Adrian Zenz, Director of Chinese Studies at Washington DC-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
BANGKOK — An American researcher on Chinese Studies told a panel discussion at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand on Wednesday night that Thailand is listed by China as a “high-risk country” when it comes to Uyghurs and Xinjiang-related issues.
Some Uyghurs who travelled to Thailand on a valid travel document were arrested upon returning to China due to concerns of them being exposed to extremist ideology while in Thailand.
“Those returned from Thailand faced re-education,” said Adrian Zenz, Director of Chinese Studies at Washington DC-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a non-profit anti-communism organization set up by an Act of US Congress in 1993.
Zenz , who spoke through zoom, cited leaked internal documents from Xinjiang Police and said four Uyghurs men have faced such predicament over the years. Thailand is among the 26 countries, which include Malaysia, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates.
“Therefore, for those returning from abroad, catch whoever returns, detain whoever is caught, imprison whoever is detained, and let none slip through,” part of the documents which were translated into English read. “For those whose circumstances are unclear, perform re-education, but they must not be released.”
Zenz was a panelist at the FCCT event on the Thai Government’s tour of China’s Xinjiang region after the deportation of 40 Uyghurs. “This is the so-called “pre-crime”, not actual crime,” said Zenz, adding that one Uyghur man faced re-education when returning to Xinjiang simply because he went to Thailand and Dubai for tourism in 2017 for “crime of preparing to carry out terrorist activity.” Another, he added, ended up in pre-empted detention because the man received a phone call from Thailand after returning home.
The US Embassy in Bangkok sponsored a dozen of Thai journalists to the symposium by paying for the entrance fees to the FCCT panel discussion on Wednesday night. A Chinese diplomat at the Chinese Embassy’s News and Public Diplomacy was contacted on Thursday morning for comment but there was no reply as of press time
By Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer -March 27, 2025
