Communist China's new tactic in its persecution of Chinese citizens

Direct translation

British media: Beware of the CCP's passport trap! It's forcing Chinese citizens to return home and die

— Beware of the Chinese Communist Party’s passport trap: Deliberately issuing wrong passports to force people to return home

Reporter : Wang Duruo / Editor : Zhongkang / https://www.aboluowang.com/2025/0807/2258935.html / Image : File photo

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has launched a new tactic in its persecution of the Uyghurs. The British newspaper The Telegraph reported on 5 August 2025 that the CCP, through its embassies abroad, deliberately issued "invalid passports" with erroneous information, creating a "passport trap" to lure overseas Uyghurs back to China. This is essentially a new form of transnational repression. Upon returning, Uyghurs face detention, forced labor, or even disappearance.

The report focused on Obulqasim Isma'il, a Uyghur chef living in Kyrgyzstan. He has lived there since 1998, married, and has children, and has no political connections. In the fall of 2023, he went to the Chinese Embassy in Kyrgyzstan to apply for a passport renewal, but received a passport with the name "Aisikaer Nuermaimaiti" and an incorrect date of birth. Obulqasim reported the issue to the embassy but officials refused to replace it. Instead, they demanded that he accept it and demanded that he return to Urumqi, Xinjiang, China, to appeal if he wanted to correct it.

The Kyrgyz government subsequently deemed this passport a forgery, and Obulqasim faced deportation. He said, "I'm terrified that if I go back, they'll lock me up." Experts point out that the CCP's actions are intended to create a legal identity crisis for overseas Uyghurs and force them to return to China.

Laura Harth, director of transnational repression at the human rights organization Safeguard Defenders, noted that this is a new model of persecution disguised as "compliant procedures," allowing Chinese agencies abroad to deny responsibility while saddled with visa difficulties and ultimately deportation.

Although Obuqasim is not a dissident, his Uyghur identity has become a target of the CCP. He also revealed that in his early years, the CCP pressured his brother in Xinjiang to persuade him to "go back for a few days," demonstrating the CCP's long-standing coercion of overseas Uyghurs. Julie Millsap, a spokesperson for the Uighur human rights group Wild Pigeon Collective, also confirmed, "We've seen similar cases repeatedly in all the countries the CCP is targeting."

Since 2014, the CCP has intensified its repression of Uyghurs. Not only has it established large-scale re-education camps and implemented high-tech surveillance within China, it has also provided so-called "fugitive lists" to other countries, demanding the repatriation of Uyghurs abroad. External sources point out that the CCP's definition of "fugitive" is extremely broad, labeling anyone who expresses political dissent or criticizes the regime.

Obuqasim has applied for asylum at the United Nations and has publicly expressed his fears: "I'm really scared they'll burst in in the middle of the night, cover my head with a black cloth, and send me back." As of press time, the Chinese embassies in the UK and Kyrgyzstan, as well as the Kyrgyz embassy in the UK, did not respond to The Telegraph's requests for an interview.

Aboluowang commentator Wang Duran noted that while this report focuses on the persecution of Uyghurs, all Chinese people should be vigilant: The CCP will not show any mercy to Han Chinese either. The crime of live organ harvesting was first carried out on a large scale against Han Chinese Falun Gong practitioners.

Image : Aboluowang