Western nations condemn China at UN for repression of Muslims

By NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE
Uyghurs people demonstrate against China during the Universal Periodic Review of China by the Human Rights Council, walking to the place des Nations in front of the European headquarters of the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018.

Canada has publicly accused China of repressing Muslims amid a “deterioration of human rights” in the world’s second largest economy.
China must “end prosecution and persecution on the basis of religion or belief,” Tamara Mawhinney, Canada’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said Tuesday as China was subjected to a rare moment of global scrutiny before the UN Human Rights Council, which examines each country’s treatment of its people every five years.
Ms. Mawhinney called on Beijing to “release Uyghurs and other Muslims who have been detained arbitrarily and without due process for their ethnicity or religion.” 

Canada, she said, is “deeply concerned by credible reports of the mass detention, repression and surveillance of Uyghurs and other Muslims in East Turkestan,” referring to the region in western China where, western scholars have estimated, hundreds of thousands of Muslims have been incarcerated in centres for political indoctrination.
The U.S., too, on Tuesday urged China to “abolish all forms of arbitrary detention, including internment camps in East Turkestan.”
The public censure marked a new step in the international condemnation of Chinese conduct in what Beijing calls an “anti-extremism” campaign.
But criticism levelled by a smattering of democratic nations — Croatia, Japan and Switzerland among them — was all but drowned out by a chorus of flattery for Beijing.
More than 150 countries signed up to speak on Tuesday, and dozens of them — authoritarian regimes from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America — used their allotted 45 seconds to compliment China for fighting poverty, combatting corruption, encouraging entrepreneurship, responding to climate change, reducing smog, expanding forests, opposing double standards in human rights, imposing low tariffs on imports, providing radio broadcast coverage to virtually its entire population and penning a “high-quality” report on its own human rights.
China has cited separatist groups as a security threat in East Turkestan, where Beijing has in recent years built a network of concentration camps for political indoctrination amid an intensive campaign against what it calls "extremism".
Inside such camps, authorities force the disavowal of religion and recitation of loyalty to the Communist Party and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, former detainees have said.
Residents of the region say fears of detention without trial are so widespread that religious observance has largely been halted in a region that makes up one-sixth of the Chinese landmass.
But even among Muslim nations, China received little criticism Tuesday, underscoring the influence China has amassed as the world’s second-largest economy, and an increasingly important global source of trade, foreign investment and aid.
Indonesia commended “China’s strategic approach” to ensuring the “well-being of its population.” 
Malaysia pointed to China’s “many achievements in human rights.” 
Kuwait suggested Beijing focus “on the prevention of juvenile delinquency to ensure minors’ physical and psychological health.” 
Saudi Arabia recommended China “continue friendly exchanges in the field of cultural and religious issues.” 
Syria urged China to counter “extremist religious movements and continue its struggle against terrorism and separatism.” 
Pakistan said China should “continue its efforts to maintain and promote peace and stability.”
The upbeat assessment is ”partially a reflection of China's economic clout amongst these countries, but also its leadership role amongst countries that are actively trying to undermine human rights standards,” said Frances Eve, a researcher with the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
Among Muslim nations, only Turkey spoke out strongly against Chinese practices that involve “restrictions on basic rights and liberties, like confinement of individuals without any legal grounds, and their separation from families and society.”
More forceful denunciations of China’s conduct came largely from western nations.
Switzerland said it is “concerned about repression” and demanded the closure of what it termed “re-education centres” in East Turkestan.
France called on Beijing to “put an end to mass internment in camps” and guarantee freedom of religion.
Germany said China should ”end all unlawful detention, including unconstitutional mass detention of Uyghurs and other Muslims in East Turkestan.”
“Despite China’s best efforts — through propaganda and platitudes — to reduce the [UN review] to fawning adulation, numerous states expressed serious concerns,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch.

Rule by Fear and Torture

Canada, 10 other countries call out China for torturing human rights lawyers
By NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE

BEIJING — Eleven countries have jointly called on the Chinese government to investigate reports of torture against human rights lawyers and urged Beijing to abandon a controversial detention system that holds suspects in secret locations for months at a time.
The unusually direct criticism comes in a letter from the Chinese diplomatic missions of the signatory countries, including Canada, that expresses “growing concern over recent claims of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in cases concerning detained human rights lawyers and other human rights defenders.”
The signatories call for China to end the practice of “residential surveillance at a designated place,” a Chinese form of pretrial custody for sensitive cases that allows suspects to be held for up to six months, often without families or lawyers being told where they are.
Residential surveillance amounts to “incommunicado detention in secret places, putting detainees at a high risk of torture and ill-treatment,” the letter states. 

