CHINA’S TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION AGAINST UYGHURS

Year 2024, Volume: 7 Issue: 13, 26 - 48, 25.01.2024

Yalkun Uluyol

https://doi.org/10.59114/dasad.1388799

Abstract

How does the Chinese government control and monitor its citizens beyond its borders? The present article seeks to answer this question by focusing on threats and intimidations faced by the Uyghur diaspora in Türkiye and aims to improve scholarly understanding of the methods of transnational repression. The study explores the mechanisms of China’s transnational repression and patterns in the experiences of the targets. Close examination of relevant studies on the transnational repression of the Chinese government and in-depth interviews with the Uyghur targets living in Türkiye show that Chinese state-sponsored actors use digital channels or direct phone calls to harass the Uyghurs living abroad. In most cases, targets’ families back home are involved as intermediaries in the coercion or subjects of punishment if the target refuses to “collaborate.” Results from the interviews reveal that Chinese state agencies at home and abroad, such as neighborhood working groups, police, embassies, and consulates, are involved in transnational repression.

Keywords

Transnational Repression, Uyghur, China, Türkiye, Diaspora

ÇİN’İN UYGURLARA KARŞI ULUSÖTESİ BASKISI

Abstract

Çin hükümeti sınırlarının ötesindeki vatandaşlarını nasıl kontrol ediyor ve izliyor? Bu makale, Türkiye'deki Uygur diasporasının karşılaştığı tehdit ve şantajlara odaklanarak bu soruyu yanıtlamayı ve ulusötesi baskı yöntemlerine ilişkin bilimsel katkı sunmayı amaçlamaktadır. Çalışma, Çin'in ulusötesi baskı mekanizmalarını ve hedeflerin deneyimlerindeki örgeleri araştırmaktadır. Çin hükümetinin ulusötesi baskılarına ilişkin ilgili çalışmaların yakından incelenmesi ve Türkiye'de yaşayan Uygur mağdurlarıyla yapılan derinlemesine görüşmeler, Çin devleti destekli aktörlerin yurtdışında yaşayan Uygurları taciz etmek için dijital kanalları veya doğrudan telefon bağlantısını kullandığını göstermektedir. Mağdurun "iş birliği yapmayı" reddettiği çoğu durumda, memleketindeki aileleri, baskı aracı olarak kullanılmakta veya yaptırıma maruz kalmaktadır. Görüşmelerden elde edilen sonuçlar, mahalle çalışma grupları, polis, büyükelçilikler ve konsolosluklar gibi Çin'in yurtiçi ve yurtdışındaki devlet kurumlarının ulusötesi baskıya dahil olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır.

