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The Diplomat
a day ago
- Politics
- The Diplomat
China's Genocide and the Eliticide of Uyghur Scholars
To ignore the intellectuals languishing in Chinese prisons is to normalize an ongoing cultural genocide in the Uyghur homeland. On the night of July 29, 2018, Chinese authorities raided the home of Dr. Abdulqadir Jalaleddin, a celebrated Uyghur poet. Police placed a black hood over his head and took him away. Jalaleddin's arrest was part of the state campaign to erase Uyghur identity, a key aim of the genocide against the Uyghur people. While in detention, Jalaleddin wrote the poem 'No Way Home,' memorized by fellow detainees and translated by one of his former students. The poem concludes: To the marrow of my bones I've ached to be with you What road led here, why do I have no road back home In December 2017, Dr. Rahile Dawut, a renowned Uyghur ethnographer and the founder of a folklore institute at Xinjiang University, was planning to travel to the United States to visit her daughter. But before she could make the trip, Dawut disappeared. Five years later, in 2023, her family finally learned that she had been sentenced to life in prison for 'endangering state security.' Seven years later, Jalaleddin and Dawut remain in incommunicado imprisonment. Their children in the United States do not know where they are, or what conditions they are being held in. At a recent Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) event, Dawut's daughter, Akida Polat, and Jewher Ilham, daughter of leading Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, spoke movingly of the pain of having parents serving life sentences. They also acutely diagnosed the deep loss to an entire people, when Uyghur intellectuals have been brutally silenced as part of the multiyear genocide by the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP). Meanwhile, the world looks away. Universities and publishers of academic and scholarly work have a special responsibility to make academic freedom, and freedom of expression more generally, a condition of cooperation with institutions in China. This lesson was learned the hard way by Princeton University Press (PUP). In June, its director joined a Chinese government-sponsored tour of the Uyghur region, and issued a statement praising 'the incredible power of Uyghur poetry,' while saying not a single word about the brutal treatment of Uyghur poets like Jalaleddin. This decision made PUP an 'instrument of disinformation,' showing 'shocking naïveté,' as noted in a roundup of the critical response published in The Uyghur Times. In short: If the Chinese government succeeds in keeping Uyghur historians and poets locked away forever, the genocide succeeds in its aim of eradicating our civilization. To fight for their release is to fight the genocide. Conversely, to ignore the intellectuals languishing in prison is to normalize an ongoing cultural genocide in the Uyghur homeland, which we know as East Turkestan. The persecution of the intellectuals in East Turkestan must be recognized as a 'new form of eliticide,' as UHRP first noted in 2021, and a strategy to 'erase an ethnic identity,' as Austin Ramzy reported in The New York Times. It's time for the world to take stronger action. The U.S. and other governments need to publicly call for the release of Uyghur intellectuals, and work with allies to coordinate pressure on the Chinese government. Universities and publishers need to refuse cooperation with the institutions in China facilitating the persecution of the intellectuals. Jalaleddin and Dawut are just two of the many prominent Uyghur intellectuals China has silenced. In 2021, despite limited information available from our homeland, UHRP documented more than 300 Uyghur intellectuals, artists, and writers disappeared and detained in the Uyghur homeland. The total number is certainly much higher. Their fate? Decades-long prison terms, even life sentences. Some have been punished for work the Chinese government once approved and even commissioned, including writing state-sponsored textbooks now deemed subversive. By targeting the scholars and interpreters of our history, literature, and traditions, China is attacking the core of Uyghur identity. These intellectuals are the living memory of a people who have thrived for over a millennium at the crossroads of Eurasian civilizations. Uyghur poetry, folklore, and literature draw on Turkic oral verse, Persian literature, influences from the Arab world, and elements from East Asia and Europe to create something entirely our own. Erasing Uyghur culture is a deep loss, not just for the Uyghur people, but for humanity's shared cultural heritage. By the same token, if the government can get away with locking up talented and creative artists and writers, it will succeed in shutting down our future living culture. Now Beijing presents a Potemkin version of Uyghur traditions, creating genocide-denying propaganda out of our heritage. A handful of our mosques may still stand, but inside they are empty. Our children are forcibly separated from their parents in state-run boarding schools where they are punished for speaking our language. Even their names are changed. Our language is restricted, our mosques and graveyards are bulldozed, and our books are burned. Without scholars like Dawut documenting our shrines, Tohti championing our human rights, Yalqun Rozi compiling our literature, and Husenjan Esqer recording our language, our culture risks becoming a fossil, preserved only for display rather than a living thing. The U.S. has both the power and the moral obligation to act, especially when detainees have relatives who are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have recognized China's persecution of the Uyghurs as genocide and crimes against humanity. We urge the Department of State to publicly press for the release of detained Uyghur intellectuals by name, demand information on their conditions, and work with international partners to coordinate pressure on Beijing. No other nation has the power to hold China accountable. If the U.S. fails to act, the world will forget about us. These actions are not just symbolic. Naming detainees matters. By showing that the international community is monitoring these cases, it can improve their treatment, prevent torture, and lead to release. Silence, on the other hand, consigns prisoners to permanent disappearance. China wants the world to accept its genocidal policies, and forget the eliticide of Uyghur scholars. We cannot let this happen. It is an urgent imperative for governments and global scholarly communities to once again speak their names, demand their release, and hold China accountable.
