A top-secret arrangement between Switzerland and China gave Chinese Ministry of Public Security agents unsupervised access to Switzerland (and possibly much of Europe) at Swiss' taxpayer's expense. theguardian.com/world/2020/dec…
Chinese MPS agents were given access to interview deportation targets, but were unsupervised and potentially had access to all Schengen countries.
The deal was kept so secret that even the Swiss parliament and foreign affairs committee did not know of its existence.
Moreover, once a mission was approved, China could choose its agents without requiring further Swiss approval.
BREAKING: for the 1st time, evidence of systemic forced labor affecting entire cotton production in Xinjiang (20% of world's cotton). Beijing mobilizes over 0.5 million Uyghurs pick to cotton by hand through coercive labor transfer programs. My report: /1 cgpolicy.org/briefs/coerciv…
The key source of coercion is Xinjiang's labor transfer program.
For an overview and conceptual framework of coercive labor and labor transfers in Xinjiang - into which the new evidence fits closely - see my previous research report: jpolrisk.com/beyond-the-cam… /2
Previously, we only had evidence for forced labor in low-skilled manufacturing, incl. textile production, and mostly anecdotal evidence of prison labor etc. in XPCC (bingtuan) cotton picking. U.S. recently banned XPCC cotton, but that is only 1/3 of Xinjiang's cotton. /3
Australia manages to produce "expert" analysis of its China row that doesn't account for China's *extensive* history of economic & political coercion to cover up HR abuses & further its political ends, w/ e.g. Norway, Sweden, S.Korea, Japan - ignoring key historic lessons.
Including threats to Germany (cars) over 5G, Turkey (tourism) over Uyghurs, and so on and so forth. Wouldn't any serious "research" need to look beyond Australia-China or Australian domestic dynamics?
Threats to Britain over 5G. The list just goes on.
THREAD: @AucklandUni complaint letter re @Anne_MarieBrady publication on NZ academic ties that could benefit China military research, denying allegations re AU Prof. Gao Wei. The letter's denials are factually incorrect, raising serious questions. drive.google.com/drive/u/0/fold…
AU's complaint states that Gao Wei never researched "quantum computing".
But Brady doesn't allege that. She alleges that Gao is involved in a military-related quantum computing project at China's University of Defense Technology (NUDT). Which he is.
NEW: Parent-Child Separation research report analyzes
new local government data from Yarkand (Kashgar), showing one county alone w/ over 10,000 Uyghur children in “hardship” due to one or both parents detained. 1,000 w/ both parents detained. link.medium.com/1bEEHSEwBab
The number of students in Xinjiang who live in boarding facilities grew by over 380,000 between 2017 and 2019, from about 500,000 to just below 900,000. An increase of nearly 80%, or 383,000, in the space of 2 years. Notably, right during the internment campaign.
Yarkand No.3 primary school is on a compound together with an orphanage building. A teacher writes that “[the orphanage] children also come to our school during the day and go back to the orphanage at night. The principal has to worry about their food and accommodation.”
NEW: Torment of the Uyghurs - Cover of the new Economist Magazine.
Based on new data provided by me to the Economist, showing that children of "double-detained" parents are put in orphanages or boarding schools. Xinjiang added 380,000 new boarding students btw 2017 and 2019.
THREAD: western university gets award for its collaboration w/ a Xinjiang paramilitary university who is directly implicated in re-education & forced labor, whose work teams reported on "problems" in Uyghur homes & paraded camp detainees to warn others. link.medium.com/wKCb0sROAab
New Zealand's @MasseyUni Professor Hugh Blair visits Xinjiang annually. In 2019, during the height of the internment drive, he received a Friendship Award from Shihezi University, the most eminent academic institutions of the paramilitary XPCC (blacklisted for HR violations).
Massey University defended its collaboration with Shihezi, saying that it is just about animal science. That's like Disney saying that it is customary to thank Xinjiang's Turpan propaganda office for letting them film in the shadow of concentration camps. stuff.co.nz/national/30010…