The Washington Post. 15 November 2021

Below is an article published by The Washington Post. Photo:Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

Hu Binchen, a senior public security official in China, is set to seek election next week to the 13-member executive committee of the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol. But some human rights activists, and a group of legislators from around the world, oppose his candidacy, for fear that China misuses the police body’s powers and databases.

“By electing Hu Binchen to the Executive Committee, the General Assembly would … place the tens of thousands of Hong Konger, Uyghur, Tibetan, Taiwanese and Chinese dissidents living abroad at even graver risk,” read a Monday letter penned by elected 50 legislators spanning 20 countries. The letter was organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, an international group of lawmakers pushing their countries to take tougher positions on China. Among the signatories is U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Reinhard Bütikofer, a German member of the European Parliament chairing its China relations delegation.

In a separate public appeal, 40 activists — including Uyghur politician and activist Dolkun Isa and Hong Kong activist Nathan Law — wrote Hu’s election would have “grave consequences” on activists in exile or living in Diasporas, and that in his role as deputy director general of the China public security ministry’s international cooperation department, Hu has “played a leading role in strengthening China’s security cooperation with various countries that have forcibly deported Uyghurs to China.”

Interpol is an international network of police forces that rely on shared information to take action against terrorism, criminals and fugitives. The organization has 19 police databases that collect information including fingerprints, DNA, facial recognition data and “newly detected forms of document counterfeiting.” The organization also maintains a stolen travel identity and art theft databases.

The IPAC letter calls out the organization’s system of “Red Notices” — requests made of law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest fugitives wanted for prosecution or to serve a sentence. According to Interpol’s database, there are 7,590 public Red Notices in circulation — with charges ranging from “stealing from employer” to “participation in a terrorist organization.”

The IPAC letter argues that the People’s Republic of China has “repeatedly abused the INTERPOL Red Notice to persecute dissidents in exile.” The activists expressed worries about the tool being used to force dissidents back to China.

Both groups recalled the former issuance of Red Notices of Uyghur activist Idris Hasan and Dolkun Isa, the president of the World Uyghur Congress.

“I have personally experienced the consequences of China’s abuse and repressive influence at international institutions,” Isa said in a statement. “Until 2018, China’s INTERPOL Red Notice against me posed a particular threat and barrier to my work to defend and promote Uyghur rights and freedoms.”

Human Rights Watch has also publicly expressed concern about a senior United Arab Emirates Interior Ministry official running for Interpol president, saying that “the UAE state security apparatus has a long record of multiple abuses.”

China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the pushback around Hu’s candidacy.

Interpol had been led before by an official from China’s public security ministry — Meng Hongwei — but his term was cut short when he resigned in 2018 after briefly disappearing amid investigations into crimes of bribery. The former Interpol president has since been sentenced to over a decade in prison.