Federal Minister of Finance: “There must be no velvet paws due to our economic interests.”
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin FDP leader Christian Lindner was appalled by the new photos and documents in the Xinjiang Police Files. “The pictures from China are shocking. We have to address Chinese officials about the human rights situation on all occasions,” the finance minister told Handelsblatt.
The pictures impressively show how brutally China oppresses the Uyghur minority in the Xinjiang region. The recordings are part of a comprehensive leak that the “Spiegel” or the Bayerische Rundfunk (BR) evaluated with other media partners. The “Xinjiang Police Files” contain information about around 300,000 Chinese registered by the authorities, mostly Uyghurs.
FDP leader Lindner urges that human rights violations be clearly addressed. “There shouldn’t be any patties based on our economic interests,” he said. Against this background, the enormous dependence of the German economy on the Chinese market is particularly depressing.
For the Federal Minister of Finance, it is therefore “also a requirement of economic wisdom to quickly differentiate our economic relationships”. It’s not about withdrawing from the Chinese market. But other markets would have to become relatively more important.
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For Lindner, it would be more than a symbol if the CETA free trade agreement with Canada was ratified immediately. “Here I encourage my Green coalition partner. Our words must be followed by deeds,” he demanded. Talks must be started immediately with other value partners such as the USA in order to further deepen trade relations”.
At times more than a million people held in camps
The leak also includes photos from inside Chinese re-education camps. According to the BR, a series shows how security forces armed with wooden clubs lead away a prisoner in handcuffs and ankle cuffs. The man wears a black sack over his head and, at the end of the series of photos, is sitting in a so-called tiger chair – a special chair that, according to the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, is used for torture in Chinese prisons. Other images show security forces with assault rifles.
Read here: People’s Republic of the Missing – How China makes people disappear
According to experts, a million Uyghurs were temporarily held in camps in the autonomous region of Xinjiang. In recent years, internal government documents have repeatedly been made public. Since then, some camps have apparently been closed, while others continue to exist. According to experts, the government in Beijing is pursuing a rigorous policy of assimilation towards the Muslim minority. Beijing rejects all allegations.
More: The US government is considering unprecedented sanctions against China’s surveillance group Hikvision