Latest news with #UyghurHumanRightsProject
Daily Mail
09-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Holiday Inn owner accused of profiting from Uyghur 'genocide' as it expands operations in controversial Chinese region
The luxury hospitality brand which owns Holiday Inn must rethink their decision to operate in a Chinese region where a genocide is said to be taking place, senior parliamentarians have demanded. Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith is among those to have signed a cross-party letter to InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) demanding answers over the company's activities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China. Beijing has been accused of subjecting the region's Uyghur Muslim minority to mass surveillance, forced labour and religious repression. But recent research by the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) has shown that IHG, which is headquarted in Windsor, is currently operating four hotels in the area, with at least another 16 set to open in the coming years. The revelation has prompted MPs from a range of parties to question IHG's choice to do business in the region. As well as Sir Iain, the signatories included Labour MPs Blair McDougall, Marie Rimmer and Alex Sobel, the SNP 's Chris Law and peers Lord Mackinlay, Lord Shinkwin, Baroness D'Souza and Baroness Meyer. In a letter seen by MailOnline, they wrote: 'In such an environment, it is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for foreign businesses to operate without the risk of benefiting from or contributing to state-led human rights abuses. 'Continued commercial presence in such a context risks signalling tacit endorsement of policies that the UK Government and others have condemned. 'Given growing legal and reputational risks associated with corporate presence in Xinjiang, we strongly urge your company to reassess your operations in the region. 'We respectfully request a formal response to the questions above and appreciate your attention to this issue.' The UHRP report says that five international hotel chains, including IHG, Marriott and Hilton, are all operating in the XUAR. IHG has hotels in areas administered by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), under targeted sanctions by the UK, US, Canada and the European Union for human rights violations. Restrictions have also been imposed in the UK to ensure British organisations are not complicit in, nor profiting from, human rights abuses in Xinjiang. But by conducting business in the XUAR, IHG may be considered to be profiting from tourism in the region where broad suppression is taking place. In a page now deleted on their website, IHG advertise two Holiday Inn Express hotels with the tagline: 'Searching for a hotel in Xinjiang? IHG Hotels & Resorts has the perfect hotel for your upcoming trip to Xinjiang. 'Our hotels are dedicated to providing exceptional service and a memorable stay for every guest. 'Whether you're seeking luxury, boutique, or budget-friendly accommodations in Xinjiang, we have a hotel brand that will exceed your expectations. 'Discover the perfect IHG hotel in Xinjiang and create unforgettable memories during your visit. Book your stay with us today and let us make your trip exceptional.' Luke De Pulford, Executive Director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, told MailOnline: 'With abuses rife throughout Xinjiang, only those who really don't care about the human cost are seeking to expand. It's simply impossible for companies to do meaningful human rights due diligence in the region. 'It's "hear no evil, see no evil". With companies like this, customers should vote with their feet.' The Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center in Xinjiang, believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained As well as Sir Iain, the signatories included Labour MPs Blair McDougall, Marie Rimmer and Alex Sobel, the SNP 's Chris Law and peers Lord Shinkwin and Baroness Meyer Overall, at least 115 hotels from various international brands were operational as of last month, with another 74 in various stages of planning. 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. Beijing is attempting to promote Xinjiang as a tourist destination after years of criticism and scrutiny over its treatment of Uyghurs. In 2024 Xinjiang recorded around 300 million visitors, according to state media, including five million foreign tourists – 50 per cent more than in 2023. The UHRP says that 'many of the newly opened and planned hotels in East Turkistan are not only standard business accommodations located in major cities, but large luxury resorts designed to attract high-end travelers.' In IHG's case, this includes an InterContinental Hotel in Ghulja City later this year. IHG were also accused of hosting state propaganda events and promoting state narratives of Uyghur identity, traditions, and culture. The report says: 'The presence alone of international hotel chains in a region undergoing crimes against humanity and genocide is morally indefensible. 'By offering high-end accommodation and leisure spaces, international hotel chains contribute to a sanitised image of the region, one that directly serves Beijing's propaganda objectives.' Dr. Henryk Szadziewski, co-author of the report and Director of Research at the UHRP, added: 'International hotel chains continue to operate and expand their hospitality businesses in a region where Uyghur families have been torn apart by internment, imprisonment, and forced labor. 'By helping to portray the region as a normal travel destination, international hotel chains risk enabling the ongoing persecution of the Uyghur people.'
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.
