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GENEVA: Switzerland vigorously rejected allegations this week that a deal allowing Chinese officials to enter Switzerland and question Chinese nationals, which only recently came to light, puts dissidents at risk.
Switzerland entered into a so-called readmission agreement with China in 2015. The agreement expired on Monday (December 7).
The agreement, which remained secret until the Swiss newspaper NZZ disclosed its existence in August, specified the terms for Chinese officials to travel to the country and question Chinese nationals who were to be deported.
The Asia-focused rights group Safeguard Defenders this week released the text of the agreement, as well as a report on how it differed from similar agreements with other countries, and could pose a threat to “those whom the Chinese government wants to be returned. “.
The details that come to light “will tarnish Switzerland’s reputation,” Peter Dahlin, who heads the organization, told AFP.
Following the initial disclosure of the deal in August, jailed Hong Kong dissident Joshua Wong weighed in on Twitter, denouncing the secret nature of the deal.
“Five years after the secret agreement was signed, no Swiss MP had heard of the agreement,” he tweeted on August 24, warning that “dissidents in exile” from Hong Kong, Taiwan and elsewhere could be at risk of being extradited to China.
“STANDARD PRACTICE”
Meanwhile, the Swiss Migration Ministry flatly denied that there was any secrecy about the deal with China, insisting that it was a standard “technical agreement” like those it had reached with 60 other countries.
While the agreement had never been publicly released like many of those agreements, “it can be obtained on demand at any time,” it said in a statement.
Ministry spokesman Reto Kormann also stressed to AFP in an email that people considered threatened, such as Uighur Muslims or Tibetans, would not be considered for expulsion and “would not be questioned by Chinese officials.”
He explained that readmission agreements were needed because “most states are only willing to take back their own citizens if they can verify their identity.”
“Consequently, such interviews are standard practice in Switzerland as in other European states.”
The deal with China had been used only once in the past five years, in 2016, the ministry said.
During that mission, “two Chinese officials stayed in Switzerland for several days to interview a total of 13 people,” he said.
The Swiss Migration Ministry hoped to renew the agreement before it expired on December 7.
But he said he was not worried that it had expired, emphasizing that it was possible to invite foreign delegations even without it.
After the deal came to light in August, left-wing parties called for more oversight, and the issue will now be discussed by parliament in the coming months.
After that, ministry spokesman Daniel Bach told AFP that talks would begin with the Chinese authorities on reinstating the agreement.
“Switzerland is interested in renewing this agreement,” he said.
“MISLEADING”
Meanwhile, the Safeguard Defenders report argued that Switzerland’s agreement with China was nothing like its agreements with other countries.
The report compared Switzerland’s deal with China with those with Sweden, India, Hong Kong and Britain, and said it found glaring differences.
“It differs so much,” Dahlin said, that comparing it to typical readmission agreements “is itself misleading.”
While these agreements are generally reached with immigration departments or ministries of foreign affairs, the agreement with China was reached with its ministry of public security, which deals with immigration, but also police and intelligence matters.
The Chinese “experts” sent are not immigration bureaucrats, but “agents,” Dahlin said, adding that the agreement allowed them “to roam freely, conduct unsupervised interviews and interrogations.”
He warned that agents could also move freely around the European space without a Schengen passport, which “would obviously be of great concern to the capitals of countries around Switzerland.”
However, Kormann emphasized that the Swiss Migration Ministry plans the length of assignments and the duration of visas accordingly.
Meanwhile, Hua Chunying, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told AFP that criticism of his deal with Switzerland is based on “a misinterpretation of the facts.”
“Other European countries are engaged in similar cooperation with China,” he said.
