Reports published throughout the year documented authorities’ continued use of torture and other forms of mistreatment against prisoners and camp detainees. As in the past reporting year, reports emerged documenting the deaths of individuals in mass internment camps and prisons or after they were held in camps or prisons. Examples include the following:

• Yaqup Haji, a 45-year-old Uyghur businessman and philan- thropist from Ghulja (Yining) city, Ili (Yili) Kazakh Autono- mous Prefecture, who died in or around September 2021 after being tortured in a mass internment camp or prison, where he had been held since 2018. A friend of Yaqup Haji told RFA that authorities had detained him for making contributions to religious causes, and that authorities had tortured him, includ- ing by holding him in solitary confinement.

• Zeynephan Memtimin, a 40-year-old Uyghur woman who died in 2020 in a prison in Keriye (Yutian) county, Hotan pre- fecture, where she was serving a 10-year sentence for violating family planning policies.62 Authorities previously held Zeynephan Memtimin in a mass internment camp beginning in 2017, for having fled a hospital where she was due to undergo a forced abortion in 2014.63 Officials did not disclose the cause of her death to relatives.

• Yaqup Hesen, a 43-year-old goldsmith who died on May 1, 2022, 20 days after being released from a prison in Ghulja (Yining) city, Ili (Yili) Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, where he had been held for three years. A neighborhood committee official told RFA that authorities had detained him for pray- ing. Family members sought medical treatment for Yaqup Hesen for an unspecified illness at multiple hospitals following his release. Yaqup Hesen’s 20-year-old son died, reportedly of grief, at his father’s funeral. view all

The infos from CECC Annual Report 2022 
 

 XINJIANG

• Key findings from a cache of tens of thousands of files ob- tained from public security bureaus in two counties in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) included: the key role of senior Communist Party and central government offi- cials in carrying out the mass detention and other persecution of Turkic Muslims in the XUAR; the highly securitized nature of detention in the region’s camps and prisons; the high rate of imprisonment in Konasheher (Shufu) county in Kashgar pre- fecture, XUAR, as authorities increasingly sentenced Turkic Muslims to formal imprisonment; and arbitrary deprivation of liberty in camps and prisons.

• Reports published during the Commission’s 2022 reporting year indicated that XUAR officials increasingly sentenced many Turkic and Muslim individuals to long prison terms, sometimes following their detention in mass internment camps. According to international reporting and analysts’ re- view of satellite imagery, officials have converted many former mass internment camps into prisons or other types of formal detention facilities.

• International researchers and journalists found evidence that authorities continued to expand detention facilities, in- cluding mass internment camps. Based on research and anal- ysis of leaked official documents and satellite imagery, BuzzFeed News journalists estimated in July 2021 that au- thorities in the XUAR had enough space in detention facilities in the region, including prisons and mass internment camps, to detain more than one million people at the same time.

• Authorities in the XUAR maintained a system of forced labor that involved former mass internment camp detainees and other Turkic and Muslim individuals. In its annual report re- leased in February 2022, the International Labour Organiza- tion expressed ‘‘deep concern’’ over forced labor in the XUAR and asserted that the ‘‘extensive use of forced labor’’ involving Turkic and/or Muslim minorities in the region violated the Em- ployment Policy Convention of 1964.

• In September 2021, official media in the XUAR announced a new plan pairing Uyghur children with children from across the country, a move that observers believe is designed to con- trol Uyghurs’ lives and eliminate Uyghurs’ cultural identity.



Executive Summary

Called the ‘‘Pomegranate Flower Plan,’’ the initiative matched Uyghur toddlers and elementary school students from a village in Kashgar prefecture with predominantly Han Chinese chil- dren from other parts of China, in order to establish ‘‘kinship’’ ties between the children.

• During the 2022 Ramadan period, which lasted from April 1 to May 1, authorities in parts of Urumqi municipality and Kashgar and Hotan prefectures reportedly enforced quotas for local Muslims allowed to fast during the holiday, and required them to register with officials. Reports published this past year showed that authorities have sentenced Turkic Muslims in the XUAR, including members of the clergy, to lengthy prison terms.

• Turkic women who had been detained in mass internment camps in the XUAR provided evidence to the Uyghur Tribunal that many female detainees were raped in the camps. One former camp detainee testified that unmarried, divorced, and widowed women were raped in a camp where she was detained and that men paid to come to camps to rape female detainees. view all

The data from CECC Annual Report 2022 
link:https://www.cecc.gov/sites/chi ... 0.pdf
 Meryem Emet

2022-00124

Date of Detention: Unknown date in 2017
Place of Detention: A prison in Kucha (Kuche) county, Aksu prefecture, XUAR
Charge(s): Unknown
Status: Sentenced to 20 years
Context: In 2017, authorities in Urumqi municipality, XUAR, detained Meryem Emet and later sentenced her to 20 years in prison. Her sentence was reportedly con- nected with her marriage to a Turkish national, and with her having met and spoken with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdog ̆an during his 2012 visit to Urumqi. Additional Information: After her detention, XUAR au- thorities forced her two children, then ages four and six, into boarding schools in Urumqi, where teachers sub- jected them to traumatizing disciplinary measures includ- ing beatings and being forced to hold stress positions. After nearly 20 months at the schools, the two children were left unable to communicate in Uyghur. view all

The data from https://www.cecc.gov/sites/chi ... 0.pdf
 Helchem Pazil

2022-00112

Date of Detention: Unknown date in 2018 or 2019 Place of Detention: Changji Women’s Prison, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autono- mous Region (XUAR)
Charge(s): Inciting ethnic hatred; gathering a crowd to disturb public order
Status: Sentenced to 17 years
Context: In a court judgment issued in 2019, the Korla (Ku’erle) Municipal People’s Court in Bayangol (Bayinguoleng) Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, XUAR, sentenced 78-year-old Helchem Pazil and several of her relatives, including her three daughters and a daughter- in-law, to prison in connection with private gatherings in which they discussed family life and Islam. view all

UN Human Rights Council rejects debate on Xinjiang
 

Report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) regarding what China calls “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” (XUAR) states “serious human rights violations” against the Uyghur and “other predominantly Muslim communities” have occurred.
 
 
]click and check the report pdf format[/url]
 
 
 
  view all

We can all help end China's genocide of the Uyghurs: 
1. Don't buy products from China, especially cotton 
2. Don't use China's tech products 
Uyghur activist @nuryturkel told me in Taiwan
 
  view all

Meet a sinister multi-billion-dollar conglomerate that has its own military force, universities, and jails.
 
