Friday, March 29, 2024

China is Suing Academics Who Criticize Their Forced Sterilization and Labor Camps.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is supporting lawsuits – purportedly from companies and individuals in the Xinjiang province – against Dr. Adrian Zenz, a German researcher and Senior Fellow in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC).

The VOC claims:

The lawsuit, filed by Beijing-controlled courts, follows the extensive research published by Dr. Zenz detailing the systematic persecution of Uyghurs and other minorities in the Xinjiang region, including subjecting them to forced sterilization and forced labor—crimes unthinkable in the 21st century. This evidence is derived directly from official Chinese government documents.

Zenz’s research has focused on such topics as minority labor transfers in China as a scheme to reduce Uyghur population density, as well as forced labor in the Xinjiang cotton-picking industry, which prompted the U.S. government to ban all imports of cotton and tomatoes from Xinjiang. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo highlighted one of Zenz’s reports on evidence of measures intended to limit births among Uyghur women.

Legal Analysis of China v. Zenz Lawsuit.

Donald C. Clarke, a law professor at George Washington University specializing in Chinese law, provided legal analysis:

Unidentified companies from Xinjiang have—no doubt at state direction—filed a lawsuit in a Xinjiang court against researcher Adrian Zenz. This is a civil suit seeking compensation for damages allegedly caused by Zenz’s published research regarding crimes against humanity and arguably genocide being committed in Xinjiang by the Chinese state and its agents . . . There is little doubt that the plaintiffs will win in China. But what can they do with their victory? Nothing, unless they can enforce it in a jurisdiction where Zenz has assets.

Attacks On Zenz In Chinese State Media.

The Chinese government has orchestrated an online smear campaign against Zenz, running stories in state-controlled media outlets like “Xinjiang think tank unveils Adrian Zenz as swindler under academic disguise.”

“Adrian Zenz is actually a far-right fundamentalist Christian and evangelical zealot,” reads a China Daily “analysis of American interference in Xinjiang affairs.” CGTN published an option piece on “Six lies in Adrian Zenz’s Xinjiang report of ‘genocide.'”

Chinese government officials have name-checked Zenz on Twitter, calling him a “liar.” Chinese reports frequently attribute their allegations against Zenz to “The Grayzone,” a website with ties to Russian state propaganda, whose Xinjiang denialism generates engagement from Chinese diplomatic Twitter accounts.

The news came shortly after the Biden regime promised to review the Trump-era policies of heaping pressure on the CCP for their systematic oppression of the predominantly Muslim population in Xinjiang.

WATCH: Dr. Adrian Zenz reveals Xinjiang pipeline from internment camp to factory labor.

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