China should, it says, remove all suspects from residential surveillance and repeal enabling legislation.
“Detaining people without any contact with the outside world for long periods of time is contrary to China’s international human rights obligations,” the letter says.
It calls for a prompt and independent investigation into “claims of torture” against lawyers Xie Yang, Li Heping, Wang Quanzhang and Li Chunfu, as well as activist Wu Gan.
Under Xi Jinping, Chinese authorities have waged a war on civil society, detaining and arresting labour activists, women’s rights campaigners and human rights defenders. 

Hundreds of human rights activists and lawyers have been questioned and detained, Amnesty International has said.
Mr. Xie was punched, kicked and kneed by interrogators who threatened: “I’m going to torment you until you go insane.” 

Authorities used electric shocks to torture Li Heping and Mr. Wang.

Family members of Li Chunfu said 500 days of secret detention left him with a mind that was “shattered.” 

Wu Gan was not allowed to sleep for several days and nights.
The Globe and Mail obtained a copy of the Feb. 27 letter, which has not been made public. 

It was addressed to Guo Shengkun, China’s Minister of Public Security. 

It was signed by ambassadors and chargés d’affaires from Australia, Canada, Japan and Switzerland, along with seven European Union member countries: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Neither China’s public security ministry nor its foreign ministry responded to requests for comment on Monday.
“Canada raises human rights with our Chinese counterparts regularly, using a variety of methods,” an embassy spokesperson said in a statement. 

“Sometimes it is public, but often these issues are best raised privately, where we can have a frank discussion.” 

The Japanese embassy declined comment, since the letter was sent through a diplomatic channel. 

The German embassy said it is “not in a position to comment.”
Joint action is often the most effective way to pressure China, human rights advocates say.
“Beijing always hears a clearer and firmer message when it’s delivered by multiple governments,” said Sophie Richardson, China director for Human Rights Watch. 

The issuance of joint letters is “a strong indication of the widespread concern about human rights erosions in China today.”
Shortly after the letter was sent, Chinese government-controlled media published a week-long series of articles and social media posts lashing out at what People’s Daily called “FAKE NEWS” in Western media reports on the torture of Mr. Xie, the human rights lawyer. 

State-run news agency Xinhua called Mr. Xie’s accusations of mistreatment “nothing but cleverly orchestrated lies” orchestrated by a legal team “aiming to cater to the tastes of Western institutions and media organizations and to use public opinion to pressure police and smear the Chinese government.”
Mr. Xie’s lawyer, Chen Jian'gang, has issued a detailed rebuttal of what he called “groundless lies” in those state media reports.
In an interview Monday, Mr. Chen questioned why the 11-country letter was submitted quietly.
Had it been made public, “the effect would have been much stronger,” he said. 

In a closed and restrictive system like China’s, he said, “secret talk and private questions will have no effect whatsoever.”
Joint diplomatic letters are rare, but becoming more common as countries seek a way to raise issues with China, while avoiding individual retribution from a government that often exacts revenge through economic means.
Last year, the U.S., Canada, Germany and Japan together expressed concern about three new Chinese laws on counterterrorism, cybersecurity and the management of foreign non-governmental organizations. 

Those laws, they wrote, had “the potential to impede commerce, stifle innovation, and infringe on China’s obligation to protect human rights.” 

The European Union submitted a similar letter.
Adding several signatures to one document was a way to raise attention in Beijing, said Guy Saint-Jacques, who was then Canada’s ambassador to China.
“We came to the conclusion that the Chinese were not listening to what we had to say,” he said.
The letter “was badly received by the Chinese government. It accused us of ganging up on them,” he said. 

It produced limited results. 

“There was an offer in one case to have more consultation, and there were some slight changes” to proposed legislation, said Mr. Saint-Jacques, who retired from the foreign service last fall. 

But “they didn’t go as far as we would have liked them to go.”
The new letter on torture, he said, comes at a time when “all observers agree that the human rights situation has deteriorated a lot under Xi Jinping,” even as China has grown more confident in promoting the merits of its autocratic system to other countries.
The letter is notable, however, in part for who did not sign. 