News18
6 days ago
- Business
- News18
Dozens of New Xinjiang-Europe cargo routes raise forced labour concerns
London [UK], August 13 (ANI): Over the past year, China's Xinjiang province has seen the launch of more than 40 new freight routes to Europe, moving thousands of tons of goods, according to expansion comes despite ongoing accusations that Beijing is committing human rights abuses and using forced labour against the Uyghur population in the compiled by the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) shows that more than nine cargo operators now fly from Xinjiang to destinations including the UK, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, and other European countries. The findings are based on an analysis of air freight movements between June 2024 and May UHRP report warns that the 'rapid expansion" of air cargo links from Xinjiang to Europe poses 'a growing threat to the integrity of EU and UK supply chains," noting that shipments often include e-commerce items, textiles, footwear, electronics, auto parts, and agricultural products, industries with high exposure to forced labour carriers insist there is no evidence their freight contains such goods, while others claim they are not responsible for monitoring Alton, chair of the UK Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights, said he was 'deeply concerned" by the findings, pointing out that the growth in flights seems to undermine the EU's newly adopted forced labour screening July, his committee warned that Britain risks becoming 'a dumping ground" for products linked to modern slavery and called for targeted import bans to address weaknesses in the UK's 2015 Modern Slavery Act. This law obliges companies to issue annual statements outlining how they are working to prevent forced labour, but critics say enforcement is Volkswagen's decision to withdraw from the region due to the inability to audit its supply chain, Alton stressed that the Chinese government has repeatedly denied access to United Nations Special investigations by governments, the UN, human rights groups, researchers, and survivor testimonies have documented evidence of widespread, state-backed coercion of Uyghur labour in 2021, British MPs voted to recognise China's actions as 'genocide," citing the 'widespread use of forced labour," while the U.S. banned imports linked to Uyghur forced labour that same year, later expanding the ban in early 2025, according to Lea of Anti-Slavery International stated that 'all products" from the Uyghur Region should be presumed to involve forced labour, describing the practice as 'widespread and systematic."She also noted that Xinjiang's Urumqi airport has been promoted by Chinese authorities as a key hub in the 'Air Silk Road" initiative, linking the region to global trade as part of President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road the EU's Forced Labour Regulation, introduced in late 2024, aims to block goods produced through exploitation, and the UK's Modern Slavery Act seeks similar goals, both face serious enforcement challenges due to limited border checks and the difficulty of tracing complex global supply chains, Politico reported. (ANI)
Daily Mail
12-08-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Fresh fears Britain is a 'dumping ground for slave-made goods' as new air cargo routes open between China's Xinjiang region and UK
Fresh fears have been raised about Britain becoming a 'dumping ground' for slave-made goods following an expansion of air cargo routes from China 's Xinjiang region. An analysis of air freight data showed routes are rapidly expanding between Xinjiang and more than a dozen European cities, including in the UK. Xinjiang is where more than a million members of the Uighurs, a Muslim community, have been detained in camps and prisons, according to human rights groups. There have also been mounting allegations of Uighurs being used as slave labour in the northwest region as part of human rights violations sanctioned by Beijing. Research by the Uighur Human Rights Project (UHRP), found - since June last year - nine cargo companies have launch new air freight routes between Xinjiang and cities across the EU, UK and Switzerland. Their analysis of historical cargo flight data showed the emergence of entirely new direct cargo routes - beginning last summer - between Xinjiang and London, Bournemouth and Cardiff. The report found, as of May 2025, there are upwards of 40 flights carrying goods from Xinjiang to Europe weekly. It also stated there were several other indirect, sporadic cargo flights. The UHRP said the new cargo routes were 'creating a direct trade corridor from a region where the Chinese government is perpetrating genocide and atrocity crimes, including forced labour'. It added: 'The rapid expansion of air cargo routes between the Uighur region and Europe poses a growing threat to the integrity of EU and UK supply chains.' Lord Alton, a crossbench peer and chair of Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights, told Politico he was 'deeply concerned' by the findings. His committee has previously raised fears about Britain becoming a 'dumping ground' for goods made with slave labour and urged tougher Government action. Luke de Pulford, of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said: 'Since the US passed laws preventing Uighur slave-made products from being sold into America, Beijing has been scrambling to dump them elsewhere. 'Regrettably, despite the UK's stated desire to stamp out slavery, we are becoming a destination for slave-made goods. 'The Government must impose import restrictions on goods from Xinjiang. The risk of sourcing goods produced through forced labour is simply too high.' Sian Lea, head of UK and European advocacy at Anti-Slavery International, said: 'We have to presume all products made in the Uighur region are made with forced labour.' A spokesperson for China's embassy in London said: 'The allegation of 'forced labor' in Xinjiang is a 'lie of the century' concocted by anti-China elements to smear China. They insisted 'there's no 'forced labor' in Xinjiang' and that the UHRP's report is 'completely false'. 'No amount of slander or defamation can change the fact that Xinjiang's products are high-quality and widely welcomed,' the spokesperson added. 'Nor can it obscure the region's steady economic and social progress.'
