Thailand Says It Sent Uyghurs Back to China to Avoid Backlash from Beijing
Russ Jalichandra, vice minister of foreign affairs for Thailand, said the return was in the interests of his country. Although some nations had proposed to grant asylum to the Uyghurs, none had shown 'resolute determination' to negotiate with Beijing for it to happen, Russ said in the statement on Thursday.
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Epoch Times
2 days ago
- Epoch Times
Lawmakers Urge State Department to Use Rewards-for-Justice Program to Address CCP's Forced Organ Harvesting
A group of House Republicans is urging the State Department to set up a reward to curb the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP's) horrific practice of forced organ harvesting, in which organs seized from prisoners of conscience are being used in transplant surgeries across China's hospital system. In an Aug. 7 letter addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), John Moolennar (R-Mich.), and Neal Dunn (R-Fla.) said there is an 'urgent need' for the State Department to offer reward money under its Rewards for Justice Program to obtain firsthand evidence to hold perpetrators in China accountable for the transplant abuse. 'The complicity of the Chinese government in forced organ harvesting is deeply troubling and should be considered a 'crime against humanity,'' the lawmakers wrote. Smith is the co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) and a senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Moolenaar is the chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, with Dunn also sitting on the panel. 'For far too long, China's state-sanctioned organ trafficking empire has been overlooked and operated unchecked,' Smith said in an Aug. 7 statement. 'As a result, Uyghurs, Falun Gong practitioners, and other prisoners of conscience have suffered the consequences, having their organs brutally removed and sold for profit by CCP officials. 'The State Department already has the funds and the authority to offer rewards for actionable intelligence; it is time that we deploy them to dismantle this illegal and gruesome billion-dollar industry and deliver justice to those whose lives have been mercilessly stolen.' In the letter, the lawmakers wrote that congressional hearings and independent investigations had presented an 'extensive body of evidence' on the Chinese regime's abuse. They referenced the 2022 study published in the American Journal of Transplantation, saying that Chinese surgeons 'acted as executioners' because the prisoners were not declared brain dead before their organs were removed. The regime's crime came under media scrutiny in 2006, the year two Canadian human rights lawyers released an investigative report confirming allegations of organ harvesting in China. In 2019, an independent tribunal in London, led by British barrister Sir Geoffrey Nice, concluded that forced organ harvesting had taken place in China for years 'on a significant scale,' with Falun Gong practitioners being the primary victims. Falun Gong, a spiritual meditation practice that is also known as Falun Dafa, has been the target of brutal persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since July 1999. Since then, millions have been detained inside prisons, labor camps, and other facilities, with hundreds of thousands tortured while incarcerated and untold numbers persecuted to death, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center. 'With effective enforcement mechanisms, we can ensure that organ procurement is ethical and that no one profits illegally from the organs of Uyghurs, Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners, or others who are unable to make a truly voluntary decision to donate,' the lawmakers wrote in their letter. Smith said he hopes that the Senate will vote on the legislation next month. 'While we continue to push the Senate to bring HR 1503 to a vote—which I am hopeful will occur in September—the State Department must use all of the tools at its disposal to disrupt this illicit global market for human organs, hold perpetrators to account, and deter future atrocities and human rights violations,' he said in an Aug. 7 statement. Smith and five other lawmakers, including then-Sen. Rubio, sent a similar letter to then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken in May 2024. At the time, Rubio shared the letter on X and urged Blinken to 'use readily available resources to halt this vicious & inhuman practice' of communist China's 'forced organ harvesting and human trafficking.' In May, the House passed the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act (HR 1503), which was co-led by Smith, by a vote of 406 to 1. The legislation would sanction anyone implicated in the abuse, including CCP members, by freezing their assets, prohibiting transactions, revoking their visas, and eliminating other immigration benefits. During a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the same month, Rubio pledged to help in 'any way we can' to pass the bill in the Senate.