Only seven members of the European Union participated; several diplomatic sources said unanimous support was blocked by Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban has praised China’s authoritarian model and sought Chinese investment. (The EU in January publicly called for an investigation into the handling of Chinese human rights lawyers, saying their treatment, if verified “would amount to torture.”)
The United States was also absent from the letter, which human rights workers took as a worrying sign of Washington’s posture under Donald Trump.
“When a country like the U.S. is silent on this, it’s really interpreted by Beijing as a free hand to do what they want. And that costs people their lives,” said Sarah Cook, senior East Asia research analyst at Freedom House, a Washington-based watchdog on political, religious and economic liberties. 

“So it’s unfortunate if the U.S. removes itself from that type of leadership role.”
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has pledged to keep pressing China on such issues.
“I made clear that the United States will continue to advocate for universal values such as human rights and religious freedom,” he said in Beijing on Saturday.
The latest U.S. report on Chinese human rights documents former prisoners and detainees who “were beaten, subjected to electric shock, forced to sit on stools for hours on end, hung by the wrists, raped, deprived of sleep, force-fed, and otherwise subjected to physical and psychological abuse.”
The United Nations Committee against Torture, too, has criticized China for allowing torture to become “deeply entrenched” in its criminal justice system. 

In a late 2015 report, it urged Beijing to eliminate residential surveillance and hold criminally responsible any officials responsible for abuse.
Mr. Chen, the lawyer for Xie Yang, called residential surveillance a form of “illegal prison” that allows interrogators power to “do whatever they want.”
But he held out little hope that real change is possible in authoritarian China, even if the residential surveillance is formally abolished. 

He pointed to previous Chinese practices of “re-education through labour” and “custody and repatriation” that were scrapped, only to have other abuse-prone forms of detention emerge.
“As long as there is poison in the system, you can remove one poisonous fruit today — and that looks good,” Mr. Chen said. 

“But these kinds of poisonous fruit will grow out anew every day, without stop.”

Free Tibet

Swiss diaspora Tibetan refugees unhappy with Chinese nationality
By Anand Chandrasekhar

They may be protesting against China but their Swiss residence permit states they are Chinese and not Tibetans

Around 400 Tibetans gathered in the Swiss capital Bern to commemorate the 1959 uprising against Chinese forces in Lhasa. 

They also expressed anger at being categorised as Chinese nationals by the authorities. 

As of June 2015, all refugees from Tibet are automatically assigned a Chinese nationality on their residence in permits in order to conform with Switzerland’s official position on Tibet being a part of China. 

Prior to this, resident permits bore Tibet or Tibet (China).
“Since Switzerland does not recognise Tibet as an independent State but considers it as a part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China, these denominations were false and had to be corrected,” a spokesperson for the migration office (SEM), told swissinfo.ch.
These older permits (the migration office estimates there are around 350 of them) are “corrected” when they come up for renewal causing emotional turmoil among Switzerland’s Tibetan community, Europe’s largest.

A Swiss residence permit of a Tibetan refugee indicates People's Republic of China as the recognised nationality

“We are not Chinese. We are Tibetans. Many of us were born in Switzerland or India and have no connection to China,” says Tenzin Nyingbu, president of the Tibetan Community in Switzerland and Liechtenstein (TCSL).
According to him, all Tibetans without a Swiss passport – around 3,000 of them - have been assigned Chinese nationality. 

However, there could be a tiny minority whose permits have not yet come up from renewal since the policy change – mainly C permit holders – that might still have Tibet or Tibet (China ) listed as their nationality.
Tenzin’s association and other Tibetan groups in Switzerland had appealed against the measure when it was introduced but to no avail.
“Some say the Swiss authorities were pressurised by China but they have denied this accusation during my discussions with them and say it is purely an internal policy decision,” says Nyingbu.

Chinese reaction
An opinion piece published in February in Global Times – an English language paper with a communist viewpoint – called the Swiss move a blow to Tibetan separatists and the Tibetan government in exile. 

The author interprets the change in policy as a calculated move by Switzerland.
“Berne refusing labeling the ‘Tibetan-in-exile’ as from ‘Tibet’ or as refugees is a result of the positive Sino-Swiss diplomatic cooperation. Berne must have realized it has more to gain from a strong bilateral relationship with Beijing rather than supporting the Tibetan separatists,” said the piece. 

The story was carried widely in the Chinese media and portrayed as a sign of change in tactics by the West to appease a rising China.
“As the international order changes, it seems inevitable for Berne to review and adjust its policies,” said the article. 

