URAP’s Press Release on China’s systematic attack targeting Uyghurs in Canada

For Immediate release

March 26, 2021

The Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project (URAP) is increasingly worried about  growing, sophisticated and intensified attacks targeting Uyghur Canadians by China.

As reported by Canadian media “Members of Canada’s Uyghur community have been targeted by a sophisticated cyber espionage campaign that has been trying to infect devices with malware to permit surveillance”.

According to the same report,  Facebook has confirmed that Chinese companies Earth Empusa and Evil Eye targeted hundreds of Uyghur activists, journalists, and dissidents in several countries; including twenty Uyghur Canadians with the phishing posts harboring spyware aiming their cell phones and computers.

As documented by US based IPVM, a leading authority in surveillance technology, major Chinese high tech companies like Huawei,  Megvii , Dahua, Uniview, Hikivision and Alibaba have been heavily involved in designing specific programs for  Uyghur surveillance. The specific function of Uyghur profiling notifies the police within 15 seconds of spotting throughout China.

China has gathered biometric data from Uyghurs such as facial and voice recognition, Iris scan and DNA samples. All this to control, identify and arrest them with the help of the sophisticated digital network system called the Integrated Joint Operation Platform. .

As Millions of Uyghurs in East Turkistan and elsewhere in China are languishing inside the vast network of concentration camps, slave labour camps and digital gulag being subjected to genocide and constant surveillance. China, at the same time, is extending its arm beyond its territorial jurisdiction to silence dissidents and activists through deploying all measures of digital control and hostage taking of their family members with their enormous human and technological resources.

“China’s reach to Canadian soil to keep Uyghurs under watch through surveillance and cyber-attack should alarm the government of Canada” said Mehmet Tohti, the Executive Director of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, and this puts Uyghur Canadians at an extremely vulnerable position as we  are already being directly  harassed, intimidated and threatened by hostage taking of our family members by China to live under communist party shadow  compromising our basic freedom in Canada”

Fundamental role of the government is to protect the rights of its citizens and keep them safe. URAP urges the government of Canada to take this targeted threat against the Uyghurs seriously and establish an updated mechanism to address it

Previously CSIS and the National Security and Intelligence Committee have raised similar concerns on the foreign interference and targeted activities against certain communities.

URAP reminds that the current level of response by the various agencies of the government is far from addressing the new challenges. Therefore, the establishment of specialized and uniquely mandated institutions are long overdue. We need to secure the freedom and fundamental rights of Canadian citizens, including Uyghur Canadians.

The 2019 Annual Report of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians outlined foreign interference activities, specifically pointed out to China and Russia. This  report has made a number of recommendations to bolster Canada’s swift response to the threat of foreign interference. The targeting and harassment of specific communities in Canada is considered to be a form of foreign interference.

Members of the Canadian Coalition of Human Rights in China have issued report with various suggestions to address the direct intimidation, harassment and threat posed by the government of China against Uyghurs, Tibetans and other dissidents. .

URAP urges Facebook Canada to exercise high degree of due diligence against China originated cyber threats and take necessary measures to stop attacks targeting Uyghur Canadians as well as to notify those individuals who were already victimized by Chinese espionage attacks.

For more information:

Mehmet Tohti

Executive Director

Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project

www.urap.ca

secure@urap.ca

613 261 8512