RFA: Blinken remarks on mass DNA collection in Tibet, Xinjiang spark backlash from China

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has expressed concern over the collection of DNA from Tibetans and Uyghurs by Chinese authorities, sparking a vehement reply from Beijing.

Speaking at a Freedom House awards event in Washington on Tuesday, Blinken said access to human genomic data opens up more human rights concerns because advances in biotechnology have enabled genomic surveillance based on DNA, potentially facilitating rights abuses. He is the senior-most U.S. official to raise the issue.

“We’ve seen some of those, for example, committed by the People’s Republic of China against Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang,” he said. “We’re also concerned by reports of the spread of mass DNA collection to Tibet as an additional form of control and surveillance over the Tibetan population.”

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Safeguard Defenders: New Report: Trapped – China’s Expanding Use of Exit Bans

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been widening the legal landscape for imposing exit bans and is increasing their use against everyone from human rights defenders to foreign journalists.

Safeguard Defenders’ new report Trapped: China’s Expanding Use of Exit Bans uses official data, an examination of new laws and interviews with victims to explore how the country is increasingly resorting to exit bans to punish human rights defenders (HRDs) and their families, hold people hostage to force targets overseas to come back to China (a practice called persuade to return, a form of transnational repression), control ethnic-religious groups, engage in hostage diplomacy and intimidate foreign journalists.

[Exit Ban: state-initiated ban on an individual from leaving the country, either at the border or by cancelling or confiscating their passport.]

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China Professor: “We have people at the top of America’s core inner circle of power and influence”

Tucker Carlson from December 7, 2020 exposing the scrubbed video where a Beijing university professor states:
“We have people at the top of America’s core inner circle of power and influence”

Followed by Gordon Chang’s evaluation of the professor’s statements

RFA: Most Uyghurs banned from praying on Islamic holiday, even in their homes

A policeman gestures as Uyghur Muslims arrive at the Id Kah Mosque for prayer on Eid al-Fitr in the old town of Kashgar, northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, June 26, 2017.

Chinese authorities banned most Uyghurs praying in mosques – and even in their homes – during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, in many parts of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, residents and police said.

People age 60 and older were allowed to pray in a local mosque under heavy police surveillance during Eid, which fell on April 20-21 this year, they sources said.

Since 2017, China has restricted or banned ethnic customs and religious rituals among the mostly Muslim Uyghurs in an effort to stamp out “religious extremism.”

During this year’s Eid, the most important Muslim holiday, authorities in Xinjiang patrolled city streets and searched houses to prevent people from secretly praying inside their homes, the sources said.

An administrative staffer from Yarkowruk town in Akesu Prefecture said one mosque there was open for Eid prayers.

“Our police officers went to the mosque to watch the people,” the employee said. “I don’t know if people needed permission to go to the mosque because I did not go there.”

Likewise, only one mosque was open for Eid prayers in Bulung town, Bay county, an officer at the local police station said, though only residents over 60 years old were allowed to pray if they wanted.

The government issued a notice that people younger than 60 could not pray on the Eid holiday, he added.

Only a dozen Uyghur elders in Bulung attended Eid prayers in a mosque as three police officers and several auxiliary police staffers observed and wrote down the Uyghurs’ names, said the officer from the town’s police station.

“The mosque was open yesterday, and we went there to surveil people,” the police officer said, adding that he told residents under 60 not to go to the mosque.

One local resident, who like others in this report requested anonymity for safety reasons, told Radio Free Asia that authorities destroyed almost all the mosques in Nilka and Kunes counties, so that even if the government allowed people to pray during Eid, they could not go to a mosque to do so.

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RFA: Japanese woman of Uyghur origin wins seat in Japan’s parliament

Arfiya Eri’s election gives hope to second-generation Uyghurs living in exile, advocates say

A Japanese woman of Uyghur ethnicity and who was educated in the United States has been elected a member of the Japanese parliament — the first person of Uyghur heritage to run as a major party candidate in an election there.

Arfiya Eri, a 34-year-old member of the Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, was elected on Sunday to the lower house of the Japanese Diet to represent Chiba prefecture’s 5th district. She captured the seat previously held by Kentaro Sonoura, a former LDP lawmaker who resigned last December over a political funds scandal.

