We, Uyghurs and Hongkongers living in Ireland, are calling on the Taoiseach Micheál Martin and the Tánaiste Simon Harris to adopt a human-rights-based approach in your discussions with the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday, and demand concrete actions with respect to acts of transnational repression, genocide, and politically-motivated imprisonment perpetrated by the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

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We would like to draw the Irish Government's urgent attention to the pattern of Chinese state surveillance and harassment of members of diaspora communities residing in Ireland. It is a matter of Ireland’s security as much as it is about the security of person and freedoms of speech, of thought, of assembly being impeded on Irish soil when it comes to dissidents of the Chinese state.

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We do not feel safe even after years of settling here. We do not feel we can openly exercise our right to protest, for fear of retribution by the regime to our family members back home or within Ireland itself, or to lose our chance to visit our homelands, if the Government’s failure to address clandestine activities by the PRC means that individual dissidents and their families could be identified and harassed by the Chinese state.

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In 2024, the European Parliament responded to calls to tackle threats of transnational repression within the EU as ‘a matter of priority’. China has been identified by researchers as one of the countries employing transnational repression against members of the Uyghur, Hongkonger, Tibetan and Taiwanese communities.

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In 2019, the threat of transnational repression against people residing in Ireland was first exposed by the Irish Times, who revealed that members of the Tibetan, Hong Kong and Chinese communities here live in fear of surveillance and harassment from Beijing.

 

In 2024, the co-founder of the Irish Uyghur Cultural Association stated to the Irish Times, "I came to Ireland but still I was living with fear. I never could say what I was really experiencing."

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The Uyghur community in Ireland have endured unimaginable suffering while watching their

families, friends, neighbours and communities subjugated by China’s policies in East Turkestan, renamed by the Chinese state as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

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‘Xinjiang’ literally translates as ‘new frontier’. The PRC argues that in order to stop ‘separatism’ in the region, it is implementing development policies, but really, these are synonymous with colonial strategies that repress Uyghurs’ right to exist.

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Ongoing atrocities in the region include the mass detention of Uyghurs for ‘re-education’ and other mostly Muslim minorities, involuntary sterilisation of Uyghur women and girls, and restrictions on religious and cultural expression. Concerns of crimes against humanity and genocide have been expressed by governments and multilateral institutions alike, such as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2022, and the Uyghur Tribunal in Britain.

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But even leaving China is no guarantee of freedom and safety. This past Christmas Eve, the Hong Kong police issued bounties of one million Hong Kong dollars for information leading to the arrest of six exiled activists on the basis of thought crimes such as 'inciting secession' and 'colluding with foreign forces'.

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Just this past week, the Hong Kong authorities detained the aunt and uncle of an exiled Hongkonger activist for interrogation, to punish her for taking part in a community-wide, legal protest in London the previous Saturday. Incidents like these have created a chilling effect felt by diasporic Hongkongers living in Ireland and elsewhere.

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If there is one country that understands the pain of being subjugated by a foreign power, it is Ireland. People might believe the bad days of colonialism are behind us, yet in 2025, many people living in Ireland are still suffering, knowing that their relatives and friends in China and Hong Kong are being subjected to neocolonial policies that enforce torture and/or degrading treatment, and the minimisation and destruction of their cultural heritage.

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We call on the Irish Government to highlight that there is no room for transnational repression to take place in Ireland, and all Irish residents and citizens, including but not limited to the people who are critical towards the Chinese government, are free from fear and entitled to the freedom of speech in Ireland.

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The Irish Government should demonstrate that it has not forgotten Ireland’s history by making clear its fundamental values to Minister Wang Yi. It should raise its concerns over the ongoing genocide against the Uyghur population in Xinjiang, the suppression of freedoms under Hong Kong’s national security law which gives authorities extra-territorial powers to persecute Hongkongers overseas.It should also demand the release of the growing number of political prisoners held in China and Hong Kong, such as Mr. Jimmy Lai,

the proprietor of Hong Kong independent newspaper Apple Daily, and Professor Rahile Dawut, a prominent Uyghur academic, both have been jailed by China and Hong Kong authorities for likely lifelong sentences for "endangering state security”

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Specifically, as a EU Member State, the Irish Government should also call for the immediate

and unconditional release of Mr. Gui Minhai, a Swedish citizen (and former bookseller in

Hong Kong), who has been arbitrarily detained in China for almost a decade.

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In a Dáil debate on 12th February, Deputy Malcolm Byrne raised the case of Jimmy Lai and

asked the Taoiseach to commit to raising China’s human rights abuses in Hong Kong,

Xinjiang, Tibet and elsewhere in China, when he meets with the Chinese foreign minister on

Monday. We are very disappointed to see that the Taoiseach did not offer a firm commitment

to do so, which sounds to our communities that the Irish Government has decided to forsake

its responsibility as a EU Member State to uphold universal human rights values, all in the

name of trade.

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Diplomatic ties and economic growth should be predicated upon a commitment to protect the

security of residents in Ireland and to stand up for subjugated communities. Economic

motives have been used to excuse the cruelty to our peoples in Hong Kong, China and

2beyond: we are demanding that they not be used to excuse Ireland from uncritical bilateral

engagement with China. Trade can never be at the expense of human rights.

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Hong Kong is a prime example of why Ireland’s China policy must not be compartmentalised

as if trade operates independently of human rights and security, in light of the continued

presence and operation of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices (HKETOs) in Europe.

HKETOs no longer serve as a cultural and economic representative, but as a mouthpiece

and surveillance base of the PRC on foreign soil. HKETO employees in London and Berlin

have been formally accused of espionage by the local authorities.

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As a matter of trade, the Irish Government should bring Minister Wang Yi’s attention to the

EU’s recent ban on all products made with forced labour, and its implications on products

produced in Xinjiang.

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Furthermore, it is crucial for the Irish Government to mention the abuse of Hong Kong’s

status as an independent economic and customs territory used by the Chinese regime for

transhipment of sensitive dual-use goods to sustain Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. If Ireland

were serious about its support for Ukraine, it must take measures to prevent the Chinese

regime using Hong Kong to circumvent EU sanctions against Russia.

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Ireland is a champion for human rights on the world stage, our human rights record is strong

and well-regarded internationally. Irish people have shown, most recently in the case of

Palestine, that we are willing to stand up for what we believe is right in the face of

international pressure to stay silent. We ask that the Taoiseach Micheál Martin and the

Tánaiste Simon Harris extend that moral leadership to protect the rights of oppressed

communities living in Ireland.

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People in Ireland have a right to live free from fear. Please, do not continue to allow

members of the Uyghur, Hongkonger and other diasporic communities in Ireland, many of

whom are Irish citizens, to suffer at the hands of China for the sake of financial gain. This

visit by the Chinese Foreign Minister to Ireland must never be about prioritising trade over

human rights.

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Sincerely,

The Irish Uyghur Cultural Association

The European Hong Kong Diaspora Alliance

Stand With Hong Kong