Earlier this month New Zealand joined 21 other countries in a letter to the UN condemning China's treatment of ethnic Muslims living in China - the Uyghurs.



Concerns include an estimated 1 million Uyghurs being detained in Chinese camps, and reports of people being returned to China against their will from abroad.

Now a Uyghur man living in New Zealand has told Newshub Nation he fears for his safety after receiving threatening phone calls from the Chinese embassy.

His message for our Government - please protect his and his people.

In 2010 Shawudun Abdul-Gopur escaped to New Zealand from China, but still fears for the family he left behind.

"At the moment. I know my mum is in a concentration camp. She is 78."

Shawudun says he has not been able to contact his mother since 2016, or any of his three brothers who he says were jailed simply for being Uyghurs.

"If I go back to China I will die or disappear... Even I am not feeling so safe in New Zealand."

He says he has received numerous threatening phone calls from the Chinese embassy.

"They called me they say are you a traitor who betrayed the country."

Shawudun recorded some of the phone calls. In one, a person purporting to be from the Chinese embassy asks Shawudun to go there to collect a package.

"I went to police and they didn't do anything for us."

The Chinese embassy did not respond to Newshub Nation's repeated attempts to seek a response to these allegations of harassment.

Police told us the complaint was filed because all lines of inquiry had been exhausted. However they said officers will be speaking to Shawudun about any new information.

But concerns about the extent of China's reach in New Zealand are shared among members New Zealand's Falun Gong community, a spiritual group which is practitioners claim is effectively banned in China.

Wendy Cao is a Falun Gong practitioner who has been peacefully protesting against the Chinese Government for almost 20 years. She says a protest saw the tyres of her van tampered with in 2008, which was discovered by her mechanic carrying out a warrant of fitness.

"The mechanic remarked to me saying that 'the front tyre of your vehicle has been cut', and I was shocked because they're just new tyres...he said 'this cut, this is deliberate'."

The Chinese embassy has not responded to Newshub Nation's numerous attempts to contact them regarding Wendy's claims either, but she is adamant it was carried out by someone connected to the Chinese government.

"They don't respect we have rights here in New Zealand and they don't respect that there is a law here in New Zealand."

Police have confirmed she did lay complaint in 2015 about being threatened while protesting outside the Chinese consulate in Auckland.

Watch the video.

Newshub Nation.