The Hill
3 days ago
- The Hill
State Department chaos makes passing the Uyghur Policy Act imperative
The U.S. State Department is reeling. Morale is low, leadership turnover is high and internal dysfunction has left many career diplomats and foreign service officers disillusioned and disengaged. Some of the most principled voices on human rights policy are burned out, sidelined or quietly leaving. Against this backdrop, pushing forward the Uyghur Policy Act of 2025 might seem poorly timed at best or destined to fail at worst. But now is precisely when it matters most. The Uyghur Policy Act is not just another symbolic measure. It is a targeted, bipartisan effort to institutionalize U.S. support for Uyghur human rights, enhance public diplomacy in the face of Chinese Communist Party repression and embed Uyghur issues within the machinery of American foreign policy. By doing so, the bill helps ensure Uyghur advocacy isn't subject to the whims of individual appointees or lost in bureaucratic inertia. It's a safeguard — not a luxury. With the department in a state of strategic drift, the need for legislative mandates is greater than ever. When internal dysfunction threatens to stall or dilute executive branch efforts, it is even more critical that the legislative branch sets clear expectations, particularly as foreign governments and civil society partners will still take their cues from the United States. Without that clarity, the cause of Uyghur freedom is more vulnerable to geopolitical horse-trading and diplomatic forgetfulness. One doesn't have to be personally invested in the cause of Uyghur freedom, however, to understand that the issue serves as a barometer both of Chinese intentions, but also the level of Chinese influence in the rest of the world. One provision of the Uyghur Policy Act directs Uyghur language training for foreign service officers, and the placement of a Uyghur-speaking foreign service officer in embassies and consulates in Turkey and Central Asian countries. Is that a nod to inclusion and cultural preservation? It's something far more strategic. It ensures that our government will have the most accurate understanding and access in a region where state coopting of Uyghur organizations could cloud understanding of the very dire situation facing so many individuals due to Chinese and KGB influence in countries like Kazakhstan. One simple provision is a low-cost, high-reward solution to an intelligence gap. Other provisions in the legislation are equally strategic. Resources to counter Chinese propaganda and cohesive diplomatic strategies are essential not only for progress on the Uyghur issue, but for the sake of consistency which will be read as strength by the oppositional Chinese Communist Party. It might be tempting, in this environment, for policymakers to want to delay action — to wait until the State Department is 'fixed' or until the political winds shift. But the Chinese government isn't waiting. Transnational repression is escalating, deportations of Uyghur refugees are rising and Beijing's global narrative war is deepening. The Uyghur Policy Act is a necessary counterweight. It signals that the United States can still act with moral and strategic clarity, even amid internal turbulence. Its passage is not an act of bureaucratic optimism, but a recognition that when institutions falter, Congress must lead. It is precisely because the State Department is in crisis that now is the time to pass this bill. Julie Millsap is a human rights advocate and government affairs manager at No Business With Genocide. She leads legislative and policy efforts related to the Uyghur genocide and U.S. accountability in atrocity prevention.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
China's passport trap: A new front in the global war on Uyghurs
China is issuing invalid passports to force Uyghurs who have fled persecution into returning home, where they face arbitrary detention, forced labour and possible death. Beijing's embassies are believed to be deliberately producing travel documents with incorrect information for citizens living abroad, thus setting them up for deportation. For Uyghurs, a persecuted Muslim minority, being sent back to China means they are likely to face imprisonment, 're-education' camps, and torture. Obulqasim Isma'il, who has lived in Kyrgyzstan since 1998, told The Telegraph he was given a new passport at the Chinese embassy last autumn. It had his picture, but an incorrect name (Aisikaer Nuermaimaiti) and an incorrect birth date of Aug 3 1966, instead of March 16 1973. He protested to embassy staff, pointing out that the information was inaccurate, but they forced him to accept the passport anyway. To get the passport fixed, 'they said I would have to go to Urumchi [in China] to complain,' he said. Mr Obulqasim, 52, is now stuck in limbo, and faces deportation within days from Kyrgyzstan to China because he is in possession of a 'fake' passport in the eyes of the Kyrgyz authorities. 'I am afraid they would incarcerate me if I went,' Mr Obulqasim told The Telegraph. 'I'm very scared about what will happen to me if I'm forced to go back.' Since 2014, China's crackdown against the Uyghurs has intensified significantly, with the authorities arbitrarily detaining upwards of a million people in 're-education'' camps, and scores more in prison for 'crimes' such as praying and fasting. Beijing is also known to target fugitives abroad. The government has specified that it 'provides clues' about 'fugitives…to the countries where they are located, so that these countries would deprive them of their residency status and compulsorily repatriate them to our country or the third country in accordance with immigration laws'. Who China considers a fugitive, however, is very subjective, as the state considers political dissidents and ethnic minorities, such as Uyghurs and Tibetans, who are critical of the government to be criminals. Brazen arrests on foreign soil Beijing has brazenly sent its officers into other jurisdictions to make arrests on foreign soil, as well as kidnapping foreigners in secret and sending them back to prison. It is continually adapting its methods, and is particularly adept at exploiting legal grey areas. In the past, embassies and consulates would refuse to renew passports abroad, forcing applicants to return to China to process paperwork – a practice that drew uproar globally. In many cases, they also would not issue passports domestically, controlling who could and could not travel abroad. But experts say Mr Obulqasim's unusual situation of being issued with a passport with incorrect information could be a new way by which China is working to claw people back they want to silence, as part of a broader campaign of transnational repression. 