More on China’s Refugee Repatriations

The bad press, for what it’s worth, is really rolling down on China for repatriating 62 refugees to North Korea. The BBC prominently covered the story, including this quote:

‘China knows that they will be executed or they will be put in political prisoner camps for the crime of leaving the country,’ said Suzanne Scholte, president of the human rights group the Defense Forum Foundation, on Tuesday.

Suzanne was apparently interviewed in Seoul, where she’s currently attending the North Korean Holocaust Exhibition (Chosun story here). Suzanne even joined a demonstration in front of the Chinese Embassy in Myongdong.

The Chosun was piling on China, too, with both a story and an editorial lambasting China for telling North Koreans to “Go and Die.” All of this suggests that China was unusually tone-deaf, particularly given the concentrated attention of so many human rights activists at the National Assembly and their proximity to the media this week.

It’s probably too late to save these 62, but if the blows stuck hard enough to leave a mark, China may think hard before repatriating the next batch.