Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Independent Group for tabling this motion. I, too, was in the privileged position to visit Taiwan. In the lead-up to the visit, I spent a lot of time doing research, especially in the areas of interest to me. While looking into the education system in Taiwan, I became aware of the Sunflower Student Movement, about which I read with great interest. It was a wave of youth activism that swept across Taipei in March 2014 in opposition to a planned free trade pact with China. It was led by students and academics. The movement pushed back against the pact, which they understood was an attempt by Beijing to insert itself into Taiwan and control its economy. They correctly viewed the pact as a way for the Chinese Government to subvert politics and control Taiwan through its economy. China was in effect arming itself with the threat that should Taiwan descent to a Chinese policy, it could collapse Taiwan's economy overnight. The students spotted the pattern. They saw the pact for what it was, namely, another attempt by China to take control of Taiwan, maybe not by armed force but by economic threat.

The movement came to a head when, having occupied the legislative chamber for half a month, the students' demands were met. Taiwan established a law requiring the supervision of cross-strait agreements before passing legislation. This law, which was subsequently signed by all Taiwanese lawmakers, represents more than its procedures. It represents Taiwan's assertion of its independence. This independence is under threat. On Monday, Taiwan had to scramble fighters as 27 Chinese airforce planes entered Taiwan airspace, five of which were nuclear capable bombers. There is no doubt this was an act of warfare. As Taiwan's defence minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, put it, this was an attempt by the Chinese Government to let Taiwan know who has the power.

I have listened to today's debate and if I were a member of the Chinese Government or a decision maker looking in, I would not be too worried because every time Senators spoke about human rights abuse, they prefaced their remarks by referring to positive trade relationships. It already gives a hand over if we say we will criticise China's human rights abuses while also drawing attention to trade arrangements. To be honest, no one will be worried by what we are saying today. We should not preface comments on human rights abuses with references to trade agreements. That completely undermines the severity of what people are experiencing in China. One of the communities Senators have referred to is the Uighur Muslim community. This issue is not new but in recent years, it has reached unprecedented levels.

In February this year, the BBC published a report on the systematic rape of female detainees in Chinese re-education camps. Former detainees and escapees recounted that organised mass rape is regularly perpetrated by Chinese police personnel. One account was by a woman named Ziawudun, who fled Xinjiang after her release and is now in the US. She recalls women being removed from the cells every night and raped by one or more masked Chinese men. She said she was tortured and later gang-raped on three occasions, each time by two or three men. She also recounted being physically abused, including being bitten by Chinese officials. A woman who slept near Ziawudun in the cell, who said she had been detained for giving birth to too many children, disappeared for three days and when she returned her body was covered in the same bite marks. We also know from testimony submitted to the Uyghur Human Rights Project that women are subject to barbaric forms of torture, including electrocution while also being sexually abused.

An article in The Art Newspaperreads:

Ethan Gutmann, an award-winning China analyst who has researched transplant abuse in the country for nearly two decades, told the [Uyghur] tribunal [that took place in London] that satellite images show crematoriums built close to prison camps so that bodies can be burned after operations to remove organs. He estimates that between 25,000 and 50,000 Uyghurs are being killed for their organs every year and that this is "overwhelming crematoria facilities near camps,” Gutmann said.

Crimes for which people can be sentenced to years of imprisonment in the detention camps include praying regularly; reciting an Islamic verse at a funeral; giving children names of Islamic origin; teaching the Koran to one's children; attending a mosque; possessing religious content, such as Islamic verses, on mobile phones; practising Islamic burial rites such as washing deceased bodies according to Islamic custom; and wearing the hijab.

In June 2021, Amnesty International published a report documenting how Uighurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang face systematic state-organised mass imprisonment, torture and persecution, all of which amount to crimes against humanity. In addition, the US has recently joined several countries, including Canada and the Netherlands, in accusing China of committing genocide, defined by the United Nations genocide convention as the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group".

Despite the ongoing abused of Uighur Muslims, it would be wrong to say that their treatment is unexpected. China has long shown a pattern of attacking those who it perceives as threatening the ideology of the state, even if it is just one individual.I call on everyone here today to be strong when they call out human rights abuses and to focus on what is in the motion, namely, human rights abuses, and not preface them as a way to buffer the severity of what people are experiencing in China today.