Beijing Hopes To Replicate Pakistani Model For Returning Uyghurs To China

China has used its massive economic clout in Pakistan to gain Islamabad’s cooperation in its transnational campaign targeting Uyghurs, a model that Beijing wants to export across Asia and the Middle East, a new report finds.

Pakistan was the first country to actively collaborate with Beijing in monitoring and extraditing Uyghurs to China, deporting 14 Uyghurs accused of being terrorists in 1997. They were all summarily executed.

Since then, China has deepened its historically strong ties with Islamabad with an estimated $60 billion worth of energy and infrastructure projects under the guise of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is part of Beijing’s worldwide Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). read more