The human rights group Defenders published a report revealing more details about a secret agreement between the Chinese Communist Party and Switzerland that violates human rights. Under the agreement, signed five years ago, Switzerland allowed Chinese Communist Party agents to enter the country for two weeks to track, investigate and interview Chinese nationals targeted for repatriation by the Swiss side. Defenders criticized the Swiss for using misleading descriptions and lies to justify the secrecy surrounding the identity and activities of CCP agents in Switzerland. Critics say the Chinese government is using the agreement to threaten the safety of Hong Kong residents and dissidents in exile.
The human rights group Safeguard Defenders released a report on Wednesday (9) titled “Lies and Spies – The Secret Agreement between Swiss and Chinese Police. The report is based on an official English translation of a secret Sino-Swiss agreement known as the Readmission Agreement, which was obtained by the organization. Under the agreement, Chinese Communist Party state security and intelligence officers were allowed to enter Switzerland for a two-week period to follow up on and interview Chinese nationals targeted for “illegal entry” and expulsion by Swiss authorities. During this period, their movements were completely free and unsupervised, and they were allowed to meet and interview up to six people per day, and 60 people per entry per state security officer, whom the Swiss side suspected of being “illegal aliens” Chinese nationals.
The secret agreement, which came into effect on December 8, 2015, expires this Monday (7).
On Wednesday (9), the human rights group Defenders released “Lies and Spies – The Secret Agreement between Swiss and Chinese Police,” revealing that the agreement allows Chinese Communist Party agents to enter Switzerland to track down Chinese nationals considered by the Swiss side to be targets for repatriation. (Screenshot from the Defender website)
German commentator Cheng Shiguang expressed shock at the agreement, saying that the protection of Chinese Communist Party agents under what he called a “devil’s agreement” could pose a significant security threat to Chinese dissidents throughout Europe. He believes that exiles who are critical of Beijing will be targeted.
Cheng Shiguang said: “This secret agreement between Switzerland and the Chinese Communist Party on visas will definitely affect Chinese human rights liberals and democrats in the West. The Chinese Communist Party could use this clause to send in its agents to threaten them and bring them “back” to China. Switzerland has opened such a big back door to the EU that CCP spies can use the Schengen visa to enter all the Schengen visa countries in Europe to steal information.
He called on the Swiss parliament and the EU parliament to investigate the matter.
Cheng Shiguang said: “Why did the Swiss side make such a secret agreement, and how can it be justified? So the Swiss parliament should set up a committee of inquiry. And it’s not just Switzerland that needs to do this, this has affected the whole of Europe, so the European Parliament should also set up a commission of inquiry.
Wang Aizhong, an activist in China’s “Southern Street Movement,” said in an interview with the station that a large number of Hong Kong people are now in exile under the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown, and that exiled Hong Kong people may also be in danger under the secret Sino-Swiss agreement, which, if continued or not adjusted, could put Switzerland in a moral dilemma.
Wang Aizhong said: Now there may be a large number of people in exile in Hong Kong to the rest of the world, Switzerland and the Chinese Communist Party in the past this kind of treaty if not revised or adjusted, will face a moral dilemma, you want to put these people at the mercy of the Chinese government’s problem. This is not only a Swiss problem, but the rest of the world should be alerted.
The official English translation of the secret Sino-Swiss agreement was obtained by Defender earlier, revealing more details of the agreement. (Courtesy of Defenders)
Swedish human rights activist Peter Dahlin, founder of Defenders, tweeted the report on Wednesday, saying he hoped people would read it, download it and share its “shocking” contents.
In an interview with the station, Dahlin said: “We believe that Switzerland’s famous system of secrecy should not be applied to relations with dictatorial states. Switzerland’s categorization of this agreement as a “readmission agreement” is misleading. This so-called reciprocal agreement, which puts the Swiss side under the responsibility of keeping the identity and activities of visiting agents of the Chinese Communist Party’s Ministry of Public Security known to be spy entities secret, is outrageous. The Swiss side needs to answer these questions in addition to informing its European neighbors what kind of visas they provided to these CCP state security agents? And what safeguards are in place to ensure that these agents do not have free access to the Schengen states of the EU?
The secret Sino-Swiss agreement revealed by “Defenders” shows that the Chinese Communist Party public security agents are financed by the Swiss side during their stay in Switzerland, including flights, accommodation, per diem, communications, office space and any other costs of their activities. That is, Swiss taxpayers are paying for the Chinese police to secretly enter Switzerland and conduct unsupervised operations against Chinese citizens in their country.
At the end of a trip to Switzerland by CCP public security officers, the CCP would provide the Swiss government with a confidential report on the basis of which Switzerland would work with the CCP embassy in Switzerland to determine which individuals would be repatriated to China, but the agreement does not provide for any verification by Switzerland of the information provided by the CCP agents.
This is despite a clause in the agreement that states that data collected may not be shared with other authorities in the respective countries unless authorized by the other party, although CCP agents may communicate with the CCP embassy in Switzerland during their stay there. Defender believes this provision is meaningless, as the CCP’s Ministry of Public Security is responsible for all aspects of security, justice and other matters.
In addition, the agreement allows Chinese public security personnel to enter Switzerland in an unofficial capacity, with the Swiss side promising to keep their identities secret. In a similar agreement between the UK and Switzerland, however, British personnel entering Switzerland are required to declare their official status. And unlike the more than 50 similar deals signed between Switzerland and other countries, Switzerland has never released this secret agreement to the public.
Defend the Guardian is concerned about the situation, and its report analyzes that one of Xi Jinping’s signature policies since coming to power has been the pursuit of fugitives abroad, including economic fugitives. By mid-2019, Communist Party media claimed that 6,000 people had been extradited back to China. The U.S. Justice Department recently revealed indictments in which the CCP authorities, through their state security agents or their agents, tracked and threatened those they wanted to extradite.
Defend the Guardian also revealed that some Chinese citizens overseas have been coerced into contacting Communist Party agents for fear of extradition. The Australian Chinese cartoonist Ba Thou Cao was threatened with having his family taken hostage by State Security agents to trace his identity. In its report to the UN Human Rights Council in August, the UN Panel on Enforced Disappearances expressed alarm at the Communist Party’s use of extraterritorial abductions and forced repatriations, identifying 300 Uighurs alone who have been abducted or returned to China from 16 different countries.
The dubious agreement, which was about to expire, was first exposed by the Swiss media in August of this year when it was sought to be renewed. After the revelation, the Swiss Secretariat for Migration (SEM) argued that the agreement was not made public because it was an administrative agreement. The agreement was signed to curb the problem of illegal immigration; they stressed that they applied it only in 2016, when four Chinese nationals were among the 13 illegal immigrants arrested and needed to be deported.
The Swiss Immigration Secretariat also said the agreement does not affect Tibetans and Uyghurs seeking asylum and that they will not be deported. Still, the agreement drew public outcry, with Swiss opposition lawmakers blasting the Swiss government for aiding and abetting democratic values.
Public opposition to the agreement’s renewal is growing. Last month, on the 20th, the Swiss Foreign Affairs Council voted 14 to 7 to call for consultations on any new similar agreement. The debate will be held next spring, but any vote or decision resulting from the consultations will have no legal effect, and the Swiss government is free to renew the agreement.
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