The European Parliament,

-having regard to its previous resolutions of 26 November 2009 on China, minority rights and application of the death penalty, and of 10 March 2011 on the situation and cultural heritage in Kashgar (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), on the cases of the Larung Gar Tibetan Buddhist Academy and Ilham Tohti on 15 December 2016,

-having regard to its report on the state of EU-China relations of 12 September 2018, notably paragraph 55,

-having regard to the 36th round of EU–China dialogue on human rights held in Beijing on 9-10 July 2018,

-having regard to remarks made by the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, at the EP plenary session on 11 September 2018, as well as remarks made in the EEAS press release on 10 July 2018, citing the system of political ‘re-education’ camps in Xinjiang as an issue of particular concern,

-having regard to the concerns expressed at the detention of Uyghurs in ‘re-education’ camps in Xinjiang by the EU’s Item 4 oral statement at the 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council in June 2018, and the Item 4 statements of the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Switzerland,

-having regard for the concerns expressed at the arbitrary detention of Uyghurs in ‘re-education’ camps in Xinjiang by the EU’s Item 4 oral statements at the 39th session of the UN Human Rights Council on 18 September 2018, and the Item 4 statements of the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Finland and Canada,

-having regard to Swedish and German Authorities’ decision to halt deportation of Uyghurs to China due to the significant human rights violations that they would face if returned to the XUAR,

-having regard to remarks in the address made by Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to the 39th session of the UN Human Rights Councilon 10 September 2018, in which she expressed deep concern about the ‘re-education camps’ and asked the Chinese government to admit independent investigators,

-having regard to the concluding observations of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s review of China, on 30 August 2018

-having regard to the recent General Allegation letter sent in May 2018 by the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to the Chinese government expressing their concern about the continued deterioration and worsening of the number of Uyghurs being arbitrarily detained,

-having regard to Article 36 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, which guarantees all citizens the right to freedom of religious belief and to Article 4 that upholds the rights of ‘minority nationalities’,

-having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 16 December 1966,

-having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948,

-having regard to Rule 135(5) and 123(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.whereas since April 2017, when the implementation of the internment camp network began, oppression in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has worsened massively, and the Uyghur diaspora community also began to lose all contact with family and friends living in Xinjiang;

B.whereas from tens of thousands to upwards of a million Uyghurs are being detained in the so-called ‘re-education camps, without any indictment, due process or a fair hearing;

C.Whereas nowhere in the world the population is monitored as strictly as in the XUAR; whereas the provincial government has recruited tens of thousands additional security personnel; 

D.Whereas the Chinese government in equipping the XUAR with state of the art surveillance technology, with omnipresent cameras, iris-scanners and tools and programmes that allow data traffic from wireless networks to be monitored and collected;

E.Whereas data is collected by an ‘integrated joint operations platform’ that also stores further data on the population, including consumer habits, banking activity, health status and the DNA profile of every single inhabitants of the XUAR region; Whereas everyone in the region is supposed to have a spyware app on their mobile phones and failing to install the app is an offense; Whereas anyone with a suspicious data trail can be detained; 

F.Whereas since the spring of 2017, collected information in XUAR has been used to rank citizens’ “trustworthiness” using various criteria; 

G.whereas first-hand testimony and credible academic research have indicated that there is intentional targeting of Uyghurs with ties to people abroad and those with religious beliefs;

H.whereas Uyghurs overseas have been pressured to return to China, often with the support of host states,

I.whereas Chinese embassies abroad have refused to renew many Uyghur passports, leading to insecurities in terms of work and study,

J.whereas detainees are reportedly being held in poor conditions, are subjected to torture, political indoctrination, including mandatory courses in patriotism, and are forced to denounce their ethnic and religious identity;

K.whereas at the UN in Geneva on 13 August 2018 hearing, the Chinese delegation denied the accusations of UN experts of having detained ethnic Uighur Muslims in ‘re-education’ camps in the western region of Xinjiang

L.whereas the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and other UN Special Procedures mandates to send independent investigators to Xinjiang have been routinely denied by the Chinese government;

M.whereas foreign journalists have been pressured to refrain from reporting on sensitive issues like Uyghur human rights and the use of internment camps, including refusal to renew press credentials of some reporters,

1.Demands that the Chinese government immediately release all those who are held in arbitrary or extra-legal detention,

2.Further urges the Chinese government to release the full details of those forcibly disappeared in Xinjiang—including their names, whereabouts and current status;

3.Further calls on the Chinese government to heed the UN Commissioner for Human Right’s call and allow independent investigators into the region;

4.Calls on this issue to be publicly brought up in bilateral meetings and international fora with the Chinese government by the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini;

5.Is deeply concerned by the numerous allegations of poor conditions, torture and deaths inside the camps;

6.Is alarmed by the reported deaths of Muhammad Salih Hajim, Abdulnehed Mehsum, Ayhan Memet and others, all elderly Uyghurs, academics and community leaders in the camps;

7.Is deeply concerned about the increasingly repressive and invasive security and surveillance measures in Xinjiang by the government’s use of high-tech mass surveillance systems; emphasizes that government control and the compulsory mass collection of data of citizens primarily targets and affects Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities, in violation of international law’s prohibition against discrimination;  

8.Is deeply unnerved by China’s Counterterrorism Law (2015) and the Regulation on De-Extremification, which have an overly broad definition of what constitutes terrorist acts; and therefore, calls upon China to clearly differentiate between peaceful dissent and violent extremism;

9.Urges that the Chinese government reauthorize contact between Uyghur communities both within and outside of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;

10.Reminds China of its human rights obligations following its signature of a wide range of international human rights treaties as part of its ongoing efforts to increase its presence on the global stage, and therefore is expected to live up to said commitments;

11.Urges the VP/HR, the EEAS and Member States to more intensely monitor the changing human rights developments in Xinjiang, including the increased government repression of the Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities, and to send a strong message to the highest level of the Chinese government to end the grotesque human rights violations;

12.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, and the Government and the Parliament of the People’s Republic of China.