World Uyghur Congress opposes Chinese president Xi Jinping's visit to Europe

Xi Jinping. Pic/AFP

A Uyghur rights advocacy organisation, the World Uyghur Congress, released a statement opposing the ongoing Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Europe, claiming that China's deepening ties with Russia are ignorance of the human rights abuses inflicted by China on the Uyghur community.

Chinese President Xi Jinping made his six-day visit to Europe, marking his first trip to the continent since 2019, with the exception of his trip last year to Russia.

"Despite recent developments within Europe, including arrests and charges related to Chinese espionage, as well as China's deepening ties with Russia, European countries exhibit varying degrees of concern amid increasing views of China as a 'systemic rival'. Xi's trip aims to address criticism while highlighting areas that remain receptive to Chinese influence," the WUC said on Sunday.

WUC president Dolkun Isa said, "France must raise the continuous human rights abuses committed by the Chinese regime inside East Turkistan, Tibet, and Hong Kong, as well as across Europe, with China's growing transnational repression". He also mentioned that "the Uyghur genocide must be raised publicly by the French President Emmanuel Macron, urging Xi Jinping to end the ongoing erasure of our people, reflecting the resolution adopted by the Assemble Nationale recognizing the Uyghur genocide."

The statement read, "In France, the increasing trade deficit of the EU with China, as well as the war in Ukraine, will be on the agenda in the presidential meeting. Whereas particularly in Serbia and Hungary, the growing investment ties with China and the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade by NATO on May 7, 1999, will contribute significantly to Beijing's enduring mistrust of NATO."

As per WUC statement, "The World Uyghur Congress opposes the openness displayed by Europe towards the People's Republic of China (PRC) and its leader, Xi Jinping. Particularly, Hungary's position blocking the discussion on China's human rights abuses and the Uyghur genocide is of concern, as well as the recent news on the China-Europe Railway Express, a train set to transport agricultural goods produced by Uyghur forced labour which left East Turkistan for Salerno, Italy on May 3."

"In light of the EU forced labour regulation and due diligence directive, products made by forced labour, produced inside and outside the EU, and companies involved in these violations through their supply chains face bigger scrutiny. Yet, one thing significantly missing is the focus on Uyghur forced labour," the statement added.

"France should nevertheless raise China's state-import forced labour scheme and advocate for a strengthening of the EU's trade tools against these violations. The WUC furthermore calls on Macron and Ursula von der Leyen President of the European Commission to explicitly raise Beijing's abuses against Tibetans, Hong Kongers, and Uyghurs and take a strong stance against the CCP's growing transnational repression, which endangers the lives of the community's diaspora and the security and sovereignty of European nations" the statement by WUC said.

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