The Chinese regime redoubled repression and censorship in 2021 and used its ‘zero tolerance’ policy against COVID-19 to further strengthen its authority, highlights this Thursday the annual report of the NGO Human Rights Watch, which also denounces the “destruction” of civil liberties in Hong Kong.
“The Government redoubled the repression in 2021 and used its policy of ‘zero tolerance’ against the covid to strengthen its authority, imposing very harsh measures in the name of public health,” indicates the organization based in New York.
Specific, HRW cites arrests of citizens after criticizing the communist regime for its policies to contain the pandemic, with more than 600 arrests for “disturbing public order” and “seeking a fight and provoking altercations.”
The NGO also denounces “Abusive tactics” by local authorities to force citizens to get vaccinated against COVID with the aim of fattening inoculated statistics.
It also expresses its concern for citizen Zhang Zhan, sentenced to four years in prison for disseminating information about the situation in Wuhan after the outbreak of the pandemic, and that in 2021 he became seriously ill when starting a hunger strike.
Another “citizen reporter” who also reported on the early stages of the pandemic, Fang Bin, remains unaccounted for after being arrested in April 2020, HRW reports.
In 2021, the NGO notes, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “extended the punishment of activists,” among them those who try to defend human rights, labor lawyers and journalists.
They also reveal increased censorship and disinformation spread through the networks to the point that “The Internet is now dominated by pro-government voices who denounce to the authorities those who express points of view that are not considered nationalist enough ”.
A growing number of people were punished for criticizing the Army on the Internet, according to HRW, while continuing an intense campaign to “promote socialist values” that led to the virtual ostracism of dozens of celebrities or the approval of guidelines for the audiovisual sector do not show “effeminate” men.
The NGO accuses Beijing of promoting a conservative agenda, with less space for the LGBT community -with dozens of censored social media accounts- or so that women can defend their rights, matters that have become even more “sensitive”.
HONG KONG AND XINJIANG, FOCUS OF THE CRITICS
Regarding Hong Kong, the NGO denounces that local and central authorities took “aggressive” measures to “destroy” civil liberties.
Among them, “arbitrary arrests of pro-democracy activists” whom he accused of subversion, citing more than 150 people who were arrested for violating any of the assumptions of the Security Law that Beijing imposed in 2020 for the former British colony.
“Hong Kong had semi-democratic institutions and now they are mere approvers of what is decided in Beijing. Dozens of civil society organizations had to disband in 2021. They also attacked freedom of the press, ”asserts the report, which also highlights censorship in the cultural and educational spheres.
In the Xinjiang region, which has an ethnic Uighur majority, the NGO reiterates that the Chinese authorities committed practices such as arbitrary detentions, torture, forced disappearances, mass surveillance, separation of families, forced returns to China, forced labor, sexual violence and rape. of reproductive rights.
According to the NGO, all this is “a crime against humanity.”
Beijing has always denied all the allegations, although HRW criticizes that the authorities have tried to further limit access to the region during the last year of the pandemic.
HRW also criticizes the situation in Tibet, stating that the right to religious freedom has been severely restricted, and that Tibetans accused of “undermining national unity” have been detained.
Likewise, the report criticizes the lack of transparency or the environmental impact of the New Silk Roads initiative, as well as the absence of effective policies for the country to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming.
The “hostage diplomacy” carried out with the arrest of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, finally released from China at the same time as Huawei’s financial director, Meng Wuanzhou, was returning to the Asian country after their arrest in Canada at the request of the United States, which demanded his extradition.
Finally, China’s assertive foreign policy, says HRW, caused the “negative perception of the country” to increase considerably in 2021, and warns that their investments may be causing debt traps in developing countries.
(With information from EFE)
KEEP READING:
The Chinese regime sentenced three people accused of causing 83 infections of COVID-19 at work to four years in prison
A report alerts on the interference of Russia, Iran and China behind the new socialist wave in Latin America
Human Rights Watch asked to “immediately” annul the order of the President of Kazakhstan to “shoot to kill”
Source-www.infobae.com