When Nuria Zyden travelled from her home in Dublin to a conference in Sarajevo she became aware that two Chinese men were following her. They were on her plane and they travelled to the hotel where she was staying. The conference was the World Uyghur Congress and she was there to represent the Irish Uyghur Cultural Association which she had founded in 2024 as a way to bring Irish Uyghurs together.
She was not entirely surprised.
Zyden is a Uyghur, a Turkic Muslim from Xinjiang – a minority that has been subjected to massive surveillance and repression by the Chinese government over the past decade.
The mother of three who has lived in Ireland since 2009 and is an Irish citizen, gets calls from the security services in China complaining about her political activities and suggesting she work with them.
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Her contact with her elderly mother in China is, she says, severely curtailed and monitored by the authorities.
Moving away to live and work in Dublin has not protected her from the reach of the Chinese Communist Party.
She explains how this impacts on her life and her determination to give a voice to the millions of Uyghurs in China who cannot defend themselves.
Irish Times journalist Colm Keena with his colleagues at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has been investigating how the Chinese government monitors its citizens abroad for a major new report called China Targets.
He explains how Irish citizen Nuria Zyden became the victim of transnational repression.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.
