authorities did not share details of any secession” after expressing political views on investigation into the allegations. Instead, a his social media account. Held foreign ministry spokesperson accused the incommunicado since 1 August 2019, his women of lying, of having an “inferior family members only learned of his trial, character” and a “chaotic private life”, of alleged crime and whereabouts through a being “lazy”, of committing adultery and of response from the Chinese authorities to UN having sexually transmitted diseases. The human rights experts in August 2021. government also shared the women’s private FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION medical data at a press conference. Uyghur tech entrepreneur Ekpar Asat was Tight controls and restrictions on online convicted without any known trial on charges freedom of expression continued. On 8 of “inciting ethnic hatred and ethnic February, the Chinese authorities blocked discrimination” and sentenced to 15 years in Clubhouse, an audio app used by thousands prison. According to information shared with of people across China and elsewhere to his family, he had been held in solitary discuss topics including Xinjiang and Hong confinement since January 2019 in Kong. The Personal Information Protection conditions which caused his health to Law took effect on 1 November, further 7 deteriorate. regulating cyberspace and enforcing Weilina Muhatai, an ethnic Kazakh woman localization of data. Microsoft-owned social living in Xinjiang, and her two sons, Muheyati network site LinkedIn closed its localized Haliyoula and Parisati Haliyoula, remained Chinese version due to the “significantly missing since August 2020. They may have more challenging operating environment and been detained for their activism on behalf of greater compliance requirements in China”. their imprisoned husband and father, Human rights defenders, activists and Haliyoula Tuerxun. Following their citizen journalists risked their lives reporting disappearance, other relatives were informed on the Covid-19 outbreak and were a vital that Haliyoula Tuerxun died in detention in source of uncensored first-hand information. December 2020. The government subjected them to Following a stay in hospital, Uyghur woman harassment and reprisals, including Mahira Yakub was returned to Yining detention. Former lawyer Zhang Zhan, who Detention Centre in Xinjiang in late November was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in 2020, where she remained without access to December 2020 for reporting on the her family or a lawyer of her choosing. She Covid-19 outbreak in the city of Wuhan went missing in April 2019 and was indicted earlier that year, began a partial hunger strike in January 2020 for “giving material support to protest against her incarceration. Her to terrorist activity” after transferring money health deteriorated and her life was at risk. 8 to her parents in Australia to buy a house. Citizen journalist Chen Qiushi was released The Chinese authorities continued to more than 600 days after being detained in pressure other governments to return February 2020. The whereabouts of citizen Uyghurs living abroad back to China. Idris journalist Fang Bin, who went missing in Hasan was arrested at Casablanca airport on February 2020 after reporting on the 19 July after flying to Morocco from Turkey. Covid-19 outbreak, remained unclear. Detained for more than five months, Idris DEATH PENALTY Hasan remained at risk of extradition to China where he could face lengthy arbitrary China remained the world’s leading detention and torture and other ill-treatment. executioner, although figures on executions TIBET and death sentences remained a state secret, Tibetan monk Rinchen Tsultrim was preventing independent scrutiny. sentenced to four years and six months’ On 10 August, Robert Schellenberg, a imprisonment in a secret trial for “inciting Canadian national convicted of drug Amnesty International Report 2021/22 127