Keywords

Ulusötesi Baskı, Uygur, Çin, Türkiye, Diaspora

References

• Abushammalah, N. J. E. (2023). The Long Arm of the State: Transnational Repression against Exiled Activists from the Arab Gulf States. Social Sciences, 12(12), 669.
• Adamson, F., & Tsourapas, G. (2020). At home and abroad: Coercion-by-proxy as a tool of Transnational Repression.
• Beydulla, M. (2019). Experiences of Uyghur migration to Turkey and the United States: Issues of religion, law, society, residence, and citizenship. In Migration and Islamic Ethics (pp. 174–195). Brill.
• Byler, D. (2021). Producing the Uyghur “Terrorist-Worker” through Digital Surveillance in Northwest China: Features. Anthropology Now, 13(3), 1–15.
• Clarke, M. (2021). Settler colonialism and the path toward cultural genocide in Xinjiang. Global Responsibility to Protect, 13(1), 9–19.
• Dukalskis, A., Furstenberg, S., Hellmeier, S., & Scales, R. (2023). The Long Arm and the Iron Fist: Authoritarian Crackdowns and Transnational Repression. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 00220027231188896.
• Eliküçük Yıldırım, N. (2021). Rigid boundaries between Turkey and China: is political mobility possible? Turkish Studies, 22(1), 28–48.
• Finley, J. S. (2022). Tabula rasa: Han settler colonialism and frontier genocide in “re-educated” Xinjiang. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 12(2), 341–356.
• Furstenberg, S., Lemon, E., & Heathershaw, J. (2021). Spatialising state practices through transnational repression. European Journal of International Security, 6(3), 358–378.
• Home - Uyghur Tribunal. (n.d.). Retrieved November 8, 2023, from https://uyghurtribunal.com/ Jardine, B. (2022). Great Wall of Steel: China’s Global Campaign to Suppress the Uyghurs. Wilson Center.
• Karluk, A. C. (2018). Uyghur Refugees living in Turkey and their problems. Exchange of Experiences for the Future: Japanese and Turkish Humanitarian Aid and Support Activities in Conflict Zones, 86–98.
• Klimeš, O. (2020). China’s Xinjiang propaganda and united front work in Turkey: actors and content. Monde Chinois, 2, 44–71.
• Klimeš, O., & Finley, J. S. (2020). China’s neo-totalitarian turn and genocide in Xinjiang. Society and Space, 7. Köprülü, T. (2021). Türkiye–Çin Halk Cumhuriyeti Suçluların İadesi Andlaşmasına Dair Hukuki Bir Değerlendirme. Journal of Penal Law and Criminology, 9(1), 85–133.
• Lemon, E., Jardine, B., & Hall, N. (2023). Globalizing minority persecution: China’s transnational repression of the Uyghurs. Globalizations, 20(4), 564–580.
• Lewis, D. (2015). “Illiberal Spaces:” Uzbekistan’s extraterritorial security practices and the spatial politics of contemporary authoritarianism. Nationalities Papers, 43(1), 140–159.
• Michaelsen, M., & Ruijgrok, K. (2023). Autocracy’s long reach: explaining host country influences on transnational repression. Democratization, 1–25.
• Michaelsen, M., & Thumfart, J. (2023). Drawing a line: Digital transnational repression against political exiles and host state sovereignty. European Journal of International Security, 8(2), 151–171.
• Moss, D. M., Michaelsen, M., & Kennedy, G. (2022). Going after the family: Transnational repression and the proxy punishment of Middle Eastern diasporas. Global Networks, 22(4), 735–751.
• Murphy, L., Salcito, K., Uluyol, Y., & Rabkin, M. (2022). Driving Force: Automotive Supply Chains and Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region.
• No Space Left to Run: China’s Transnational Repression of Uyghurs - Uyghur Human Rights Project. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2023, from https://uhrp.org/report/no-space-left-to-run-chinas-transnational-repression-of-uyghurs/
• Nowhere feels safe - Amnesty International. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2023, from https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2020/02/china-uyghurs-abroad-living-in-fear/
• OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China | OHCHR. (n.d.). Retrieved November 8, 2023, from https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ohchr-assessment-human-rights-concerns-xinjiang-uyghur-autonomous-region
• Öniş, Z., & Yalikun, M. (2021). Emerging partnership in a post-Western world? The political economy of China-Turkey relations. Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 21(4), 507–529.
• Roberts, S. R. (2021). The war on the Uyghurs. In The war on the Uyghurs. Manchester University Press. Ruser, N. (2020). Tracing the destruction of Uyghur and Islamic spaces in Xinjiang. Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
• Schenkkan, N., & Linzer, I. (2021). Out of sight, not out of reach: the global scale and scope of transnational repression.
• Shain, Y. (2010). The frontier of loyalty: Political exiles in the age of the nation-state. University of Michigan Press. Smith Finley, J. (2021). Why scholars and activists increasingly fear a Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang. Journal of Genocide Research, 23(3), 348–370.
• Tobin, D. (2020). A “Struggle of Life or Death”: Han and Uyghur Insecurities on China’s North-West Frontier. The China Quarterly, 242, 301–323.
• Tobin, D., & Elima, N. (2023). “We know you better than you know yourself”: China’s transnational repression of the Uyghur diaspora.
• Topal, R. (2023). A Techno-Docility Approach to the Repression and Surveillance of Uyghurs. Asian Survey, 1–25. Tsourapas, G. (2021). Global autocracies: Strategies of transnational repression, legitimation, and co-optation in world politics. International Studies Review, 23(3), 616–644.
• Tsourapas, G. (2022). Practices of Transnational Repression in World Politics. Routledge International Handbook of Diaspora Diplomacy.
• Turdush, R., & Fiskesjö, M. (2021). Dossier: Uyghur Women in China’s Genocide. Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal, 15(1), 6.
• Uluyol, Y. (2023). Targeted in Türkiye: China’s Transnational Repression Against Uyghurs.
• Üngör, Ç. (2022). China Is Playing by Turkey’s Media Rules.
• Waller, J., & Albornoz, M. S. (2021). Crime and No Punishment? China’s Abuses Against the Uyghurs. Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 22(1), 100–111.
• “Your Family Will Suffer”: How China is Hacking, Surveilling, and Intimidating Uyghurs in Liberal Democracies – The Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2023, from https://oxussociety.org/your-family-will-suffer-how-china-is-hacking-surveilling-and-intimidating-uyghurs-in-liberal-democracies/
• Zenz, A. (2020). Sterilizations, IUDs, and Mandatory Birth Control: The CCP’s Campaign to Suppress Uyghur Birthrates in Xinjiang. Jamestown Foundation Washington, DC.