Voice of America
08-02-2025
- Politics
- Voice of America
Uyghurs mark 28 years since Ghulja violence, condemn ongoing repression
The first week of February is marked by grief for Zubayra Shamseden not only because she lost loved ones nearly three decades ago, she says, but because China's repressive policies toward Uyghurs continue. "I have been commemorating this day and protesting for the past 28 years, every February 5," Shamseden told VOA. "The Ghulja massacre in 1997 was the beginning of today's ongoing genocide of Uyghurs." Many protesters were killed by the Chinese armed forces that day in what Shamseden describes as a violent Chinese government crackdown on a peaceful Uyghur protest in Ghulja, a city in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang. During subsequent crackdowns, she also lost her brother, Sadirdin, and her nephew, Hemmat Muhammet. In the aftermath, another brother was sentenced to life in prison. "The Chinese government should release all prisoners, including my brother, who were unjustly imprisoned," she told VOA. Outset of violence In recent years, China's policy toward Uyghurs in Xinjiang has drawn global attention, with the U.S. officially labeling China's actions as genocide. The United Nations has raised alarms, warning that China's conduct may constitute crimes against humanity, including mass detentions, forced labor, and other abuses. Beijing, which refers to the 1997 crackdown as "the Yining incident" — a measured police response to an unfolding "riot" — has dismissed these claims as "sheer falsehoods" driven by U.S.-led anti-China forces. Now Chinese outreach coordinator for the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, Shamseden led a demonstration Wednesday outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington. Joined by a dozen activists, she marked the anniversary of what she and many others refer to as the Ghulja Massacre. Recalling the violence of that day, Shamseden says a few hundred unarmed Uyghur youths marched through Ghulja, calling for basic rights. "They took to the streets peacefully and unarmed, asking the government to respect their Islamic religious freedom and Uyghur cultural practices," said Shamseden, a former vice president of the World Uyghur Congress. The youths also called for the release of previously "arrested leaders of their gatherings, because the Chinese authorities didn't allow them to gather for Meshrep," she said. Meshrep, a traditional Uyghur community gathering, has been recognized by UNESCO as part of Uyghur intangible cultural heritage since 2010. Some Meshrep organizers, Shamseden said, had previously been arrested despite initial government approval to hold Meshrep gatherings. Speaking out about a drug crisis among fellow youths in the region had been the purpose of their gatherings. "The Uyghur youth in Ghulja sought to address the growing heroin addiction crisis that spread in the early 1990s," Shamseden said. "They turned to Meshrep — traditional gatherings that included sports, music, performances, and other forms of entertainment — to help young Uyghurs struggling with addiction and alcohol." Officials in Beijing, however, soon deemed the gatherings a threat. In August 1995, key organizers were arrested, prompting protests in Ghulja. Authorities responded by banning Meshrep and cracking down on other Uyghur-led initiatives. Uyghurs were later barred from holding events of any kind. Different perspective Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, described the protest as "not a so-called massacre, but a serious incident of beating, smashing, and looting" carried out by a burgeoning terrorist group. "Xinjiang was once a major area where extremist groups infiltrated and carried out violent terrorist activities," Liu said, adding that China's measures in the region have been aimed at countering terror-based insurgency within the framework of Chinese law. A 1997 Human Rights Watch report, however, linked the crackdown to a secret Chinese government directive known as "Document No. 7." Issued in March 1996 by the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the document laid out measures to strengthen control over Xinjiang, including restrictions on religious and cultural activities, increased military presence and tighter security enforcement. The Washington-based Campaign for Uyghurs described the Chinese government crackdown on protesters as a massacre, stating that the policies behind that bloodshed have evolved into the genocide unfolding today. The Ghulja Massacre was "a pivotal moment when the world had an opportunity to recognize China's trajectory towards mass atrocities — and failed to act," said Rushan Abbas, the group's executive director, in a statement issued Wednesday. "That failure emboldened the [Chinese Communist Party]," said Abbas, who is also chairperson of the executive committee at World Uyghur Congress. "Today, as Uyghurs endure genocide, history repeats itself. The price of inaction is paid in human lives, and every day without accountability reinforces the Chinese regime's belief that it can commit atrocities without consequence." According to Shamseden, who had been in Australia since 1993, visiting Ghulja only in the aftermath of the crackdown in 1998, mass arrests and collective punishment had by then become routine. This crackdown led to the arrest, torture and release of her sister for allegedly helping a Ghulja protester, the killing of her brother Sadirdin in Kazakhstan under mysterious circumstances, and the killing of her nephew Hemmat Muhammet by Chinese police in Ghulja. Shamseden's nephew and brother were leading members of earlier Meshrep gatherings. In 1999, Shamseden said another younger brother, Abdurazzak was sentenced by the Chinese officials for being a separatist, receiving a sentence of life in prison. To this day, she said, she has been unable to learn any details about her brother's current fate, including whether he is alive. According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Abdurazzak's sentence was commuted by the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region High People's Court in August 2016. He had reportedly been serving time at Urumqi No.1 Prison, and is expected to be released in 2036, but his exact whereabouts remain unknown.