]This original article is from here[/url]
 

 
 
 

Barracks of a paramilitary unit operated by XPCC. Credits.Beijing’s persecution in Xinjiang is deeply tied in with an organization set up specifically to squeeze out ethnic identities on its westernmost flank.

Shocking proof that the persecution of indigenous Turkic peoples in Xinjiang has been engineered and propelled by an organization specifically set up to squeeze out its indigenous population, has been uncovered by new research.

The extent to which the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), also known as the Bingtuan, originally set up seventy years ago to guard the Western frontiers, has mutated over time to create an “environment of extraordinary terror and oppression” has been laid bare by academics at the Sheffield Hallam University’s Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice.

According to “Until Nothing is Left, China’s Settler Corporation and its Human Rights Violations in the Uyghur Region,” the XPCC, steered by Beijing, but run locally, has evolved to the point whereby even the most intimate moments of Uyghur life are “surveilled, judged, and punished.”

The alarming conclusions of the report found that the small border force set up in 1954 during the Mao era, now functions as an immense multi-billion-dollar conglomerate with thirteen listed companies, and direct and indirect corporate  holdings amounting to more than 862,000 entities worldwide.

Originally focused on agriculture and construction, the Bingtuan also now operates corporations in energy, mining, chemicals, oil and gas extraction, logistics, apparel, electronics, wine, food processing, insurance, tourism, and many other sectors. “The goods produced by the XPCC reach far into global supply chains, and XPCC construction projects operate not only in the XUAR but throughout China and across Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa,” note the authors.

Managing one sixth of the region’s total land, one sixth of the region’s total population, and much of its governing structures, the XPCC has its own military force, media networks, and high-quality schools and universities. It runs prisons, distributes and requisitions land, and mobilizes hundreds of thousands of Han from inner China to settle the region, and thereby dilute the indigenous population, building them houses and even cities, and grabbing land from local farmers to do so.

Most troubling, the Bingtuan has been charged with building and running the vast network of so-called re-education centers and forced labor programs that have seen more than a million corralled into ex-judicial detention to face torture and every kind of privation, and many more swallowed up into euphemistically named “poverty alleviation” schemes around China making goods for Western markets.

“All enterprises and investment projects in the region are expected as part of their corporate responsibility to engage in the government’s programs to ‘transform’ and indoctrinate Uyghur people and to ‘transfer’ and coerce them into labor-intensive work,” states the report. Subsidies and incentives are lavished on compliant companies and all entities operating in Bingtuan territory are obliged to perform central roles in the repression inflicted on the Uyghurs and other minoritized citizens.
 

 
 
 
The human rights violations implicit in its reach earned the XPCC and two of its highest officials sweeping US sanctions in July 2019 thereby banning all products under its umbrella from entering the USA.

The report points out that XPCC products, particularly tomatoes, coal, cotton and wool fabrics cited for export cannot escape tainting global supply chains, and although now forbidden from entering the U.K. and the United States, are polluting trade around the world due to their complex and opaque accountability networks.

One case study after another showing XPCC encroachment on land, its appropriation of scarce water resources, its destruction of ancient and traditional settlements and cultural and religious landmarks prove incontrovertibly that the relentless forward march of the paramilitary corporation, ordered by Beijing, has one end goal, that of the elimination or at the very least total assimilation of the Turkic peoples.

The economic, physical, mental, and emotional effect on the local population has taken its toll as farmers whose families have tilled their land for centuries see bulldozers raze their oasis homes, carved pillars and orchards to build concrete monolithic housing estates for incoming Chinese settlers. Many are even given bonuses if they demolish their own homes, and surrender their land without a whisper, after which they are forcibly relocated to state-run and monitored communities, “sterile, treeless, and anodyne,” say the authors, “maximizing visibility and surveillability.”
 
 
 
 
The report’s deep dive into the machinations of the XPCC reveal an orchestrated campaign lead by Beijing and collaborated with on the ground, to terrorize every Turkic citizen into shedding their cultural heritage and language in favor of Han practices and Xi Jinping’s vision of a “New Era.”

Xi’s orders to “chop the weeds and destroy their roots, eliminate the evil until nothing is left,” are personified in the roll out of tyranny since 2016 which has seen the XPCC transform the Uyghur region into a virtual open prison. Those who weren’t interned, lived under the spotlight of surveillance and networks of neighborhood snitches, the terror of practicing any religious faith, knocks on the door at midnight, disappearing academics, authors and friends and communities were gripped by the fear of what tomorrow might bring.

Every action and decision was, and still is, laced with the fear that disobedience would mean incarceration without trial. All these charges are laid at the feet of the XPCC by the authors of the report, who urge the international community to stand jointly against the monolith.

“The main purpose of the XPCC is to control, intimidate, disperse, and ultimately break down the Uyghur people until there is nothing left of their culture,” said Laura Murphy, Professor of Human Rights and Contemporary Slavery at the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University and one of the authors of the report.

“The corporate empire that it has built on the backs of its forced labor programs has a huge footprint in the global economy, and it’s essential that world leaders in both business and government stand against the XPCC and its violations of human rights. As long as companies around the world continue to source from XPCC subsidiaries, Uyghurs and other local peoples in the region will continue to suffer.”
 
 



Direct action and a raft of more sanctions, including import bans on goods grown, processed or manufactured by the XPCC, should be imposed and Magnitsky sanctions widened to include more of its leaders, particularly the chief instigator of the worst excesses of recent clampdowns, former CCP Xinjiang Secretary Chen Quanguo himself, says the report.

Backing the research, 20 co-chairs of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) from across the political spectrum and the world, have called for urgent action to hold the XPCC to account. Reiterating the need for robust trade measures against the body, to include “export controls against the 2,873 companies internationally in which the XPCC holds a majority stake,” it also advocates reforming modern slavery legislation to ban the import of goods made by the XPCC and other entities responsible for forced labor in the Xinjiang region.



Following the release of the report, Uyghur groups, including the World Uyghur Congress and the End Uyghur Forced Labour coalition have joined forces to call on “all companies in all countries to sever all relationships with XPCC companies and subsidiaries.” view all

]Arabic Language Report Link[/url]
]English Report link[/url]
]Chinese Language Report Link[/url]
 

 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) actively attempts to manipulate and dominate global discourse on Xinjiang and to discredit independent sources reporting ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity conducted against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.  PRC-directed and -affiliated actors lead a coordinated effort to amplify Beijing’s preferred narratives on Xinjiang, to drown out and marginalize narratives that are critical of the PRC’s repression of Uyghurs, and to harass those critical of the PRC.

