2022-11-30
The following is from a special roundtable discussion published in the January 2023 issue of the monthly magazine WiLL, released on November 25, 2022, under the title “I Want to Curse It to Death—Xi Jinping’s Dictatorship!”, featuring four participants: Tomoko Ako, Professor at the University of Tokyo; Lumei Tan, writer; Yi Yang, writer; and Yanzi Liu, scholar of Chinese literature.
As I have mentioned repeatedly, WiLL and Hanada cost just 980 yen despite being packed with substantive articles!
It is no exaggeration whatsoever to say that they are currently the finest monthly magazines in the world.
This article is essential reading not only for every Japanese citizen but also for people throughout the world.
It is essential reading for everyone, young and old, men and women, and especially for all young people.
Some passages already foreshadowed the developments now taking place in China.
Emphasis within the text, other than in the headings, is mine.
Japan, Too, Will Be Placed Under Surveillance
Liu
Totalitarianism in Nazi Germany ended after twelve years, and the Soviet communist regime after seventy years, but in China’s case, unless the Communist Party changes its fundamental nature, the number of victims will continue to grow indefinitely.
What is frightening is that the sinister reach of China’s surveillance extends throughout the world.
We are discussing this now in a safe place in Japan, but Japan will not necessarily remain safe forever.
Recently, the major Chinese surveillance camera manufacturer Dahua Technology entered the Japanese market for the first time, but if the police and private security companies use its cameras because they are inexpensive, our facial data and location information will leak freely to the Chinese side.
Japan, too, will thus be placed under Chinese surveillance.
Yang
That is not all.
According to the international human rights organization Safeguard Defenders, China has established an unofficial “police organization” in the Netherlands.
Spain, Canada, Sweden… these “police organizations” are spreading throughout the world.
Tan
Those “police organizations,” or rather “public security agencies” that conduct political activities behind the scenes, also exist in Japan….
Although it has not received much news coverage, there have been numerous cases in which the Chinese government, under such names as “Fox Hunt,” has threatened or abducted Chinese dissidents and people from Tibet and Mongolia, or used persuasive deception to lure them to third countries with extradition treaties, where they are detained and forcibly taken back to China.
The human rights organization mentioned earlier reports that approximately 2,500 people were forcibly returned over the past two years, and that the number reached 10,000 over the eight years since 2014.
It also reports that more than 600 Taiwanese people arrested overseas between 2016 and 2019 were forcibly deported to China rather than Taiwan.
Particularly among countries in Africa and Asia, many comply with forcible deportations in accordance with the Chinese government’s wishes in exchange for financial assistance from it.
Yang
People who would have received ten years in prison under Taiwanese law are instead receiving life sentences or death sentences because they have been tried under Chinese law.
This, too, is unquestionably a human rights issue.
Tan
Fortunately, Japan has not concluded an extradition treaty with China, but there are cases in which the Japanese government, wishing to avoid trouble, voluntarily hands people over and considers the matter “swiftly resolved.”
Liu
Eiji Suzuki, chairman of the Japan-China Youth Exchange Association, was detained by the Chinese authorities for approximately six years on allegations of espionage and returned to Japan on October 11, 2020, after completing his sentence.
In an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun, he testified, “During the [first] seven months, I saw the sun for only about fifteen minutes.”
Ako
He is speaking after signing a pledge with the Chinese government specifying “how much he is allowed to say,” so he must have been subjected to even worse treatment.
I myself have been detained in China three times; I was interrogated with the interrogators pounding the desk, held overnight, and questioned exhaustively about my research project.
Tan
They are said to exercise restraint toward foreigners, but even so, foreigners are subjected to harsh treatment.
According to an announcement by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sixteen Japanese nationals have been detained by the Chinese authorities since May 2015, and ten have been indicted.
Of those, nine have received final, unsuspended prison sentences ranging from three to fifteen years.
Four are still serving their sentences, and one died while in prison.
Ako
Surveillance and detention are not problems affecting only Chinese people, so Japanese people should be more vigilant.
Tan
China already asserts that “foreigners who break the law will be punished under Chinese law.”
In the future, we could even see cases of Japanese people being abducted from Japan and taken away, or invited on trips to China and then detained.
To be continued.