Exiled pro-democracy activist on being Uyghur during Tiananmen Square protests
In 1989, a young Uyghur named Örkesh Dölet was a student leader in the Tiananmen Square protests. Throughout the protests, Dölet represented students in televised negotiations with Chinese Communist Party leaders. After the massacre, the 21-year-old was put on China's list of most wanted student leaders and so he fled the country. He now lives in exile in Taiwan. 'For every important choices I make in my life, my Uyghur-ness has always came in and played an important role,' he says. 'That we do the right thing, not the safe thing.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Belfast Telegraph
31 minutes ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Beijing-appointed Panchen Lama holds rare meeting with Chinese leader
Gyaltsen Norbu, who is rarely seen in public, met behind closed doors with Mr Xi in Zhongnanhai, the government compound in the centre of Beijing, about 2,300 miles from his home monastery of Tashilhumpo, high on the Tibetan steppe. The 35-year-old said he would 'firmly support the leadership of the Communist Party of China and resolutely safeguard the unity of the motherland and national unity', the Xinhua News Agency reported. The Chinese government appointed him as the Panchen Lama of Tibetan Buddhism in 1995 at age five after followers of the Dalai Lama recognised a different boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as the Panchen's incarnation. That boy and his family disappeared in 1995 in what the US government has alleged was an abduction by the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama, 89, has refused to recognise the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama. The Chinese government says Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is now a college graduate living a private life and working a stable job, while producing no evidence. The Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama was quoted on Friday by Xinhua as saying he would 'contribute to promoting national unity and progress, systematically promote the sinicisation of religion in China, and promote the modernisation of Tibet'. Mr Xi's government uses the term 'sinicisation' to mean that all religions including Christianity and Islam must take their orders from the Communist Party, reduce their non-Chinese aspects and limit their role in society. Mr Xi was quoted as telling the Chinese government's Panchen that he should continue Tibetan Buddhism's 'strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, systematically advancing the sinicisation of religion in China, and promoting the modernisation of Tibet'. Last month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement marking the 30th anniversary of the disappearance of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, saying he and his family had been abducted by the Chinese government. 'Chinese authorities should release Gedhun Choekyi Nyima immediately and stop persecuting Tibetans for their religious beliefs,' Mr Rubio's statement read. The position of Panchen Lama is especially sensitive since he is expected to take part in the recognition of a new Dalai Lama and serve as his tutor, a religious process that the officially atheist Communist Party is determined to control. The meeting on Friday also reflected Mr Xi's focus on economic and political stability within China's borders, where an economic slump has raised concerns of anti-government outbursts and control over minority groups is an overwhelming obsession.
The Independent
33 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump sends Bessent and Lutnick to haggle with Chinese on tariff war after Xi chat
Three members of Donald Trump's cabinet will meet with Chinese officials in London on Monday in an effort to deescalate or resolve the unprovoked trade war which Trump started with Beijing two months ago. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he was 'pleased to announce' that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Lutnick would travel to London along with U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer for a sit-down with 'Representatives of China, with reference to the Trade Deal.' He added: 'The meeting should go very well. Thank you for your attention to this matter!'
Times
38 minutes ago
- Times
China surpasses German engineering with world's tallest wind turbine
Other countries compete to build the tallest skyscraper, or the biggest Ferris wheel. China and Germany are more serious about their engineering: they compete for the prize of having the biggest wind turbine. One of China's two leading wind turbine companies, Dongfang Electric, announced on Friday it had completed a key test on the latest machine that, when it goes into service shortly, will break that record. Standing 340 metres from its base in the Pacific, off the coast of the country's Fujian province, to the tip of its blades when they rotate to their highest points, it will be the first wind turbine to be taller than the Eiffel Tower. Dongfang — meaning the East — said it had finished load testing a prototype blade for the turbine, itself 150 metres long. 'We're harnessing the power of tech to plant the seeds of a greener future,' it said in celebration. 'Every blade carries a low-carbon dream, ready to catch the wind and grow strong.' China under President Xi has put huge economic weight on not only an ever-expanding industrial base but also being at the forefront of green technologies. With no room for political opposition, and a heavy continuing reliance nationally on coal and other fossil fuels at the same time, there is little of the public debate around wind power that western European companies have faced. China already makes more than 80 per cent of the world's solar panels. Its low cost base — unfairly subsidised, according to western rivals — is also undercutting and starting to dominate American and European production in wind power too. A worker at the Dongfang factory operates a robotic arm At present the wind turbine claimed to be the world's highest was constructed by another Chinese company, Mingyang, and operates off the southern Chinese island of Hainan. Its hub is at the same height as Dongfang's — 185 metres off the ground — but its blades are a few metres shorter. A similarly sized turbine is already operating at the site to which the Dongfang blades are believed to be heading, the Fujian Fuzhou Offshore Wind Power Industrial Park. Its maximum capacity is 18MW of electricity, and the Hainan turbine is 20MW, which the new turbine will surpass by 6MW. According to estimates, that will be enough at average 10 metres per second windspeeds to power 55,000 homes on its own. Britain's tallest wind turbines — at the Longhill Burn Wind Farm in West Lothian, Scotland — stand up to 150m tall. The blades reach as high as 200m. How long any of these three monsters maintain their dominance is unclear. As Germany tries to reclaim its traditional global leadership in engineering — and tries to stave off Chinese competition — its companies are also building higher. A turbine being designed and built by Gicon, a German conglomerate, will stand at 363 metres from toe to the tip of the vertical blade. It, however, is based on a novel design, in which smaller blades rotate from a 300-metre high lattice structure itself influenced by the design of the Eiffel Tower. It will, however, be the second highest man-made object in Germany, after the Berlin TV Tower.
