Under the guise of fighting “#Islamic #Extremism,” the #Chinese Communist Party has carried out a brutal campaign to extinguish #Uyghurs, #Kazakhs, #Uzbeks and other Turkic Muslims in East Turkistan. These people have been isolated from the rest of the world, since 2017.
Source: Medill On The Hill
WASHINGTON — American companies would be prohibited from importing goods produced in Xinjiang, China, because they likely are made using the forced labor of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and others under a bill introduced last week by several Republican and Democratic members of Congress.
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China released a report last week in conjunction with the bill’s unveiling, saying that Xinjiang authorities are “systematically forcing predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and others, to engage in forced labor.”
U.S. government officials estimate over 1 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs and others have been forced into detention centers, which Chinese government officials have referred to as education and training centers that serve to “remedy the dissemination of religious extremism and frequent terrorist incidents.” Some Uyghur activists put the number of detained at as many as 3 million. The crackdown accelerated when Chen Quanguo was appointed Xinjiang Party Secretary in 2016.…Read More
Source: THE DIPLOMAT
U.S. lawmakers pushed Wednesday for a ban on imports from a vast area of northwestern China because of the widespread use of forced labor in a region where the communist government has detained more than a million people in a campaign against ethnic minorities.
The United States already bans imports made with forced labor, but a bipartisan group of lawmakers said virtually anything coming from Xinjiang, including goods sold by major American and global consumer brands, should be considered tainted by the mass detention and repression of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE DIPLOMAT
Source: South China Morning Post
Several years ago, Ilshat Hassan contemplated buying a gun. He was receiving threats over the phone and online from people who took issue with his advocacy for the Uygur people, he says, and feared for the safety of his family.
But his wife objected, and Hassan eventually abandoned the idea. They were both scared of the possibility that the state of his mental health could one day cause him to turn the firearm on himself.
“Hurting myself,” says Hassan, an IT professional living in Virginia. “That was my concern.”
Struggling with anxiety and depression, Hassan, 58, is just one of many members of the Uygur diaspora who say their mental health is in crisis, triggered or exacerbated by the situation facing family and friends thousands of miles away in China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT South China Morning Post
Source: CODA
Who are the Uyghurs?
The Uyghurs are a largely Muslim Turkic ethnic group, with their own language and culture. Roughly 11 million are in China, and 1.5 million more live around the world. For centuries, Uyghurs have lived in a vast region of deserts, mountains and lakes in the far northwest of China, known today as Xinjiang. For thousands of years, leaders, tribes and China’s imperial dynasties have fought for control of this resource-rich territory. Around the 10th century, Arab influence arrived in the region and Islam became a part of Uyghur life.
During the Qing dynasty, the region was brought once again under Chinese control. In the late 19th century it was given its current name, Xinjiang, which means “new frontier” in Mandarin. …Read More
Source: NEWSWEEK
A U.S. religious freedom watchdog is calling on Amazon, Nike and Apple to investigate claims that China has used Uighur Muslims as forced labor as part of their supply chains.
Officials from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a federal group established by Congress, said in a statement today it is “unacceptable” for the nation to import any products that are suspected of having been made with the use of exploitative practices.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT NEWSWEEK
Source: HONGKONG FREE PRESS
US lawmakers on Wednesday proposed a ban on most imports from China’s Xinjiang region, charging that goods produced by Uighur forced labourers were easily making their way into the United States.
The United States already bans products made through slavery. but with China holding more than one million Uighurs and other Muslims in camps in Xinjiang, lawmakers said that forced labour was interwoven into the region’s economy.
“These practices in Xinjiang are one of the world’s largest human tragedies. It remains unimaginable, frankly, that this is happening in 2020,” Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican sponsor of the bipartisan measure, told reporters.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT HONGKONG FREE PRESS
