainland China for trial.
Critics say the offenses outlined within the Nationwide Safety Legislation are overly imprecise, permitting the federal government broad leeway to arrest and cost individuals for political speech and innocuous interactions with foreigners.
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The United Nations and human rights teams accuse China of detaining one million or extra Uyghurs and members of different predominantly Muslim teams in camps the place many have mentioned they have been tortured, sexually assaulted, and compelled to desert their language and faith.
China denies the accusations, that are based mostly on interviews with survivors and images and satellite tv for pc pictures of the Xinjiang area the place many Uyghurs reside.
Beijing has additionally pushed for Uyghurs who’ve sought asylum overseas in international locations like Turkey and Thailand to be deported again to China, the place many concern they face imprisonment or torture.
Amnesty Worldwide mentioned it understood that Abuduwaili Abudureheman, who has been finding out in Seoul for seven years, was on a Chinese language authorities “watch checklist” due to his historical past of abroad journey, and urged Hong Kong authorities to disclose his whereabouts.
He “is at grave threat of torture based mostly on his ethnicity and faith. If he’s detained, he have to be supplied with entry to a lawyer and kin, and guarded towards any ailing remedy,” Akad mentioned.
