cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/56159234
Op-ed by Reza Hasmath, Professor in Political Science, University of Alberta, Canada.
On July 1, China brought into force its Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, converting a decade of Xi Jinping’s doctrine of “forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation” into binding law.
Most attention has gone to its domestic machinery: entrenching Mandarin over minority languages, unified state textbooks and “inter-embedded” neighbourhoods engineered to dilute concentrations of Uyghurs and Tibetans among the Han majority. In other words, this is an assimilationist project that’s already far advanced.
The provision that matters most to the world outside China is buried near the end. Article 63 declares that organizations and individuals outside Chinese territory who “undermine ethnic unity” or “create ethnic division” shall be pursued for legal liability.
The Chinese government is therefore asserting, in statute, that its authority follows its critics across oceans into other countries, including Canada, home to some of the world’s largest Chinese, Uyghur and Tibetan diaspora communities. The danger is not that the law reaches across borders. It is what it criminalizes, whom it targets and how it’s enforced.
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The intimidation inherent in the new law already violates many domestic harassment and foreign interference laws in jurisdictions around the world. Prosecutors, here, should use them against the agents carrying out the coercion, not the exiles who are its victims.
Governments should shut the unlicensed “police stations,” and press Interpol to reject politically motivated notices aimed at diaspora activists.
Governments can also build dedicated channels for those targeted: a clear law enforcement contact, protective guidance for Chinese and minority diaspora communities and training for officers who could mistake transnational repression for an ordinary domestic dispute.
Finally, asylum systems should treat Article 63 as evidence: a statute in which China announces that diaspora advocacy invites retaliation is close to proof of persecution for those seeking to flee.
China has every right to legislate for its own territory and citizens. What it cannot legitimately do, however warmly it speaks of unity, is disregard borders. The task for all nations, Canada included, is to insist, in law and in practice, that borders still exist.
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I imagine that if you did that, there’d probably be, you know,
evidence.Maybe my neighbor is doing exactly what you said. I guess I should just call in a SWAT team to kick in his door based on that possibility.
You’re just a Republican shouting fake news at stories you don’t like.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_police_overseas_service_stations
I just really feel like you haven’t actually read the article, or at least applied any critical thought to it. The article doesn’t contain even allegations of kidnapping and imprisonment, just harassment, and, well, I think the quote speaks for itself. This is what people mean when they say your sinophobia isn’t actually based in any evidence, just fear mongering.
Republican is when anyone disagrees with you for literally any reason. There are two types of people on planet Earth: people who think exactly the same way as you, huff your farts, and agree with every single word that comes out of your mouth, and Republicans.
God, y’all are insufferable.
Meanwhile, you’re out here actually falling for the same kind of obvious bullshit your Red MAGA counterparts do, but it’s about the evil foreign CCP rather than Planned Parenthood or ACORN so that makes you totally different.
fart noises