Asylum requests
The proportion of “Chinese” asylum seekers given protection in Switzerland has dropped significantly – only 54.8% qualified in 2016 compared to 71.8% in 2015 and 85.8% in 2014. However, the migration office reiterates that the administrative measure according Chinese nationality to Tibetans has no bearing on their eligibility to seek asylum in Switzerland.
“People of Tibetan ethnicity have to credibly demonstrate that they are at risk when returning to China and that they are not in possession of a residence permit in a third country, in order for them to be granted the refugee status. If they fail to do so, the competent Swiss authorities may order their removal from Switzerland,” says an SEM spokesperson.
The drop in asylum acceptance rate was attributed to an increase in the number of “Dublin cases” where the asylum seekers are obliged under the Dublin agreement to submit their application to the first European country they arrive in.

Statelessness
The Tibetan case is quite different from the criteria of statelessness in which someone who is unable to acquire nationality of any country has the right to be granted a residence permit in Switzerland. However, Switzerland has tougher requirements for statelessness compared to refugees, which means few apply and qualify for it.
As of January 2017, 48 people under this category were being processed by the asylum system of which 28 were admitted on a temporary basis (less than seven years). 

Those admitted are most likely to be Syrian Kurds, known locally as Ajanib. 

Aluminum Billionaire Planning Escape From China: Lawyer

Giant aluminum stockpile in Mexico and Vietnam may represent an effort to get wealth out of China by Liu Zhongtian, chairman of China Zhongwang Holdings.
By SCOTT PATTERSON

Liu Zhongtian, chairman of aluminum giant China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd., in his office in 2009. 
A giant stockpile of aluminum that has crisscrossed the globe remains a puzzle for American executives and investigators trying to unravel the logic behind its movements.
A Dallas attorney’s correspondence suggests a surprising possibility: that the stash is a Chinese billionaire’s retirement fund.
Like all Chinese citizens, Liu Zhongtian, the 52-year-old chairman of aluminum behemoth China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd., isn’t supposed to move more than $50,000 a year out of the Communist Party-led country. 

To get around the restrictions, Chinese nationals have used Hong Kong money changers to illicitly transfer cash between bank accounts, combined their $50,000 quotas to make large-scale transfers and even carried cash across borders in suitcases.
Mr. Liu developed an industrial-scale approach involving boatloads of aluminum which he stockpiled with plans to sell the metal over time, according to the Dallas attorney’s correspondence and people who have worked for Mr. Liu whose accounts are supported by shipping and corporate records.
Mr. Liu sought to establish companies that could control his wealth outside China and set up an office in Switzerland, according to a 2012 email from attorney Herman Randow of Dallas firm Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr.

An aerial view of the aluminum stockpile around Aluminicaste Fundición de México’s San José Iturbide plant in 2014. 

“We are at the early stages of this family office,” Mr. Randow wrote in the email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. 

“It will not be robust until Mr. Liu retires and leaves China to live in Switzerland. That is his ultimate goal.”
A China Zhongwang spokeswoman wrote in an email that Mr. Liu “does not know this law firm, and has never had any business dealing with it.” 

She added: “We have no knowledge of the correspondence to which you refer and question its authenticity.”
A spokeswoman for Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr said the firm doesn’t currently represent Mr. Liu “nor have we represented Mr. Liu or his interests for quite some time.” 

She said Texas ethics laws prevented her from commenting further. 

Mr. Randow, who still works for the firm, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The law firm email is a tantalizing clue that could help explain why several large aluminum stockpiles have mysteriously popped up around the world. 

Metal caches in Mexico and Vietnam have been the subjects of Wall Street Journal articles that have traced the metals’ connections to Mr. Liu and businesses tied to him and his family.
Mr. Liu has denied any connection to the aluminum or to the companies moving it around the world. “As we have repeatedly stated, neither China Zhongwang nor Mr. Liu has connections to the ‘stockpile’ in Mexico, or the metal in Vietnam,” his company’s spokeswoman wrote.
Most of the Mexican aluminum stockpile was moved to Vietnam, according to trade records and people familiar with the matter. 

All told, about 1.7 million tons of aluminum has been stored in Vietnam since 2015 by a company co-owned by one of Mr. Liu’s business associates, according to trade and corporate records and people familiar with Mr. Liu’s business operations. 

Data provided by Global Trade Information Services, which tracks world-wide trade, values the aluminum at about $5 billion. 

The metal has been extruded, or turned into various shapes, for sale as products.
The stockpiles are so big that metals-industry officials have been worried they are depressing global aluminum-extrusion prices. 

