The deportation followed Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s trip to Beijing earlier this month, during which she met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Thailand’s government remains defiant about its move to deport 40 Uyghur detainees to China, where human rights advocates and U.S. officials expect them to undergo torture and worse in Beijing’s mass detention system. U.S. officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the U.S. ally’s decision as a concession to the Chinese Communist Party.
“Thailand retains sovereign authority over deportation cases. The decision is based on Thailand’s national interest,” the Thai government said in a statement about the case, according to Channel News Asia.
Thailand is a U.S. ally. But in addition to outspoken advocacy from Wahington, the deportation followed Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s trip to Beijing earlier this month, during which she met Chinese leader Xi Jinping and talked up the prospect of deepening cooperation between their countries.
During his confirmation hearing in January, Rubio referred to America’s traditional ties with the country, saying that he would lobby Bangkok not go through with the rumored deportation on the basis of that diplomatic relationship.
In a statement today, Rubio knocked the Thai government’s decision. “As Thailand’s longstanding ally, we are alarmed by this action, which risks running afoul of its international obligations under the UN Convention Against Torture and the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. This act runs counter to the Thai people’s longstanding tradition of protection for the most vulnerable and is inconsistent with Thailand’s commitment to protect human rights. We urge all governments in countries where Uyghurs seek protection not to forcibly return ethnic Uyghurs to China,” he said.
He also reiterated the U.S. Uyghur genocide determination and called on the Thai government to “fully verify continuously that Chinese authorities protect the Uyghurs’ human rights.”
Last night, the Thai authorities deported the prisoners, who had been held for over a decade after fleeing China. That came after weeks of advocacy by members of Congress, the human rights community, and other international observers.
The detainees arrived in China last night, with the country’s ministry of public security claiming that they were “repatriated” as part of an effort to counter “cross-border crimes and protect the legitimate rights of Chinese citizens,” according to the Global Times CCP propaganda outlet. But Beijing is widely understood to be carrying out widespread human rights abuses against the ethnic minority, a program that the State Department has designated as crimes against humanity and genocide intended to wipe out the population.
The impending deportation was the subject of advocacy by China hawks on Capitol Hill for several weeks. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast also condemned the move: “The world knows exactly what happens to Uyghurs in China: forced labor, torture, sterilization, and extermination. Thailand has a choice to not be on the side of genocide.”
And Representatives John Moolenaar and Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top lawmakers on the House Select Committee on the CCP, had appealed directly to the Thai ambassador in Washington. It’s not yet clear what consequences, if any, Washington will attempt to impose on the Thai government.