MESSAGING TACTICS

PRC messaging tactics seek to drown out critical narratives by both flooding the international information environment to limit access to content that contradicts Beijing’s official line, and by creating an artificial appearance of support for PRC policies. Messengers use sophisticated A.I. -generated images to create the appearance of authenticity of fake user profiles.  The PRC works to silence dissent by engaging in digital transnational repression, trolling, and cyberbullying.

Flooding To Drown Out Critical Narratives

The PRC floods conversations to drown out messages it perceives as unfavorable to its interests on search engines  and social media feeds, and to amplify Beijing’s preferred narratives on its treatment of Uyghurs.  Pro-PRC stakeholders flood information ecosystems with counternarratives, conspiracy theories, and unrelated news items to suppress narratives detailing PRC authorities’ atrocities in Xinjiang. Government social media accounts, PRC-affiliated media, private accounts, and bot clusters, likely all directed by PRC authorities, assist in this effort.

Astroturfing To Create a False Appearance of Support

To manipulate narratives on Xinjiang, pro-PRC actors engage in “astroturfing ,” or coordinated campaigns of inauthentic posts to create the illusion of widespread grassroots support for a policy, individual, or viewpoint, when no such widespread support exists.  Similar to flooding, the PRC uses astroturfing to inundate the information space with “positive stories ” about Xinjiang and the Uyghur population, including manufactured depictions of Uyghurs living “simple happy lives,” as well as posts emphasizing the purported economic gains that the PRC’s policies have brought to Xinjiang.  In mid-2021, more than 300 pro-PRC inauthentic accounts posted thousands of videos of Uyghurs seeming to deny abuse in the region and claiming they were “very free.” These videos claimed to show widespread disagreement throughout Xinjiang with claims in international media that Uyghurs were oppressed.  However, according to the New York Times  and ProPublica , propaganda officials in Xinjiang created most of these videos, which first appeared on PRC-based platforms and then spread to YouTube and Twitter, in order to manipulate public opinion.

A.I.  Generated Images Used To Create the Appearance of Authenticity

Since at least January 2021 , pro-PRC networks have used advanced artificial intelligence-generated content, such as   ]StyleGAN machine-learning[/url] generated images, to fabricate realistic-looking profile pictures for their inauthentic accounts.  Unlike stolen images of real people, these tools create composite images that cannot be traced using a reverse image search, making it harder to determine whether the account is inauthentic.  Some of these accounts repeatedly denied the PRC’s atrocities in Xinjiang, falsely asserting that the body of overwhelming and objective independent evidence of the atrocities is simply a fabrication of the United States and its allies.

Transnational Repression, Trolling, and Cyberbullying To Silence Dissent

PRC-sponsored transnational repression targets those who speak out against the PRC, particularly in Chinese diaspora communities , with on- and offline harassment to prevent them from sharing their stories or to intimidate them into self-censorship. Trolling campaigns are designed to silence  those who speak out against the PRC, to poison the information environment with bad-faith arguments, and to silence opposing viewpoints.  Trolling campaigns frequently evolve into threats of death, rape, or assault; malicious cyber-attacks; and cyberbullying or harassment through doxxing  – publishing an individual’s personal information online without their permission, including their full name, home address, or job.  In March 2021, the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) publicly questioned  several individuals’ claims of maltreatment.

Narrative Focus

PRC Xinjiang narratives focus on denying criticism and amplifying “positive stories” in an attempt to counter accusations of genocide and crimes against humanity.  The most aggressive PRC messengers often go on the offensive, creating false equivalencies with the actions of other countries to distract from international criticism of PRC behavior.

Rebutting/Denying Criticism from Independent Media Sources

PRC messengers both post and amplify content that denies claims made by independent media outlets and internationally renowned think tanks.  In response to third-party accusations  that the PRC subjects Uyghurs to forced  labor , a wave of PRC diplomatic  accounts , PRC- and Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-affiliated media  organizations , and suspected bot  networks  posted stories about the mechanized  cotton harvesting process in Xinjiang, suggesting that the Xinjiang cotton industry has no need for forced labor.  This messaging avoided responding to reports regarding the PRC authorities’ transfer of an estimated 100,000 Uyghurs out of Xinjiang in “coercive labor placements ” to work in factories elsewhere in the PRC.

Amplifying “Positive Stories” To Counter/”Disprove” Accusations of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

PRC actors use hashtags such as #AmazingXinjiang and #Xinjiang to amplify positive stories about Xinjiang and counter independent reporting of allegations of crimes against humanity and genocide by PRC authorities.  Stories of a multicultural society  living in harmony  stand in contrast to the reality of the PRC’s extensive surveillance  of Uyghurs, including PRC officials living  in Uyghur homes for at least six weeks a year.  This messaging aims to divert attention from reports regarding the PRC’s “demographic engineering ” campaign to systematically increase  the Han Chinese population in Xinjiang and to “dilute ” Uyghur population concentrations  in the region.

“Whataboutism” and False Equivalencies Used To Distract/Deflect Criticism

PRC actors, including voluble diplomats in the MFA’s Information Department use “whataboutism” and false equivalencies  to distract from the PRC’s policies in Xinjiang and to portray accusers as hypocritical .  Their arguments do not advance the case that the PRC is innocent; rather, they make the point that other countries are equally guilty of abuses.  Despite these efforts to distract from the situation in Xinjiang, independent media outlets, academics, and human rights activists have published multiple eyewitness accounts and verifiable data that the PRC has imprisoned  an estimated one million people  and that credible evidence exists of torture , forced  sterilization , and other abuses.

PRC MESSENGERS

The PRC’s most aggressive messengers are  a subset of PRC diplomatic officials known for their confrontational messaging.  Additionally, PRC- and CCP-affiliated media spread Xinjiang-related disinformation on a global scale in at least a dozen languages.  To reach and resonate with global audiences, the PRC turns to private media companies and multilingual social media influencers.  Trolls take the lead on attacking, stirring controversies, insulting, and harassing netizens to poison the information environment and distract from narratives critical of the PRC.