The market for aluminum, like other commodities such as steel, has been plagued by a glut driven by supercharged Chinese production.

A plant owned by China Zhongwang Holdings in Liaoyang, China. 

American executives have accused Mr. Liu of routing inexpensive, government-subsidized aluminum into the U.S. through Mexico and Vietnam to avoid U.S. tariffs. 

China Zhongwang’s products have faced tariffs as high as 374% because a 2010 Commerce Department probe found the company received illegal Chinese subsidies and was “dumping”—selling aluminum products below market prices.
The Department of Homeland Security is investigating whether U.S. companies linked to Mr. Liu illegally avoided punitive import tariffs on Chinese aluminum, according to people familiar with the probe. 

In a separate investigation, the Commerce Department ruled this year that China Zhongwang had sidestepped U.S. trade sanctions by disguising its metal in a form not specifically covered by the 2010 trade restrictions.
China Zhongwang said it was no longer selling the type of aluminum targeted by Commerce.
The Dallas attorney’s email raises another possibility for the metal: Aluminum, which is commonly traded in dollars, provided a way of moving currency out of China.
In his email, the Dallas attorney, Mr. Randow, emphasized the secret nature of Mr. Liu’s plans to set up businesses outside of China and live in Switzerland.
“I want to reinforce that all this information and these relationships absolutely are confidential, and I am not typically authorized to freely disseminate this information to third parties outside of the family office,” Mr. Randow wrote.
Mr. Randow’s email was related to two Swiss companies that he said were owned by Mr. Liu: Eighty Eight Investments AG and Grand Provenance Holdings AG.
Grand Provenance is the parent of GT88 Capital, a Singapore aluminum-trading firm that shipped more than $1 billion worth of aluminum from 2010 to 2013 to a Mexican facility once owned by Mr. Liu’s son called Aluminicaste Fundición de México, according to shipping and corporate records. The GT88 shipments formed part of the Mexican stockpile under investigation by the Commerce Department, people familiar with the matter say.

Liu Zhongtian toasts the listing of the shares of China Zhongwang Holding at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2009. 

Mr. Randow wrote that Grand Provenance and Eighty Eight “are simply the confidential holding companies for the family office for Mr. Liu Zhongtian.”
The companies “simply direct all his investments out of the People’s Republic of China,” Mr. Randow wrote.
The email was sent to a business associate of Mr. Liu’s in response to questions from Banque Heritage, a Swiss bank conducting due diligence on the companies as they tried to open an account.
If the bank had more questions about Mr. Liu, Mr. Randow suggested: “Google him.”
Banque Heritage declined to comment.
Mr. Liu, through a spokeswoman, denied any involvement with Grand Provenance and Eighty Eight. Mr. Liu’s main company, Liaoyang-based China Zhongwang, says it sells most of its aluminum to Chinese companies.
A U.S. attorney who has represented Mr. Liu, Charles Pok, says Mr. Liu’s name was fraudulently connected to the two Swiss companies by a former U.S. business associate named Eric Shen. 

“Eric Shen and Herman Randow definitely know that Mr. Liu never instructed them to establish these companies,” Mr. Pok wrote in an email.
Munsch Hardt said the firm and Mr. Randow denied Mr. Pok’s allegations. 

Mr. Shen also denied them.
American executives who have investigated the shifting stockpiles of metal say they suspected Mr. Liu may have been motivated in part by a desire to move wealth offshore. 

Even though he ultimately failed to sell large amounts of metal into the U.S., they point out that it still serves as a store of value.
Mike Rapport, who owns an aluminum business in Southern California, said an Aluminicaste salesman told him Mr. Liu planned to use the Mexican metal to fund his retirement.
Mr. Liu has made moves that indicate he may be preparing to leave China.
Last year, he paid €650,000 to become a Maltese citizen, taking advantage of a new policy introduced by Malta’s government in 2014, according to government records there. 

With Maltese citizenship, Mr. Liu can live and work in any country in the European Union. 

Chinese law forbids the country’s citizens from holding dual citizenship.
Mr. Liu also has a Social Security number in the U.S., where his family owns several homes, according to a records search.
The China Zhongwang spokeswoman said the company doesn’t comment on personal matters.
In August, Zhongwang USA LLC, controlled by Mr. Liu and affiliated with China Zhongwang, agreed to acquire Cleveland-based aluminum producer Aleris Corp. for $1.1 billion, which would mark the highest price ever paid by a Chinese firm for a U.S. metals producer.