Japan gave key inputs on Uyghur clampdown to US, UK amid calls to join 'Five Eyes': Report

As Japanese government is being urged to join ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence-sharing alliance, it recently provided key inputs to United States and UK over Chinese government’s clampdown on Uyghurs, reported Kyodo News citing its source. Japan is on its way to become ‘sixth eye’ in Five Eyes alliance that constitutes five nations -  Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and US who have united to elevate ir response to increasing threats by rth Korea and China.

A person close to Japan-US bilateral relations reportedly disclosed on December 28 that Japanese government had provided crucial intelligence to US and Britain last year on China’s ‘concentration camps’ in remote area of Xinjiang that ruling Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly claimed to be ‘recreational centres’. 

Both US and UK have even ramped up ir criticism against China over severe crackdown on Uyghurs in remote Xinjiang automous region. Furr, media outlet’s source also said that it was based on information gared by Japan that US President Donald Trump administration placed a range of sanctions on China citing human rights violations against Muslim mirity including visa limitations on CCP officials. 

This has also fueled increasing bilateral tensions between China and US. Even US vice president Mike pence had claimed last year that “Communist Party imprisoned more than a million Chinese Muslims, including Uyghurs, in internment camps where y endure around--clock brainwashing.”

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Uyghur Muslim leaders detained in China

Amid reports of atrocities against Uyghur Muslims in China’s remote area of Xinjiang continue, just last month it emerged that authorities in Xinjiang Uyghur Automous Region (XUAR) have reportedly detained hundreds of Muslims imams or religious leaders, as per Uyghur linguist in exile. According to a report by Radio Free Asia, detention of religious leaders has created an atmosphere in which people belonging to mirity are “afraid of dying”. 

While speaking at a webinar hosted by Uyghur Human Rights Project titled 'Where are Imams? Evidence for mass detention of Uyghur religious figures', a rway-based activist with International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) Abduweli Ayup informed that based on interviews with Uyghurs, at least 613 imams were removed from community in a campaign of extra-legal incarceration that has already seen millions of Uyghur Muslims held in concentration camps since early 2017. 

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