Subset of PRC Diplomats Lead with Assertive Messaging

Most of the PRC’s diplomatic social media messaging is positive and tends to focus on highlighting good relations with other countries and seeks to burnish the PRC’s image. A minority  of MFA officials – dubbed “wolf warriors ” by some commentators – use social media platforms to defend the PRC’s national interests, often in confrontational ways .  These individuals are most likely to try to deny, “disprove,” and deflect narratives that run counter to PRC official messaging.  For example, to distract from the atrocities in Xinjiang, PRC messengers spread a false narrative  claiming that the CIA was trying to foment unrest  in Xinjiang in order to bring down the PRC.  This aggressive style allows the PRC to experiment with different types of messaging to see what plays well at home and abroad.  For example, some MFA officials’ accounts repeatedly spread disinformation and conspiracy theories  regarding the origin  of the virus  that causes COVID-19 and about Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked war  against Ukraine.

PRC- and CCP-Affiliated Media Spread Xinjiang-Related Disinformation Globally

PRC- and CCP-affiliated media outlets like China Global Television Network, China Daily, China Radio International, and Xinhua produce content in at least 12 languages and devote significant resources to advertising on social media.  In February 2021, facing growing international scrutiny over the PRC’s genocide in Xinjiang, Xinhua released a “fact sheet ” containing numerous false claims, such as stating that the internment camps holding Uyghurs in Xinjiang are “vocational education and training centers”’ that have “fully guaranteed the trainees’ personal freedom and dignity.” However, detainees’ testimonies published by Amnesty International  allege that the PRC subjected them to regular interrogation, torture, and other mistreatment. The PRC partners with foreign media to republish both PRC-produced and PRC-backed content to local audiences, giving Beijing’s chosen narratives a level of authority and credibility they would not be able to achieve on their own.  For example, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation ran a story by an anonymous author in November 2019 on the PRC’s “poverty alleviation ” policy in Xinjiang, causing observers to question its validity  and whether it was PRC propaganda.

PRC Increasingly Turns to Private Media Companies To Craft Foreign-Facing Information Manipulation Campaigns

The PRC outsources and privatizes  some of its foreign language information operations to take advantage of private sector innovation.  The PRC government engages with at least 90 PRC-based firms to design foreign-facing information manipulation campaigns to portray the PRC positively.  For example, a publishing organization operated by the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Bureau of Radio, Film and Television and affiliated with the CCP’s United Front Work Department paid a marketing company  to create videos depicting Uyghurs supporting the PRC government, which a network of inauthentic accounts then amplified on Twitter and YouTube.

Inauthentic Networks Used To Amplify PRC Narratives

Inauthentic networks  of bots as well as real accounts that tweet and retweet PRC-approved narratives flood the information space and support astroturfing campaigns.  One network of accounts posts information denying  atrocities in Xinjiang or accusing “the West” of hypocrisy and another, larger network of accounts amplifies it through retweets and reposting.  Stanford University’s Internet Observatory Cyber Policy Center assesses that the PRC’s English-language inauthentic networks have not been successful  at gaining traction among foreign audiences.

Influencers Used To Better Reach Young International Audiences

PRC authorities believe social media influencers can help to push PRC messaging to shape local information environments due to their relatability and authenticity.  CCP planners seek to adapt how they reach younger media consumers globally and are designing foreign propaganda to be more “youthful” and viral while strictly adhering to political “red lines .” In June 2021, Shen Haixiong, the head of state-run China Media Group – which falls under the direction of the CCP’s Propaganda Department – promoted  the use of “multilingual internet celebrity studios ” to enhance the PRC’s image in key regions.  Analytics firm Miburo Solutions identified more than 200 third-country influencers  affiliated with PRC state media creating social media content in at least 38 languages, including English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Russian with an average reach of 309,000 followers.  Miburo found that the PRC uses influencers to advance its narratives regarding Xinjiang by obscuring state media employees’ affiliations and by orchestrating pro-PRC Western influencers’ tours of Xinjiang.

Trolls Used To Defend PRC Positions and Attack, Insult, and Harass Critics

Internet trolls mainly working under the auspices of the People’s Liberation Army, the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, or the Communist Youth League directly attack critics online.  According to the French Military School Strategic Research Institute , PRC trolls’ tactics include defending the PRC, attacking and trying to discredit critics, feeding controversies, insulting, and harassing.  The PRC’s Cyberspace Affairs Commission and Central Propaganda Department directly employ an estimated two million people nationwide in this capacity and another 20 million working as part-time “network civilization volunteers .”  These forces target the PRC’s domestic audience and Chinese-speaking diaspora communities.  In response to the Hong Kong protests  in 2019, the PRC started to invest more in influencing users of U.S.-based platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, as well as international platforms, such as VKontakte and Telegram.  In 2021, cybersecurity firm FireEye’s Mandiant Threat Intelligence arm  and Google’s Threat Analysis Group identified elements of an ongoing PRC-backed information operation  that targeted a range of issues, including Xinjiang, in various languages across 30 social media platforms and 40 websites. view all

China invited Muslim diplomats to visit East Turkistan to whitewash reports of Uyghur Genocide & China's war on Islam. The Chinese government aims to reach its objectives of deceiving Islamic World through such staged visits&legitimize its genocide against minority Muslims groups.
 

 
 
 
Last week, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited diplomats from 30 Muslim-majority countries to visit East Turkistan in an attempt to whitewash the reports of the Uyghur Genocide and China’s war on Islam. The Chinese regime has also invited Turkiye to visit East Turkistan. The Chinese state media CGTN reported that the delegation “expressed their hopes that exchanges and cooperation with the region would be deepened” and quoted Algeria’s Ambassador to China saying, “The fruit here is so sweet, just like the life of the people here”, and that he witnessed the “real situation” there, where the “rights of people of all ethnic groups are well protected”.

Furthermore, Ma Xingrui, secretary of the regional committee of the Chinese Communist Party in East Turkistan said he “believes that the envoys will have a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of Xinjiang through the visit” and hope that “they will continue to play a bridging role and introduce a harmonious, stable, prosperous, happy and beautiful Xinjiang to the international community”.

As it is clear from Ma Xingrui’s words, the Chinese regime aims to reach its objectives of deceiving the Islamic World through such staged visits and legitimize its genocidal policies against the Uyghur and other Muslims of East Turkistan among Muslims. The Chinese regime has always wanted to isolate the Uyghur Muslims from the rest of the Islamic World and make them feel that the Muslims have abandoned them. Visiting Muslim majority countries in the past such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Malaysia, and Bahrain have been used by Chinese authorities as a pretext for sending Uyghurs to concentration camps.

