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Amid calls within the Japanese government to join the ‘Five Eyes’ alliance, it is being reported that Japan provided key inputs to the US and Britain last year regarding Chinese clampdown on Uyghur minority.
A person close to Japan-US relations disclosed on Monday that Japan had provided intelligence to the US and the UK last year on China’s forceful detainment of Muslim Uyghur minority people on condition of keeping the source confidential.
Based on the information, the US as well as the UK stepped up their criticism against the Chinese severe crackdown on Uyghurs in the Xinjiang autonomous region.
The Trump administration placed a series of sanctions on Beijing for human rights violations against Uyghurs, such as visa restriction on Chinese officials, heightening bilateral tensions.
Vice President Mike Pence in 2019 had claimed that “Communist Party imprisoned more than a million Chinese Muslims, including Uyghurs, in internment camps where they endure around-the-clock brainwashing.”
Meanwhile, China has termed the Western counties’ criticisms as interference in its internal affairs.
Five Eyes is an intelligence-sharing network of five nations — Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the US who collaborated to better respond to increasing threats by North Korea and China. Japan is on its way to become the ‘sixth eye’.
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