BEIJING: A Belgian diplomat was expected to travel to China’s restive Xinjiang region on Tuesday to confirm the whereabouts of a Uighur family that was escorted from Belgium’s embassy in Beijing by police last month.
The disappearance of the woman and her four children has alarmed her husband, as an estimated one million ethnic Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are believed to be held in internment camps in Xinjiang.
Abdulhamid Tursun, a political refugee in Belgium, said he has not heard from his family since May 31, a few days after they left the embassy under murky circumstances.
“I am worried about their safety,” he told AFP. “I hope they can safely come be at my side as soon as possible, and our family can reunite.”
Belgium’s decision to dispatch a diplomat to Xinjiang comes as the embassy faces criticism for allegedly enabling Chinese police to take the family back to Xinjiang — where they could face detention.
“The case exposes the additional risk Uighurs in China face even if they want to seek help from foreign governments,” said Patrick Poon, China researcher at Amnesty International.
“The Belgian embassy set an extremely bad example of how governments put economic interests above human rights,” he told AFP.
China’s foreign ministry and the Xinjiang government did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment.
The mother, Horiyat Abula, and her four children traveled to Beijing at the end of May to complete missing paperwork for their family reunification visas.
According to Tursun, his wife and children panicked upon learning it would take “at least three months” for their visas to be approved and refused to leave the embassy.
They were afraid to return to their hotel because police had visited them multiple times since they arrived in Beijing, he explained.
“The police came in the middle of the night, asking why they came to Beijing, when they would return,” he said. “They were very scared, they didn’t sleep all night.”
The embassy offered to accompany Abula and her four children back to their hotel, but they “refused to leave the embassy in a kind of sit-in,” a Belgian ministry spokesman told AFP.
In an interview published Tuesday, Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders told Le Soir newspaper that the diplomatic police “asked the family to leave the premises” and the situation was explained to the father the next day.
An embassy is not intended to “lodge people” applying for visas, he said.
In the end, Chinese police “escorted them away,” the Belgian ministry spokesman told AFP.
A few days later, Abula and her children were taken away by Xinjiang police, her husband said, and he has not heard from her since.
Reynders told the Belga news agency on Monday that the diplomat would go to the address given by the father to check if “everything is going well” with them.
“My only concern here is that we can reunite the family,” he told Belga.
On Monday the foreign ministry did not have confirmation that they were at home.
The case highlights the barriers Uighurs face in attempting to leave China.
According to human rights groups, authorities in Xinjiang have confiscated passports of Uighurs, making it difficult for them to join their relatives overseas.
Abula and her children too have struggled to obtain passports — an issue that Belgium’s ambassador will take up with China’s director of consular affairs, Reynders told Belga.
Abula applied for a passport in 2017, but never received one, according to receipts seen by AFP.
Tursun believes that the family “took a risk” by traveling outside Xinjiang in the first place.
“If my family then returns to (Xinjiang’s capital) Urumqi, it’s very likely that they will be sent to a concentration camp,” he wrote in March in an email to a non-profit helping the family with their visa application.
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Belgium seeks Uighur family in Xinjiang after disappearance
Belgium seeks Uighur family in Xinjiang after disappearance
- The disappearance of the woman and her four children has alarmed her husband, as an estimated one million ethnic Uighurs are believed to be held in internment camps in Xinjiang
- Abdulhamid Tursun, a political refugee in Belgium, said he has not heard from his family since May 31, a few days after they left the embassy under murky circumstances
Trump, sharing leaked texts and AI mock-ups, vows ‘no going back’ on Greenland
DAVOS, Switzerland/COPENHAGEN: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed there was “no going back” on his goal to control Greenland, refusing to rule out taking the Arctic island by force and rounding on allies as European leaders struggled to respond.
Trump’s ambition — spelled out in social media posts and mock-up AI images — to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark has threatened to blow apart the alliance that has underpinned Western security for decades.
It has also threatened to reignite a trade war with Europe that rattled markets and companies for months last year, though Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed back against what he called “hysteria” over Greenland.
“As I expressed to everyone, very plainly, Greenland is imperative for National and World Security. There can be no going back — On that, everyone agrees!” Trump said after speaking to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
To drive home the message, Trump posted an AI image of himself in Greenland, holding a US flag. Another showed him speaking to leaders next to a map showing Canada and Greenland as part of the United States.
Separately, he leaked messages including from French President Emmanuel Macron, who questioned what Trump was “doing on Greenland.” Trump, who has vowed to impose tariffs on countries who stood in his way, had earlier threatened to hammer French wines and champagnes with a 200 percent tariff.
BESSENT PUSHES BACK AGAINST ‘HYSTERIA’
The European Union has threatened to hit back with trade measures. One option is a package of tariffs on 93 billion euros ($109 billion) of US imports that could automatically kick in on February 6 after a six-month suspension.
Another option is the “Anti-Coercion Instrument” (ACI), which has never yet been used. It could limit access to public tenders, investments or banking activity, or restrict trade in services, the sector in which the US has a surplus with the bloc, including the lucrative digital services provided by US tech giants.
“This is not a question about the Kingdom of Denmark, it is about the entire transatlantic relationship,” Denmark’s Economy Minister Stephanie Lose told journalists ahead of an EU meeting of economy and finance ministers in Brussels.