Hence, it is vitally important to not fall into such propaganda and staged scenes by Chinese authorities that are known for their lack of transparency and concealing of facts. It is also critical to note that the Chinese authorities invited delegations from Muslim-majority countries to visit East Turkistan in previous years as well, whereas they have always denied Western governments and international human rights organizations’ requests for unfettered access to East Turkistan. Moreover, the Uyghurs in the diaspora are not able to communicate with their family and friends in East Turkistan in the Information Age.

On the other hand, in his recent visit to East Turkistan, Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping directed his officials to make “enhanced efforts” to “uphold the principle that Islam in China must be Chinese in orientation and adhere to socialism”. This confirms that the Chinese regime will continue to target Islam in its war on the Uyghurs.

Executive Director Abdulhakim Idris said, “As the Chinese authorities failed to deceive the international community and other democratic governments, they are trying very hard to deceive the Islamic World. The Chinese regime is afraid of Muslims standing up for their Uyghur brothers and sisters. We call on every Muslim to not fall into Chinese propaganda and try to discredit their brothers and sisters in faith who have been rightfully fighting for their human rights, freedom, and democracy. As for the Muslim diplomats who were misled by the Chinese authorities and thus echoed Chinese propaganda against Uyghur Muslims, we can only hope for their conscience to wake up and remind them to not forget the day of judgment before trying to whitewash China’s crimes and genocide against Uyghur Muslims. Also, those diplomats should meet and listen to the Uyghurs abroad who have been separated from their families for many years”.

In stark contrast to the Muslim diplomats, the Stand4Uyghurs campaign has mobilized hundreds of mosques and thousands of Muslims around the world to voice their support and solidarity with the Uyghur Muslims at the end of July. We hope that more and more Muslims will stand up against China’s crimes and war on Islam in East Turkistan and eventually fail the Chinese regime’s long-standing goal of deceiving the Islamic World on the Uyghur Genocide. view all

48 years old innocent Uyghur woman was detained in Chinese camp. Aytursun Qasim,48 years old,the reason of her detention was wearing Islamic dresses&tought to her son reading Quran. Where is she?Was she killed, raped, organ harvested or became slave in a factor?
  view all

60 years old innocent Uyghur grandmother was sentenced. Tajir Abdurusul, 60, the reason of her imprisonment was listened to Islamic preach in August 2011. Where is she? Was she killed, raped, organ harvested or became slave in a factor?
 

  view all

In today's #FeaturedPodcast, Virginia Newman, a trade and white-collar compliance attorney and counsel in the international department at Miller & Chevalier, joins host Gwen Hassan to explore key points in the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. https://bit.ly/3vGvscd.
 
 What is human trafficking? What is modern slavery? Where does it show up in the daily life of an organization? Human trafficking doesn't always take the form we first imagine - it can be found at almost any level of an organization's supply chain. What can compliance professionals do to assess human trafficking risk, and how can they leverage the resources of the organizations they work for to help root out this tragic problem? Gwen Hassan is here to help - this is Hidden Traffic.
 
 

 
 

 
 
There has been a debate around which comes first: mapping your supply chain or doing a risk assessment. Rather than making it a chicken or the egg scenario, Virginia believes mapping your supply chain is a part of a risk assessment and due diligence. The first step in performing a risk assessment is discussing your products with your product team; she shares: figuring out which products have high-risk inputs and which ones you should focus on mapping first.
 
This is especially important for large companies that import and distribute countless products. There may be too many products for everyone to have a fully mapped and detailed supply chain. Taking it one input at a time breaks down the line item list to a more manageable level. view all

The Chinese ambassador to France on Taiwan “After reunification, we will do re-education.” Re-education is referring to Uyghur concentration camps and genocide.
 

 
  view all

The Uyghur Forced Labor Database brings to light more than 800 companies tied to tainted products from China. Based on this evidence, these companies would not be in compliance with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). Explore the Database: http://jww.org/database
 

 
 
  view all

39 years old innocent Uyghur woman was detained in Chinese death camp. Rabigul Turghun, 39 ,the reason of her detention was unknown. Where is she? Was she killed, raped, organ harvested or became slave in a factor?
 
 
 
 
  view all

 
 
  view all

 You can know all the details via reading the official pdf document online.  ]PDF document online[/url]
 
 
The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (also known as the XPCC or Bingtuan or corps) is a state-run paramilitary corporate conglomerate that operates in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Uyghur Region or XUAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The XPCC functions as a regional government, a paramilitary organization, a bureau of prisons, a media empire, an educational system, and one of the world’s largest state-run corporate enterprises. The central government of the PRC considers the XPCC a “special system of integration of government, military and enterprise.” As such, the XPCC is a colonial institution, responsible for land expropriation and explicitly dispatched by the top levels of the party-state to act as a military and industrial force to suppress Uyghur dissent.

The XPCC has been sanctioned by the United States government and has been banned from importing its goods into the country, all because of the Bingtuan’s role in human rights violations in the Uyghur Region. Other countries have sanctioned XPCC officials. As this report documents in stark detail, the XPCC is involved in a pervasive program of egregious rights violations that effect the most marginalized people in the Uyghur Region. The region, its people, and their identities are seen as critical security threats to China’s cultural integrity, the stability of the state’s borders, and the absolute authority of the CCP. In the last five years in particular, the XPCC has played a critical role in suppressing Uyghur life, culture, and identity through the following means:
extrajudicial internment and imprisonment land expropriation forcible migration of peoplerepressive, pre-emptive policingsocial engineeringreligious persecution forced labour

From cradle to grave, Uyghur people are subjected to centrally directed indoctrination delivered by the XPCC. The XPCC’s deliberate program of social engineering requires that every minoritized citizen shed their cultural heritage and language in favour of Han practices and Xi Jinping ideology. This report documents the way this constellation of repressive programs is designed to make the Uyghur people docile and dependent on the state. It identifies the ways the XPCC has operationalized these programs in the last five years to create a reign of terror. 

"Until Nothing Is Left" documents in great detail the inner workings and policies of the XPCC, designed to suppress and colonize the Indigenous people of the Uyghur Region. The report provides:
a clear history of the XPCCextensive documentation of the XPCC's internment and prison system with visuals of their development and growth in the last five yearsin-depth evidence of the colonial government's human rights violationsa section on the XPCC's systematic program of forced laboura supply chain risk section that carefully examines XPCC cotton, tomato, chemicals, and constructionnew evidence of the movement of cotton from XPCC to the rest of China and a list of warehouses and logistics companies that are purchasing XPCC cotton, useful for companies procuring cotton from Chinaan expose of international investments in and contracts to the XPCC's main construction company

This report traces some of the XPCC’s most important products and services – cotton, tomatoes, chemicals, and construction – out to the rest of the world through supply chains and investments, revealing the way international spending supports this regime of oppression.
 
