The following is from a feature article in the November 26 issue of the monthly magazine WiLL titled "I Want to Curse and Kill Xi Jinping's Dictatorship! and featured a dialogue between four authors, including Tomoko Ako, a professor at the University of Tokyo, Tan Lomi, a writer, Yang Yizhi, and Liu Yanzi, a Chinese literature scholar.
As I have mentioned, WiLL and Handa are full of factual articles, yet they cost 980 yen! That's a bargain!
It is no exaggeration to say that they are the best monthly magazines in the world today.
It is a must-read not only for Japanese citizens but for people worldwide.
It is a must-read for men and women, young and old, and especially for all young people.
Some parts of the article already foreshadow the phenomenon that is now taking place in China.
(Emphasis in the text, except for the headline, is mine.
Japan will also be under surveillance
Liu.
Totalitarianism in Nazi Germany ended after 12 years, and the communist regime in the Soviet Union after 70 years, but in the case of China, unless the nature of the Communist Party changes, the number of victims will continue to increase permanently.
What is frightening is that China's surveillance extends its evil hand all over the world.
We are discussing this in the safety of Japan, but that does not mean that Japan will always be safe.
Dahua Technology, a major Chinese surveillance camera company, has arrived in Japan for the first time. If the police or private security companies use these cameras because they are inexpensive, our facial information and location data will be leaked to the Chinese side.
Japan will also be under Chinese surveillance.
Yang
That's not all.
According to the international human rights organization "Safeguard Defenders," China has established an unofficial "police force" in the Netherlands.
Spain, Canada, Sweden... these "police organizations" are spread worldwide.
Tan
That "police organization" or rather a "public security organization" that conducts political activities under the radar is also in Japan. ......
Although not often in the news, the Chinese government has been threatening and kidnapping dissident Chinese, Tibetan, and Mongolian nationals under the guise of "fox hunting" and other such activities or verbally luring them to third countries with "extradition treaties" to be taken to captivity and brought back to their home countries in many cases.
Human rights organizations report that approximately 2,500 people have been forcibly returned home in the past two years and 1,000 in the eight years since 2014.
They also report that more than 600 Taiwanese arrested overseas in 2016-2019 were deported to China, not Taiwan.
Many countries, especially in Africa and Asia, are willing to respect the wishes of the Chinese government to deport them in exchange for financial support from the Chinese government.
Yang.
So, what would have been a 10-year sentence under Taiwanese law is now a life sentence or even the death penalty because of Chinese law.
It is also a clear-cut human rights issue.
Tan.
Fortunately, Japan has not signed an "extradition treaty" with China. Still, there are cases where the Japanese government does not want to get into trouble, voluntarily extraditing someone, and deem the matter "settled early.
Liu
Mr. Eiji Suzuki, President of the Japan-China Youth Exchange Association, was detained by Chinese authorities for about six years for espionage. After serving his sentence, he returned to Japan on October 11, 2020.
He testified in an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun that he "only saw the sun for about 15 minutes in the (first) seven months."
Ako
He must have been treated much worse because he made his statement after signing a pledge with the Chinese government that he would only speak so far.
I have been detained in China three times in the past and was interrogated by banging on my desk, detained overnight, and questioned about my research projects in depth.
Tan.
It is said that foreigners are reserved, but even so, they are treated harshly.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since May 2015, 16 Japanese nationals have been detained by Chinese authorities, and ten have been prosecuted.
Nine of them have been sentenced to imprisonment for 3 to 15 years.
Four are still in prison, and one has died while in prison.
Ako.
Surveillance and detention are not only a problem for the Chinese, so Japanese people should be more vigilant.
Tan
China has already insisted that they will punish illegal foreigners under Chinese law.
In the future, there may be cases of kidnapping and taking Japanese nationals away from Japan or inviting them to travel to China and detaining them.
This article continues.
