Tibetans, Uyghurs Remember Those Who ‘Disappeared’ at China’s Hands

Rights groups called on the world on Monday to remember the Tibetans, Uyghurs, and members of other groups who have been forcibly “disappeared” at the hands of Chinese authorities, with one rights group estimating disappearances in China’s mainland alone at up to 50,000 in the current year.

In Tibetan areas of China, at least 40 cases of enforced disappearance have been recorded during the last three years, said Dharamsala, India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) in a statement on Aug. 30, the 38th annual International Day of the Disappeared. Victims have included monks and nuns, writers and artists, farmers and community leaders, and students and other intellectuals, TCHRD said in its report, adding that the majority of those disappeared were described by authorities as suspects in cases of “endangering state security” or “disclosing state secrets.”

In one recent case, two residents of the Tachu township in the Nagchu (in Chinese, Naqu) municipality of the Tibet Autonomous Prefecture were detained in 2019 for resisting forced patriotic education during the run-up to the 70th founding anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, TCHRD said.

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