 



 
 


 

    ]Documents Related to the XPCC[/url]
 
Over the course of the 18 months of research for this report, HKC collected troves of publicly available XPCC corporate reports, publicity videos, and other related materials. Though they were not all cited in the report, we share all of those materials here for the benefit of researchers and others interested in the Bingtuan.
 
 ]Annex A: XPCC Cotton Customers and Suppliers (PDF, 446.9KB)[/url]
 ]Annex B: Corporate Responses (PDF, 11.5KB)[/url]
 

 
  view all

July 31, 2022. Join the #stand4uyghurs movement alongside 100+ muslim organisations.
 
The Stand4Uyghurs coalition of over 100Muslim partner organisations will be hitting the streets of London,Manchester Edinburgh as well as internationally in Washington DC,Toronto Istanbul,Sydney,Melbourne and Brisbane on Sunday 31July
  view all

Dear brothers and sisters in Islam,
Today we would like to talk about our Uyghur brothers and sisters in Chinese-occupied East
Turkistan who are facing genocide and China’s war on Islam.

Uyghurs are predominantly Muslim Turkic people who are inhabitants of East Turkistan. The
Uyghurs have accepted Islam in the 10th century following their king Sultan Sutuq Bughrahan
who accepted Islam as a young prince. May Allah be pleased with them.

East Turkistan, an Islamic nation that produced some of the best scholars of Islam throughout
history and contributed to Islamic civilization in many ways was occupied by Communist China
in 1949. Since its occupation, the Chinese communist regime has been oppressing the Uyghur
Muslims in every aspect of life. The Chinese regime has always restricted Islamic practices and
made learning Islam a punishable crime.

However, the oppression has increased to a new level starting in 2017:
● The Chinese communist regime launched concentration camps across East Turkistan and
interned millions of Uyghur Muslims for political indoctrination. The Chinese authorities
have made very mundane things as pretexts to send Uyghur Muslims to concentration
camps. For instance, learning Quran, having travelled to Muslim countries in the past,
having performed Hajj, Wearing Hijab, Refusing to get sterilized, and many more.

2

● The first question you are asked when you are sent to a concentration camp is “Do you
believe in Allah?”, and if your answer is “yes”, you will be deemed an “extremist” and
treated harshly.
● China has announced that Islam is a “mental illness”. Look at this, brothers and sisters,
the Chinese communist regime said that our faith is a “mental illness” and Muslims are
mentally ill people that require treatment. And with this judgment, China has declared a
war on Islam and banned all Islamic practices in East Turkistan.

On top of that, those in the Concentration Camps:
● They are tortured, brainwashed and told to give up Islam. They are forced to recite praises of
the Chinese Communist Party.
● These are the largest concentration camps since the Nazis.
● Almost every Uyghur in Canada and America have their relatives in the concentration camps;
some have 50-100 family members detained in these camps with subhuman conditions.
● China accuses them of terrorism and violence, but the Chinese regime is spreading the real
terror in the region despite their claims of “re-educating” or “normalizing” the Muslims.
● In these camps, most women face serious sexual violence, including rape and forced
sterilization so Uyghur women cannot bear children. Many sisters who survived these camps
have shared their horror stories, Zumrat Dawut is one of them, please read about her experience
in concentration camps.
● Hundreds of thousands of Uyghur men and women are being used in forced labour to produce
the clothes we wear today, the ketchup we eat, the toys our children play with, or the tech
gadgets we all enjoy today - “Made in China” - At least 83 global brands and companies are
complicit in this forced labour scheme, including Nike, Adidas, Apple, Samsung, BMW....etc.
● Almost 900,000 children are sent to Chinese-run orphanages while their parents are still alive
and taught to give up Islam in favour of Communism.
● East Turkistan had more than 24,000 mosques. Now the Chinese regime has demolished
one-third of them, converted one-third to bars, restaurants, pig barns, and closed down one third.
Only a small number of mosques remain open for media, tourism and propaganda purposes.

3

Those Uyghurs who are not taken to the “concentration camps” are not free. They cannot
practice Islam or show any sign of piety. Having a beard, wearing a hijab, or showing any sign of
religiosity can send you to concentration camps. They are still not able to fast in Ramadan, go to
Masjid, or learn Islam.
● Islamic weddings (Nikahs) or funerals (Janazah) are forbidden
● They cannot even say salam to each other
● Halal is banned in Uyghur areas and all Muslim restaurants must sell pork.
● Uyghur households are divided into groups of 10 to spy on each other.
● They are not allowed to use a cellphone without government spy software

Now you might think why don’t they just leave and immigrate to other countries. The Uyghur
Muslims cannot leave China as the Chinese authorities do not give them passports and do not
allow them to leave China.

So basically, China has turned East Turkistan into an open-air prison.

Dear Brother and Sisters,
As Muslims, we have to realize that the plight of the Uyghur Muslims is an Islamic issue, it is
our issue. It is our obligation to help our oppressed Uyghur brothers and sisters. There are many
ways of contributing to their cause, from remembering the Uyghur Muslims in our prayers,
raising awareness of the Uyghur genocide, and pushing politicians and governments wherever it
is possible to confront the Chinese regime to stop its war on Islam and the genocide of the
Uyghur Muslims.

Why must we help?
Guidance from the Quran and the Sunnah:
Support your brothers and sisters because you would not like to be in their situation
“None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.” (Bukhari
and Muslim)

We must vocalize our condemnation of China’s actions and demand justice:

4

“You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and
forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah..” (Quran 3:110)

Standing up for Justice (Qist) is a mission of ALL the Prophets that we need to revive and live
today.
“We sent Our messengers with clear evidences and sent down with them the Scripture and the
balance that the people may establish Qist (Justice, Equity & Fairness).” (Quran 57:25)

It is your responsibility to counter and challenge the evil
Abu Said Al-Khudri reported that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: "Whosoever of you sees
an evil, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then [let him change it]
with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart — and that is the weakest of
faith.” (Muslim #49)

Narrated Abu Musa: The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم (said, "A faithful believer to a faithful believer is like the
bricks of a wall, enforcing each other." While (saying that) the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم (clasped his hands,
by interlacing his fingers. (Sahib Al-Bukhari)



Dear brothers and sisters,
It is extremely important that we do not fall into Chinese propaganda that claims the Uyghur
genocide is not real. We have our Uyghur brothers right here in Canada/USA that we can speak
to, they’re the real testifiers of the genocide and China’s War on Islam. We should never condone
China’s oppression of our Uyghur brothers and sisters and never discredit the Uyghur Muslims.
Allah (SWT) says in Surah Hud:

“And do not be inclined to the wrongdoers or you will be touched by the Fire. For then you
would have no protectors other than Allah, nor would you be helped.” (Quran 11:113)

5

In fact, we, the Muslims have to be on the front lines of the fight against China’s oppression
of our Uyghur brothers and sisters.

