China was one of the countries where the repression of human rights intensified in 2022, accused Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its annual report, released this Thursday, which points to the confinements imposed to combat Covid-19.
“The Chinese government has tightened restrictions [no âmbito da política de combate à pandemia de] Covid-19, imposing repeated lockdowns on hundreds of millions of people”, in some cases even using “barbed wire, metal bars and large barriers to prevent people from leaving their homes”.
The HRW report notes that, in Sichuan province, “residents were unable to leave their buildings even during an earthquake” and many people denounced that “during the lockdowns – which lasted days or weeks – they had difficulties accessing food and medical care. , which led, in some cases, to death”.
Other examples of human rights abuses in China last year include “violations of privacy, censorship, disruption of livelihoods, and brutality by police and health officials.” [que] kicked or pushed people who resisted the restrictions.”
In Tibet and Xinjiang, the document adds, “residents reported even more draconian controls on [política relativa à] Covid-19 imposed by local authorities that, even before, severely limited rights.
In the year that Xi Jinping won an unprecedented victory for a third term as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party – making him the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Tse Tung – China suffered the most severe heat wave on record for the country. , which caused energy shortages and led the authorities to go back to using coal, says the international organization, warning about the urgency of adopting clean energy policies.
In Hong Kong, too, human rights continued to come under attack, “a downward trajectory that will continue with the appointment of an abusive former police officer, John Lee, as city chief executive.”
The situation in China has become so dire that it has drawn increased international attention to human rights violations by the Chinese government.
In protest, “eight governments agreed to carry out a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics,” and in June, under the forced labor prevention law, the United States banned the import of goods from Xinjiang because it was likely that they were produced by forced labor imposed on the Uyghur minority.
In August, the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, released a report on Xinjiang that concluded that abuses in the region “may constitute crimes against humanity.”
Censorship has become commonplace in Hong Kong, and the region’s universities have helped Beijing crack down on students, obstructing the operations of student groups and even not recognizing or refusing to collect membership fees. .
Despite the deteriorating situation in the former British colony, “Hong Kong people continued to risk arrest for protesting”: on June 4, “many people publicly commemorated the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre” and, “In September, hundreds gathered outside the British Consulate to mourn the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II,” the report said.
Source: TSF