'We do know China actively uses deportation in cooperation with other authorities to get people back – that's an official policy,' said Laura Harth, of Safeguard Defenders, a human rights advocacy organisation that focuses on China. Several means of forced returns are codified in Chinese law, with 'repatriation' listed as one measure. What's new in Mr Obulqasim's case is that the Chinese embassy did technically issue Mr Obulqasim with a passport, but with inaccurate identifying details, causing him a host of visa problems in Kyrgyzstan now leading to likely deportation. 'It seems quite smart,' said Ms Harth, noting that such an approach gives China 'plausible deniability'. Mr Obulqasim, a soft-spoken man, works as a chef, and is neither an activist nor a dissident. But experts say his mere identity as an Uyghur is enough to put him in China's crosshairs. 'We see this pattern over and over again. Not just in Kyrgyzstan, but in countries where China is targeting individuals, there doesn't seem to be rhyme or reason why,' said Julie Millsap, director of government relations at the Wild Pigeon Collective, a Uyghur advocacy organisation. 'Some seem to be very ordinary businesspeople, and at times not even particularly well-connected, yet China will go to efforts to force countries to send people back as part of a broader trend.' After emigrating from China in 1998, Mr Obulqasim visited his country of birth only a few times, and hasn't returned in 25 years. His remaining family members there have all since died. He built a new life, and at one point ran his own restaurant in Kyrgyzstan, where he married and had several children. Other than a few short stints working in Uzbekistan and Turkey, also as a chef, he has primarily resided in Kyrgyzstan. Before his older brother died, Chinese authorities would force him to call Mr Obulqasim to try and persuade him to return. The message from his brother was always the same: 'They say you should come home, just for a week or two.' China's intimidation of Mr Obulqasim through his brother would always intensify around the time when he sought to renew his passport, he said. The harassment was serious enough that he distanced himself from his brother. Back then, passports granted to him were only valid for two to three years. But in 2013, to his surprise, Mr Obulqasim was suddenly issued a passport valid for a decade. Uyghurs abroad of increasing concern His most recent passport renewal application was his first attempt to receive new documents since China significantly ramped up its crackdown against the Uyghurs in a campaign that many Western politicians and governments have called a genocide. It is unclear whether China has a specific reason to target Mr Obulqasim, or whether he is simply caught up in the wider campaign to place Uyghurs under lock and key, particularly those in central Asian countries – former Soviet Union countries where Beijing has edged Russia out in power and influence. The Beijing government is primarily concerned with ensuring the ruling Communist Party stays in power, and silencing any individual or group that might challenge its authority. Uyghurs abroad have been of increasing concern, as members of the diaspora were amongst the initial whistleblowers regarding China's extreme human rights abuses. One possible explanation for Mr Obulqasim's situation is that he had simply evaded the attention of the authorities until now, because he has not had to renew his passport since 2013. Experts have also raised the possibility that he may inadvertently have a connection to people who are linked to or participated in a 1997 political uprising against the government in Ghuljia, where he was born. The erroneous passport could also have been a clerical error, but one that the Chinese embassy for some reason is unwilling to fix. Mr Obulqasim has now applied to be registered with the United Nations as an asylum seeker, and is awaiting a response. 'I am so afraid that they will just come at night, put a black hood over my head, handcuff me and take me to the airport to send me to China,' he said. 'I'm not able to sleep at night, and my heart is pounding all the time. My wife's hair is turning grey, and she is constantly on the verge of crying. My kids, too, are deeply worried. They try to be around me all the time in case the police come, but if they do come, there is nothing they or I can do. 'I don't have a theory for why this happened to me. This is the worst phase, and I have never felt more terrified or anxious. It's terrible; I am completely at their mercy, and I have not done anything.' The Chinese embassy in London said it was not aware of Mr Obulqasim's case and accused Western media of reporting 'with a biased lens' on Xinjiang, the far-west region of China where Uyghurs live. It also claimed that 'people of all ethnic groups live and work in peace and their lawful rights are fully safeguarded' and said it was 'evidence' of the 'true' human rights situation and the 'effectiveness of China's policies in governing Xinjiang'. Neither the Kyrgyz embassy in London nor the Chinese embassy in Bishkek replied to a request for comment. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. 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