What can we do?

● Educate: Learn about the culture and plight of Uyghur Muslims and share it with others. Learn
from the Uyghur Muslims directly. Learn from credible human rights organizations and their
reports. Teach your children about the Uyghur Muslims.
● Advocate: Join a peaceful demonstration at the Chinese Consulate in Toronto on Sunday, July
31, 2022, which is part of a global demonstration in solidarity with Uyghur Muslims around the
world. Thousands of Muslims are expected to join the Stand4Uyghurs rally.

Visit SaveUighur.ca to send letters to and call your MP to:
▪ end the concentration camps and save Uyghur lives
▪ ask the Canadian government to introduce stricter laws to ensure that Chinese products coming
to Canada are not made by the forced labour of Uyghur Muslims
▪ establish a special program for Uyghur refugees to come to Canada on an expedited basis
● Donate: Support advocacy groups and Uyghur organizations that are fighting the Uyghur
genocide

Dua:
“O Allah, we ask you to help our oppressed brothers and sisters around the world. O Allah, help
our Uyghur brothers and sisters in East Turkistan, alleviate their pain, bring an end their
genocide and China’s War on Islam.............”

The End

6

For Imams and Khateebs:
For more info please contact brother Abdulmuqtedir Udun at: [email protected]
And Taha Ghayyur at: [email protected]

Websites to learn more about Uyghur Genocide:
Stand4Uyghurs.com
Uyghurstudy.org
Saveuighur.ca view all

An image of Xi’s visit from China’s state television, but where are the young male residents?
 
Why would Xi Jinping hide his visit to “Xinjiang” from his people and the world, and why did the Chinese media not report on it until three days after it began?

No matter how powerful the killer is or how modern his weapon, the magnitude and brutality of the crime he commits is so well-known that he cannot be free from the weakness of criminal guilt.

No pre-visit press statement was issued, no news of journey reported until the visit was well underway. It was an obvious abnormality, given that the region is under domestic and international scrutiny over accusations of genocide. The lack of announcement may have been to either surprise or hide it from people in the Uyghur region. The latter is likely true—there is no need to surprise the oppressed.

The reason for Xi Jinping’s lack of transparency is clear. He is aware of the crimes he has committed in the Uyghur region over the last five years.

Chinese officials have repeatedly and proudly stated that there has been no single violent incident in “Xinjiang” since the establishment of the “vocational training centers.” If it is so, why was Xi Jinping afraid of publicizing his visit to a region where the objective of zero violence has been achieved? This is because he has not reached this goal by solving the root of the problem—illegal occupation of Uyghur land and ethnic injustice policies in the region. Instead, he has fueled the problem with unprecedented crackdowns, including the incarceration of more than three million people. From a sociological perspective, a zero-violence record is not natural stability but artificial stability. It is not due to a lack of resistance; the resistance has moved underground. Xi Jinping is well aware of this fact and its dangers.

In 2014, Xi Jinping’s first visit to the region was “welcomed” by an explosion at the Urumqi train station. He may not have forgotten this precedent, so his latest visit may have been unannounced to leave potential attackers unprepared. However, hiding his travel dates and itinerary did not provide him with adequate comfort or confidence, and the police stations located every few blocks in Urumqi did not allow him enough freedom. This fear was reflected in the pictures of the official Xinhua news agency: the Uyghur residents, who surrounded Xi Jinping while smiling and applauding, mostly comprised women and the elderly. There were almost no young male residents.

What brought Xi Jinping to “Xinjiang”? Politically, he wanted to tell the world that he does not regret the genocide he has committed and for which he has been criticized; he does not care about international public opinion. With this message, Xi Jinping wanted to encourage his military, police forces, and Han settlers in the region. Psychologically, he was demonstrating his gratification over the successful concealment of thousands of corpses of those who have died in his camps and prisons, killed by his chauvinist comrades.

 

 
 

Another image of the visit. Young males still rare.
 
Boasting of strength is normal, but boasting of crime is not. While most murderers in human history have tried to cover their guilt with reasons and excuses, China has no such tradition. Holding up all the men in the military age in a captured nation, then boasting of a “zero-violence victory” is unique to Chinese officials. If China had won and formed this victory against the army of a state or against armed rebel groups in the region, it would have been possible to think there was a moral side to this, and a reason to be proud. In reality, it is a victory against a small and unorganized group of “terrorists” who had no weapons other than axes and knives. This victory came in killing these men, their wives, children, relatives, and neighbors and in incarcerating all residents who shared the same ethnic origin with them. It is a shameful victory of a power that has no decency, standards, or care for humanity.

The state media has shown Xi Jinping with a group of people who celebrated him by dancing and singing. Since the occupation of East Turkestan, the Chinese state has always hoped to see Uyghurs engaged in music and dance with no interest in politics. They also dreamed of seeing Uyghur Muslims who only pray but do not think and seek justice. That dream has not been realized, as it is incompatible with human nature. The Uyghur dancers around Xi Jinping are not reflective of the Uyghurs’ situation. They represent a scene that China wants the world to see and an expression of China’s unwavering colonial desire.

To understand this scene of dancing, one must read only two lines of dialog in a report by Radio Free Asia of some years ago. The reporter questioned a Kashgar resident:

Q: “How is the situation in Kashgar, especially the unity of Han settlers and Uyghurs?”

A: “The situation is normal. The unity of nationalities is wonderful because if we do not unite with the Han people, we will be imprisoned and shot.”

This is the real voice of the Uyghur people when they are given a path to express their will.

On the eve of Xi Jinping’s visit, in mid-June this year, “community corrections personnel” and Uyghurs suspected of participating in religious activities in some districts of Urumqi were transferred to several locations in southern Xinjiang for a month-long “legal education,” perhaps out of concerns for the safety of Xi Jinping.