“At this point in time, we do not believe that anything should be ruled out. This is a serious situation that, although we would like to de-escalate, there are others who are contributing to escalating it right now, and therefore we will have to keep all options on the table as we move forward.”
Bessent, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, said a solution would be found that ensures national security for the United States and Europe.
“It’s been 48 hours. As I said, sit back, relax,” he said. “I am confident that the leaders will not escalate and that this will work out in a manner that ends up in a very good place for all.”
Asked about the prospect of a prolonged trade war between the United States and Europe, Bessent replied: “Why are we jumping there? Why are you taking it to the worst case?... Calm down the hysteria. Take a deep breath.”
However, in her own speech in Davos, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the series of recent geopolitical shocks will force the EU to build a new independent Europe.
“We will only be able to capitalize on this opportunity if we recognize that this change is permanent,” she said.
RUSSIA QUESTIONS DANISH SOVEREIGNTY OVER GREENLAND
Trump will also this week attend the Davos gathering of the global political and business elite. Swiss newspaper NZZ reported that protesters marched in Zurich, Switzerland, late on Monday, carrying a giant banner saying: “TRUMP NOT WELCOME. NO WEF! NO OLIGARCHY! NO IMPERIALIST WARS!“
The foreign minister of Russia, which has been watching with glee as Trump’s drive to acquire Greenland widens splits with Europe, said on Tuesday that Greenland was not “a natural part” of Denmark.
Trump’s renewed tariff threats against European allies have revived talk of the ‘Sell America’ trade that emerged in the aftermath of his sweeping levies last April.
Stock markets bore the brunt on Monday of fears that the trade war could re-escalate, with European equities dropping over 1 percent and US stock futures taking a similar hit that points to weakness following Monday’s US public holiday.
The dollar was on the back foot too, a sign that the world’s No.1 reserve currency was also in the crosshairs of Trump’s threat on Saturday to increase tariffs on Europe.
Trump’s ambition — spelled out in social media posts and mock-up AI images — to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark has threatened to blow apart the alliance that has underpinned Western security for decades.
It has also threatened to reignite a trade war with Europe that rattled markets and companies for months last year, though Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed back against what he called “hysteria” over Greenland.
“As I expressed to everyone, very plainly, Greenland is imperative for National and World Security. There can be no going back — On that, everyone agrees!” Trump said after speaking to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
To drive home the message, Trump posted an AI image of himself in Greenland, holding a US flag. Another showed him speaking to leaders next to a map showing Canada and Greenland as part of the United States.
Separately, he leaked messages including from French President Emmanuel Macron, who questioned what Trump was “doing on Greenland.” Trump, who has vowed to impose tariffs on countries who stood in his way, had earlier threatened to hammer French wines and champagnes with a 200 percent tariff.
BESSENT PUSHES BACK AGAINST ‘HYSTERIA’
The European Union has threatened to hit back with trade measures. One option is a package of tariffs on 93 billion euros ($109 billion) of US imports that could automatically kick in on February 6 after a six-month suspension.
Another option is the “Anti-Coercion Instrument” (ACI), which has never yet been used. It could limit access to public tenders, investments or banking activity, or restrict trade in services, the sector in which the US has a surplus with the bloc, including the lucrative digital services provided by US tech giants.
“This is not a question about the Kingdom of Denmark, it is about the entire transatlantic relationship,” Denmark’s Economy Minister Stephanie Lose told journalists ahead of an EU meeting of economy and finance ministers in Brussels.
“At this point in time, we do not believe that anything should be ruled out. This is a serious situation that, although we would like to de-escalate, there are others who are contributing to escalating it right now, and therefore we will have to keep all options on the table as we move forward.”
Bessent, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, said a solution would be found that ensures national security for the United States and Europe.
“It’s been 48 hours. As I said, sit back, relax,” he said. “I am confident that the leaders will not escalate and that this will work out in a manner that ends up in a very good place for all.”
Asked about the prospect of a prolonged trade war between the United States and Europe, Bessent replied: “Why are we jumping there? Why are you taking it to the worst case?... Calm down the hysteria. Take a deep breath.”
However, in her own speech in Davos, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the series of recent geopolitical shocks will force the EU to build a new independent Europe.
“We will only be able to capitalize on this opportunity if we recognize that this change is permanent,” she said.
RUSSIA QUESTIONS DANISH SOVEREIGNTY OVER GREENLAND
Trump will also this week attend the Davos gathering of the global political and business elite. Swiss newspaper NZZ reported that protesters marched in Zurich, Switzerland, late on Monday, carrying a giant banner saying: “TRUMP NOT WELCOME. NO WEF! NO OLIGARCHY! NO IMPERIALIST WARS!“
The foreign minister of Russia, which has been watching with glee as Trump’s drive to acquire Greenland widens splits with Europe, said on Tuesday that Greenland was not “a natural part” of Denmark.
Trump’s renewed tariff threats against European allies have revived talk of the ‘Sell America’ trade that emerged in the aftermath of his sweeping levies last April.
Stock markets bore the brunt on Monday of fears that the trade war could re-escalate, with European equities dropping over 1 percent and US stock futures taking a similar hit that points to weakness following Monday’s US public holiday.
The dollar was on the back foot too, a sign that the world’s No.1 reserve currency was also in the crosshairs of Trump’s threat on Saturday to increase tariffs on Europe.
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