The Independent
18-04-2025
- The Independent
Hotel chains should not ‘sanitise' China abuses in Xinjiang, Uyghur rights group says in new report
Nearly 200 international hotels, including prominent chains, are either already operating in Xinjiang or planning to open in the region, despite reports of widespread human rights abuses by China, according to a new report. The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) has identified at least 115 operational hotels that 'benefit from a presence in the Uyghur region', including major international hotel chains — Accor, Hilton, IHG, Marriott, and Wyndham. Additionally, at least 74 other hotels are in various stages of construction or planning in China 's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang). These hotels are 'operating and dramatically expanding their presence in East Turkistan despite ongoing crimes against humanity and genocide ', the UHRP said in a report published on Thursday. The report also mentions that some of the hotels have connections to forced labour and labour transfer programmes. 'By offering high-end accommodations and leisure spaces, international hotel chains contribute to a sanitised image of the region, one that directly serves Beijing 's propaganda objectives,' it said. Xinjiang, one of the most ethnically diverse regions in China, has been witnessing systematic abuses against Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic groups under the guise of 'terrorism' and 'religious extremism' by the government in Beijing, activists say. According to Amnesty International, it is estimated that over a million people have been arbitrarily detained in internment camps throughout Xinjiang since 2017. The international human rights group has stated that China is carrying out mass internment, torture, re-education, forced labour, the criminalisation of acts of religious expression, and the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region. Legal experts and world governments have called China's indoctrination and human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities a genocide, a claim yet to be taken to the international court. China has denied reports of its mistreatment of minorities in the Xinjiang region. Experts working on the report have called on the hotels working in the region not to normalise China's human rights abuses. 'It's unconscionable that these hotel chains continue to operate and expand in the Uyghur Region at a time when the Chinese government is carrying out systematic atrocities,' said Peter Irwin, co-author of the report and the associate director for research and advocacy at the UHRP. 'There is absolutely no way these multibillion-dollar corporations can operate responsibly in this environment – their presence alone normalises and legitimises these abuses,' he said. The rise in the number of hotels operating in China's far west comes at a time when Beijing is promoting Xinjiang as a tourist destination, with state media claiming around 300 million visitors to the region in 2024 alone. According to the UHRP report, hotel chains operating in the Uyghur region 'risk enabling and legitimising the political and economic system that perpetuates forced labour, cultural erasure and other human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs'. The leading hotels 'support the very apparatus of state control that enforces these atrocities' by maintaining a presence in the region, it said. Seeking action, the UHRP has called on the international hotel chains to freeze their further expansion in the region, halt all operations and sever any business ties, and third-party booking platforms to delist all hotel booking services in the region.