Xi Jinping’s non-announcement and delayed reporting of his visit to “Xinjiang,” as well as the relocation of suspected Uyghurs from Urumqi, is an acknowledgment of his failures and that he has established peace in appearance only and not in essence. He has captured Uyghurs physically but not spiritually. Murderers cannot live in peace spiritually, regardless of their “power” and “success.” view all

Uyghurs prisoners in Xinjiang are forced to speak in Mandarin and perform obvious displays of subservience to their Chinese guards in monthly video calls with relatives, Uyghurs living in exile say.
 


A Uyghur now living in Europe told RFA that her siblings in Sanji Prison in the town of Sanji (in Chinese, Changji) were recently allowed to meet online with other relatives in Aksu (Akesu). Though neither the jailed Uyghurs nor their family members could speak Chinese well, authorities made them communicate in Mandarin for the entire meeting.

“They barely managed to speak in Chinese, according to my relatives who met them onscreen,” the source said. “This is not just an isolated incident.”

Chinese authorities have banned the use of the Uyghur language in schools and government complexes as part of their efforts to diminish the culture and traditions of the largely Muslim community. 

But Uyghur families still speak their native tongue inside their homes. The prohibition from doing so on the monthly virtual visits adds a level of frustration for family members who are already anxious about their loved ones’ well-being.

Another Uyghur exile living in Turkey told RFA that her nephew, who was serving a sentence in a prison in Urumqi (Wulumuqi), was forced to speak Chinese to his mother and grandmother, though the latter had to rely on another relative to translate because she did not know Mandarin.

“They allowed them to meet onscreen once every few months for only three minutes,” the source said. “My mother was there once to meet onscreen with my nephew. My mother was very uncomfortable hearing my nephew speaking to them in Chinese. My nephew’s wife fainted at the time, hearing him speak only in Chinese.

“On-screen, my nephew had to bow while walking backward saying goodbye in traditional Chinese fashion,” she added. “He also had kowtow to the Chinese police for giving him the chance to see his relatives onscreen.”

Tahir Mutällip Qahiri, a Uyghur Muslim lecturer in the Uyghur language and literature at the University of Göttingen in Germany, said he noticed a difference in the way his detained father interacted with him during a video call.

His father, well-known Uyghur scholar and activist Mutallib Siddiq Qahiri, used to work at Kashgar University and wrote and edited more than 20 books on Uyghur and Arabic culture until he was arrested in 2018 and charged with “incitement to ethnic hatred,” according to a September 2020 article in the Byline Times. In early 2020, authorities sentenced him to 30 months in prison with four years of probation. 

Tahir said he was able to see his father after he was released from detention, but that the man “was not as free as the Uyghur prisoners who recently had spoken with their relatives onscreen.”

Although the two spoke Uyghur to one another, Tahir said he believed his father was under surveillance by authorities because he told his son to remain silent and to defend the Chinese state.

“In March 2019, I was able to talk to my father onscreen twice for a very short time, and what I sensed from those virtual interactions was that he had no freedom at all in his speech,” he said. “I didn’t see any Chinese police present when I spoke to him onscreen, but what I knew was all he said was in a Chinese framework, even though it was uttered in the Uyghur language.

“From the context of his speech and his body language, I was able to conclude that even though he didn’t speak in Chinese, it was all Chinese propaganda,” he added. “I sensed a great fear he had for the Chinese authorities.”

Tahir said that compared to the time he first spoke to his father when he was released from detention to house arrest, the current situation of Uyghur detainees appears to have gotten worse. Noting that authorities’ efforts to eradicate the Uyghur language is part of the genocide China has been committing against the ethnic and religious minority group in recent years.

'Culturally savage'

At least 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities are believed to have been held in a network of detention camps in Xinjiang since 2017, purportedly to prevent religious extremism and terrorist activities, though Beijing claimed they were “vocation training centers,” which are now all closed.

Credible accounts of the Chinese government’s repressive policies in Xinjiang, including mass detentions, severe human rights abuses and efforts to obliterate Uyghur culture and religion have prompted the United States and some Western legislatures to declare a genocide and crimes against humanity in the region.

Forcing Uyghur prisoners to speak Mandarin and to bow in an outdated Chinese fashion is “culturally savage and politically extremist,” Tahir said.

In an audio recording provided to RFA by a Uyghur living in the U.S., a Uyghur woman living in Urumqi used an interpreter to speak in Chinese to her son, who is in a prison in Xinjiang.  

The woman then cries as her son in Urumqi No. 3 Detention Center is forced to kowtow to Chinese police officers during his online meeting with her.   

“Her son is only 25 or 26, and now he’s forced to speak in Chinese and bow to the Chinese while walking backward onscreen,” said the Uyghur in exile.

According to the audio, the son was on his knees when he bowed his head in gratitude to the Chinese police, with his forehead almost touching the floor, his mother told the Uyghur in exile.

“My son’s forehead was almost on the floor when he bowed to the police,” the mother told her Uyghur relative in exile. “I hope my defenseless son will soon see sunshine [and] will meet his loving relatives in freedom.”

Ilshat Hassan Kokbore, a political analyst based in the U.S. and vice chairman of the executive committee of the World Uyghur Congress, told RFA that he also received a video of a Uyghur prisoner speaking in Chinese with a relative during a videoconference, though  the person did not understand Mandarin.

Speaking in a mother tongue is a basic necessity and right of the people, though Chinese authorities have stripped that right away from the Uyghurs, he said.

Police officers take the relatives of Uyghur prisoners to government complexes each month to see their imprisoned relatives over video. Both the prisoners and their relatives meet under police surveillance, Uyghur sources and a police officer involved in monitoring the visits told RFA.

A police officer who is in charge of such surveillance in Kashgar (Kashi) said on two scheduled days each month he takes the family members of Uyghur prisoners to a neighborhood committee complex where they can virtually meet with the detainees.

“Twice a month, we allow them to meet onscreen,” he said. “We take the relatives to the neighborhood community complex. Some months they were not allowed to meet because of COVID-19 prevention policy.”

Relatives often have to wait one to two hours for their turn. The calls usually last about two minutes and are conducted in Chinese, said the officer, who did not give his name so as to speak freely.

Police officers do not allow detainees’ relatives to say anything except to express their well-being and to thank the Chinese Communist Party, he said.

Translated by RFA Uyghur. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. view all