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The Swedish surveillance team can be used for mass surveillance and the persecution of dissidents in China, warns Amnesty International. The organization is now calling for stricter EU legislation.
Amnesty warns that Swedish Axis Communications technology, among others, may contribute to the persecution of dissidents in China. Stock Photography.
Three companies from Sweden, France and the Netherlands, including Sweden’s Axis Communications, are named in a report by the human rights organization. All have sold digital surveillance technology, such as facial recognition systems, which is at risk of being used in Chinese mass surveillance of Uighurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim groups in the Xinjiang region.
– It is difficult, almost impossible, to have a complete idea of how end users use our products. But we can always try to improve to get information and make sure that those who sell our products know what we have intended them to be used for, he says.
Among other things, the company has supplied technology to China’s state security apparatus and, according to Amnesty, it has been repeatedly listed since 2012 as a “recommended trademark” in Chinese state surveillance documents.
However, the root of the problem lies mainly in the EU export legislation, according to Amnesty, which believes that existing regulations lack human rights. Sweden is one of the countries that opposes demands for higher standards with a greater focus on human rights in export decisions, writes Amnesty.
“It is shameful that Sweden has long been singled out as one of the EU countries that has acted as a brake on stricter EU legislation. If Sweden wants to be a great humanitarian power, it must not allow commercial interests to prevail over human rights, ”Maja Åberg, Amnesty Sweden’s policy adviser, said in a press release.
China’s government security services are key players in the increasingly comprehensive surveillance of the country’s population. In the Xinjiang region, where at least one million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities have been detained in so-called retraining camps, biometric monitoring technology is common.
A report released earlier this year equated China’s treatment of Uighurs with genocide. Among other things, there are numerous reports of forced sterilization and abortions. According to the report, developed by China expert Adrian Zenz, affiliated with the American research institute Jamestown Foundation, population growth among Uighurs declined by 84 percent between 2014 and 2018 in the two Chinese regions with the largest populations. Uigur.
Xinjiang and the Uyghurs
The Xinjiang Autonomous Region is located in the northwest corner of China. With an area three times the size of Sweden, the region represents one sixth of China.
Of the approximately 21 million inhabitants of Xinjiang (2010), the majority belong to Turkish-speaking Muslim ethnic groups. The Uyghurs, one of the 55 officially recognized minorities in China, are the largest group with 8-10 million.
In Chinese historiography, Xinjiang has always been part of China, but the degree of influence has varied. Uyghurs have often felt a greater ethnic and cultural affiliation with their Central Asian neighbors and fought for independence.
In recent years, the independence ambitions in the region have attracted attention through several assassinations and the strong reactions of the communist regime to them.
In 2016, authorities began building prison-like facilities. Many Uighurs have been placed there, according to the information, at least a million, up to two. According to UN experts, witnesses and activists, people are separated from their families, locked up without trial, politically indoctrinated and exposed to violence.
China describes it as a “retraining camp” aimed at curbing terrorism.
The surveillance of the authorities has also been significantly strengthened, through, among other things, facial recognition and the extensive recording of personal data and human behavior.
Source: Landguiden / Foreign Policy Institute, Reuters
