REPRESSION OF DISSENT There were ongoing concerns about the repression of dissent overseas, including pressure by the Chinese authorities on other countries to forcibly repatriate Chinese nationals who faced arbitrary detention, torture and other human rights violations if returned. In July, human rights lawyer Lu Siwei was detained by police in Laos and forcibly repatriated to China in September where he was detained for several weeks. Although released on bail, Lu Siwei’s freedom of movement and expression remained severely restricted.6 In July, the family of Yang Zewei were informed that he was detained in a juvenile detention centre in Hunan’s Hengyang city. This followed reports that he was arrested in Laos in May after launching an online campaign to end internet censorship in China. ETHNIC AUTONOMOUS REGIONS XINJIANG UYGHUR AUTONOMOUS REGION Amnesty International found no evidence of progress in implementing recommendations contained in the OHCHR’s 2022 report which documented possible crimes against humanity against members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. In September, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called again for “strong remedial action”. In the meantime, systematic repression of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and those from other predominantly Muslim ethnic minority groups continued and impunity remained entrenched. During a visit to Urumqi in August, President Xi called on local authorities to strengthen curbs on “illegal religious activities”. Up to 1 million people had been arbitrarily detained in internment camps and prisons since the crackdown began in 2017 and there were further detentions and unfair trials in 2023. In June, a court in Urumqi sentenced Uyghur student Zulyar Yasin to 15 years’ imprisonment for “separatism”. In July, his mother, Rahile Jalalidin, was taken away 130 by the police after protesting about her son’s sentence. In February, state security police detained ethnic Kazakh journalist and artist Zhanargul Zhumatai from her mother’s home in Urumqi after she communicated with contacts overseas and spoke out against the appropriation of land from Kazakh herder communities around Urumqi for the construction of roads and hydropower electricity projects. Zhanargul Zhumatai was previously detained for over two years in an internment camp, where she developed heart problems reportedly due to lack of medical care. The use of forced labour of Uyghurs continued to be reported by independent researchers and media sources. In September, an ILO delegation visited Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to hold “technical discussions” about the implementation of ILO Conventions 29 and 105 relating to forced labour and ratified by China in 2022. TIBET The extent of discrimination against and restrictions of the rights of Tibetans increasingly undermined their cultural identity and language. In February, five UN experts wrote to the Chinese government raising concerns about labour transfer programmes under which millions of rural Tibetans were allegedly removed from their homes and traditional livelihoods and placed in low skilled, low paid manufacturing jobs. The experts noted that the practice may negatively affect Tibetan minority languages, cultural practices and religion, and could amount to trafficking of persons for forced labour. In March, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights raised concerns about the negative impact of poverty alleviation schemes and resettlement, ostensibly to enable ecological restoration, on the lives and livelihoods of small-scale farmers and herders, including Tibetan nomads. The Committee urged an immediate halt to non-voluntary resettlement and relocation of these communities. It also The State of the World’s Human Rights