The Guardian
17-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Uyghur rights group calls on hotel chains not to ‘sanitise' China abuses in Xinjiang
Almost 200 international hotels are operating or planning to open in Xinjiang, despite calls from human rights groups for global corporations not to help 'sanitise' the Chinese government's human rights abuses in the region, a report has said. The report by the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) identified 115 operational hotels which the organisation said 'benefit from a presence in the Uyghur region'. At least another 74 were in various stages of construction or planning, the report said. The UHRP said some of the hotels also had exposure or links of concern to forced labour and labour transfer programmes. The explosion in hotel numbers coincides with the Chinese government's efforts to push Xinjiang as a tourism destination after years of criticism and sanctions over its crackdown on the local Muslim population. In 2024 Xinjiang recorded about 300 million visitors, according to state media, including almost 5 million foreign tourists – 50% more than in 2023. Several world governments and legal groups have declared the government's actions against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities to be a genocide, although this has not been settled in any international court. The UN says that China's policies in Xinjiang may amount to crimes against humanity. Human Rights Watch has said the policies – which include mass internment and re-education, forced labour, and criminalisation of acts of religious expression – amount to crimes against humanity. China's government denies all accusations of abuse and mistreatment in Xinjiang. Human rights groups have argued that foreign enterprises having a presence in Xinjiang lends legitimacy to the Chinese government's crackdown, and called on firms to vacate. In November car manufacturer, Volkswagen, sold its Xinjiang factory after years of pressure. But as Beijing promotes Xinjiang as holiday destination for domestic and international tourists, the spotlight has turned to foreign tourism businesses. In 2023 the Guardian reported on a number of tour operators advertising holiday packages through Xinjiang. Now, hotel companies appear to be growing their footprint. Well known brands including France's Accor, Hilton, the British IHG Group, Marriott and Wyndham are among hundreds of existing or developing hotels across the region. The sites listed included luxurious upmarket hotels, across city locations as well as ski resort areas where the Chinese government has heavily invested in winter tourism. The report said three companies – Hilton, IHG, and Wyndham – all had hotels, and potentially paid fees or taxes – in areas administered by China's state-owned paramilitary entity, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC). The XPCC has been sanctioned by several governments including the US, UK and EU, over 'serious rights abuses against ethnic minorities'. Peter Irwin, associate director for research and advocacy at UHRP, said: 'This kind of hotel expansion, from international chains in particular, falls squarely within the Chinese government's own strategy to try and normalise the public's understanding of what's going on in the Uyghur region. 'The government can point to these major companies entrenching themselves in the region as evidence that everything is normal, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.' One recently opened hotel, by a Hilton franchisee, was built on the site of a mosque in Khotan which was demolished amid a government campaign which saw more than 10,000 religious sites destroyed. 'Building a hotel on the site of a demolished mosque is particularly egregious, given that the Chinese government has undertaken a broad campaign to tear down mosques across the Uyghur Region since 2017,' the report said. It said the hotel was not visible on English-language travel booking sites but China's CTrip showed reviews dating back to about mid-2024. Tuesday's report assessed government records, corporate records and media articles, to determine whether hotels had other links of concern, including ownership structures with particular Chinese companies and involvement in state programmes identified by human rights researchers. In another case study, the report identified links between Accor's Grand Mercure Urumqi Hualing hotel and a training and employment program. A state media report from one symposium said a human resources director from the hotel had visited and signed letters of intent with many students. The symposium was targeted at young people and 'surplus rural labour' workers from ethnic minorities, as part of the government's poverty alleviation and 'social stability' goals. The government says its Xinjiang employment programs are part of 'poverty alleviation' efforts but has been accused of forced labour and labour transfer programmes that breach human rights. The report also said Accor's strategic partner in China, H World Group Limited, had used a recruitment and training program, Xinjiang Aid, which a US congressional investigation found contributed to the risk of human trafficking. In 2020 four US agencies warned the program may make use of internment camp labor or workers from 'abusive labour programs'. 'These hotels continue to operate and expand business in a region in which Uyghur families have been torn apart by internment, imprisonment, forced labor programs, and enforced disappearances,' said Dr Henryk Szadziewski, co-author of the report and director of research at the UHRP. The report called for the hotel chains to initiate 'immediate reviews' of their operations, given they had all made pledges to adopt international human rights standards. It urged them to freeze expansion plans, halt operations and sever business ties. 'They should publicly disclose their decision to exit, conduct heightened human rights due diligence, and engage with Uyghur rights organizations for remediation,' the report said. The Guardian contacted Accor, Hilton, IHG, Marriott, and Wyndham for comment, but none has responded. Timothy Grose a professor of China studies with expertise in ethnic policy at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, said investing in the region's tourism was not a bad thing in principle. 'In fact, the investments could bring great benefits to local economies,' he told the Guardian. 'However, if recent history repeats itself, the construction of new hotels, which may attract thousands of my tourists, will unlikely translate into improvements in the lives of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other minoritised groups.' 'Perhaps most immediately, shiny hotels and droves of tourists attempt to paint the picture that human rights abuses certainly cannot be occurring in such a 'happy' and 'thriving' place. Unfortunately, this strategy seems to have achieved some degree of success.'
