A young Chinese woman is sounding the alarm on a Chinese-run secret facility for Uyghurs in Dubai, where she was detained for up to eight days. She claims that she and two other Uyghurs were taken to a "black site" in Dubai, where she was questioned and threatened.
The Associate Press reported that Wu Huan, a 26 year old woman was on the run in Dubai to escape extradition in China because her fiancé, Wang Jingyu, was a targeted Chinese dissident. Chinese authorities took her from a hotel in Dubai to a villa that appeared to be converted into a prison, where she found two other Uyghur detainees.
Wu said she was questioned, threatened, and forced to sign legal documents that falsely accused her fiancé of harassing her. She was held for up to eight days and was released on June 8. Wu is now seeking asylum in the Netherlands.
According to CBN News, Wu and Wang are not Uyghur Muslims but that the latter is wanted by Chinese police for the messages he posted online about Chinese media coverage of the Hong Kong protests in 2019. This is not unheard of, as Chinese police continue their national anti-corruption campaign, fighting against dissidents, activists, and religious minorities in, and now apparently, outside of, China.
Unsurprisingly, the Chinese Foreign Ministry denied reports of secret jails for Uyghurs in Dubai. Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Monday that the reports were "not true." This was corroborated by Dubai officials, who said that Wu departed Dubai with her friend three months ago.
"Dubai does not detain any foreign nationals without following internationally accepted procedures and local law enforcement processes, nor does it allow foreign governments to run any detention centers within its borders," Dubai officials said in a statement.
"Dubai also follows all recognized global norms and procedures set by international organizations like Interpol in the detainment, interrogation and transfer of fugitives sought by foreign governments."
China has undertaken different ways to bring home dissenters and Uyghurs who have fled the country. Whether by pressuring the families they left behind or signing extradition treaties, the communist state manages to get ahold of their wanted citizens. According to the Uyghur Human Rights Project, 89 Uyghurs were deported from other countries between 1997 to 2009. From 2014, the number has increased to 1,327.
The worst part is how other countries, such as neighboring Pakistan, have no choice but to cooperate with the communist state. Vice reported in May that Pakistan has a $62 billion economic project hanging over their heads, a figure that is made up of several loans from China to fund infrastructure, power plants, telecommunications, and schools. The CPEC or China Pakistan Economic Corridor is what keeps Pakistan in check when it comes to China.
Niaz Ghafoor, an Uyghur man who fled China to seek refuge in Pakistan, said, "The Pakistani government will do anything China orders them to do. Uyghurs are suffering so much because of CPEC." The Pakistan authorities have already threatened to deport Ghafoor and his entire family back to China, where they would be sent to camps.