The World Uyghur Congress, or WUC, applauded the election of Eri, also known as Alfiya Hidetoshi, as the first Uyghur woman to be elected to any parliament, and the first Uyghur-Japanese politician to hold a seat in the Diet, or Japanese parliament.

Eri beat six other candidates from Chiba to win the contentious election, receiving about 5,000 votes more than the candidate who came in second, said Sawut Memet, a standing committee member of the Japanese Uyghur Association, based in Tokyo.

“This historic victory is significant for the Uyghur Japanese community, as well as the global Uyghur diaspora community,” the organization said in a statement issued Monday. “The WUC firmly believes that she will serve the interests of the Japanese citizens, and the country, at the same time raising the Uyghur issue in the Japanese Parliament and other high-level forums.”

Eri’s election comes as Uyghur rights groups have called on the international community to take concrete action against China for committing severe rights abuses against the mostly Muslim group in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Japan’s government in recent years has expressed concern about human rights conditions in Xinjiang, where the Chinese government has detained Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in “re-education” camps, monitored them with intrusive digital surveillance technologies, subjected them to forced labor, and worse.

Japan’s Lower House adopted a resolution in February 2022, expressing concern over the human rights situation in China, including the plight of the Uyghurs, and called on Beijing to take measures to address the situation.

That September, WUC President Dolkun Isa asked the Japanese parliament to declare that China’s abuse of the Uyghurs amounted to a genocide, following similar determinations of genocide and crimes against humanity by the U.S. State Department and several Western legislatures.

Her election has “tremendous positive implications for Uyghurs,” showing that they are not “terrorists” as China has made them out to be to justify its repressive policies in Xinjiang, Memet told RFA.

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China Uncensored: China’s Secret Police Arrested in America

Two men were arresting for their role in a secret underground Chinese police station in Manhattan, New York. Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping were part of a network of overseas Chinese police stations that were brought to light by the human rights group Safeguard Defenders last year. In this episode of China Uncensored, we look at some of the activities they confessed to, who else was charged but not arrested, and what this means for US-China relations.

All Static and Noise: Official Trailer

also visit:
GoFundMe page
All Static and Noise website

FoxNews: Two NY residents arrested for running secret Chinese police station: …

Two NY residents arrested for running secret Chinese police station: ‘Significant national security matter’
Justice Department calls alleged activity in New York City a ‘significant national security matter’

A Chinese flag hangs between American flags in Chinatown. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

The FBI and federal prosecutors announced Monday the arrests of two New York residents who allegedly ran an undisclosed Chinese government police station in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood.

Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping have each been charged with conspiring to act as agents of China’s government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for that office, said China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) “has repeatedly and flagrantly violated our nation’s sovereignty, including by opening and operating a police station in the middle of New York City.”

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China Uncensored: YOU Can Fight Back!


Ever wonder how you can stand up to the Chinese Communist Party? Well, here’s your answer. Xi Jinping has been rapidly expanding its influence in the Pacific, especially in the Pacific Island nation of the Solomon Islands. They’ve used bribes to buy off the corrupt Prime Minster Manasseh Sogavare. A secret security pact could put a Chinese military base on the island. But one man decided to fight back—Daniel Suidani, the premier of Solomon’s Islands’ most populous island, Malaita Province. The CCP is trying to make him disappear, but he has an important warning to America. That’s why we’ve started this GoFundMe campaign to cover the costs of his trip to Washington DC, to tell American politicians about the CCP threat.
GoFundMe Link! https://gofund.me/b566ed35

Kuzzat Altay: Growing Up In Communism

Chinese government has been accused of committing widespread human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minority groups in East Turkistan, including mass internment, forced labor, and cultural suppression for years. In this video, Kuzzat Altay talks about the difficulties he experienced in East Turkistan, how the communist regime affected his life during his youth, and the pressures on him and his family. Kuzzat Altay also discusses the films that have had a profound impact on him, highlighting the pivotal role that their messages played in shaping his life.

Kuzzat Altay describes the difficult decision to leave his family and homeland behind in order to escape the oppression of the Chinese government. He explains how his family was targeted by the authorities. Kuzzat himself was also subjected to surveillance and harassment by the authorities, leading him to fear for his safety and that of his family.

Throughout the video, Kuzzat highlights the challenges he faced while leaving the country. He also depicts his journey to Istanbul and what he felt when his plane touched down to Turkey.