02/12/2025

New memorandum warns of a deteriorating human rights situation in China

Appeal to Merz and Scholz on the occasion of the Munich Security Conference: More commitment for political prisoners in China!

On the occasion of the upcoming Munich Security Council, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) sent an appeal to participating German politicians to engage in talks will Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and to advocate for the rights of ethnic and religious minorities in China.

“German politicians should use the Munich Security Conference to demand Wang Yi to have all political prisoners released and to put end to transnational repression,” stated Hanno Schedler, STP expert on genocide prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.

“Please use your talks to address the fates of the Uyghur Ilham Tohti, the Mongol Lhamjab Borjigin, the Tibetan Panchen Lama, and the Chinese journalist Zhang Zhan. Their cases are exemplary for thousands of political prisoners in China. They are counting on Germany to fulfill its human rights obligations and to advocate for them – regardless of party affiliation,” demanded Hanno Schedler, explicitly mentioning the candidates for chancellor Olaf Scholz and Friedrich Merz, who are both expected to take part in the conference.

The future German government should Europeanize its China policy

“Whichever parties form the new government after the Bundestag elections, they must ensure that Germany will Europeanize its China policy. We need a more consistent foreign policy with a focus on protecting human rights and minority rights,” Schedler said. “Under head of state and party Xi Jinping, the human rights situation in China is getting worse and worse. Xi is following a nationalist ‘Greater China’ approach that focuses on bringing ethnic and religious groups into line,” the STP warned in a new memorandum on the human rights situation in China.

The most recent victims of the Sinicization policy of the Communist Party of China (CPC) are Tibetan, Uyghur, and Mongol children. “Now, Germany should – in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN’s conventions, such as the Convention on the Protection of the Child – ensure that Tibetan, Uyghur, and Mongol children are allowed to learn the language and the culture of their parents. This approach can only work out if the government is willing to respect the existing German Supply Chain Act and to actually implement EU guidelines on business and human rights,” the human rights organization stated as one of its key demands.

All in all, the STP listed a total of ten demands to the future German government, including an expansion of EU sanctions against members of the Chinese government who are responsible for family separations, for reeducation camps, forced sterilization, and forced labor – as well as more commitment towards shutting down the compulsory boarding schools in Xinjiang / East Turkestan and more commitment towards the release of political prisoners.

The complete memorandum on the human rights situation in China can be found here.