All Reading
This section contains a curated list of useful articles, investigations, books and other reading materials. The list is updated on a weekly basis and suggestions for additions are welcome.
Starting Points:
UN human rights chief asks China to rethink Uyghur policies
Michelle Bachelet, a top U.N. human rights official who recently visited Xinjiang, raised concerns with Chinese officials about the impact of measures on the rights of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim groups.
Xinjiang Police Files: Inside a Chinese internment camp
A giant cache of secret documents reveals the highly coercive and potentially lethal systems of control used against minority groups in China’s internment camps.
Xinjiang in focus as UN’s Michelle Bachelet visits China
The UN human rights chief has met China’s top diplomat as she began a six-day trip to the country that will include the remote Xinjiang region. The tour by Michelle Bachelet marks the first by the UN’s top rights official to China in nearly two decades and comes as Beijing stands accused of widespread abuses of Muslims in far-western Xinjiang.
China database reveals the thousands detained in Xinjiang
A leaked list of thousands of detained Uyghurs has helped Nursimangul Abdureshid shed some light on the whereabouts of her missing family members, who have disappeared in China's sweeping crackdown on Xinjiang. The previously unreported database, which has been seen by AFP, lists over 10,000 imprisoned Uyghurs from southwestern Xinjiang's Konasheher county -- including over 100 from Abdureshid's village.
UN Team in China Ahead of Rights Chief Visit to Xinjiang
A United Nations team has landed in China ahead of a long-delayed visit by the U.N. human rights chief to Xinjiang, where rights groups and some Western governments allege the Chinese government is committing genocide and serious abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
Exclusive: Former Xinjiang prisoner arrives in U.S. as key witness to abuses
A Christian Chinese national who spent 10 months in a Xinjiang detention camp has arrived in the United States after months of behind-the-scenes lobbying by U.S. lawmakers, human rights activists and international lawyers.
Ministers face revolt over anti-genocide amendment
MPs and peers want to ban the use of NHS funds to buy goods from regions, such as Xinjiang in China, in which there is a “serious risk of genocide”. Between March and June 2020 the Department for Health awarded contracts worth £245m to three companies linked to human rights abuses in the north-western Chinese province of Xinjiang
U.N. rights boss to visit China in May, including Xinjiang, but activists demand report
U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday that she has reached an agreement with China for a visit, "foreseen" in May, and that she had raised with Beijing the arrests of activists to support their freedom of expression. Her visit would include a stop in the remote western region of Xinjiang, she told the Human Rights Council.
China says U.N. rights boss welcome to visit Xinjiang in near future
Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, said on Monday that the U.N. rights chief would be welcome to visit the Xinjiang region in the near future. "We welcome people from all over the world who harbour no bias to come to Xinjiang for exchanges," he said at a speech to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Activists urge UN rights chief to release delayed report on Xinjiang
Now that the Beijing Winter Olympics is over, U.N. rights chief Michelle Bachelet must release her long-delayed report on alleged violations in China's Xinjiang region against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
World Bank unit is financing Chinese companies that appear to employ forced laborers, report says
An arm of the taxpayer-funded World Bank has provided nearly $500 million in financing to four Chinese companies that appear to have employed forced laborers in the country’s Xinjiang region, according to a new report.
Beijing Olympics: Winter Games start amid Covid and boycotts
The most divided Olympic Games in decades gets under way in China on Friday as Beijing becomes the only city to host both the Summer and now the Winter Games.
Japan parliament adopts resolution on human rights in China
Japan's parliament adopted a rare resolution on Tuesday on what it called the "serious human rights situation" in China, and asked the government to take steps to relieve the situation.
French parliament passes motion condemning China 'genocide' against Uyghurs
France's parliament passed an opposition-led motion asking the government to condemn China for "crimes against humanity and genocide" against its Uyghur Muslim minority and to take foreign policy measures to make this stop.
China: Beijing replaces Communist Party head in Xinjiang
Chen Quanguo, who oversaw the alleged repression of ethnic Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region, is stepping down, according to the Chinese media.
Biden signs Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into law
President Biden on Thursday signed into law the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a bipartisan bill that bans imports from China’s Xinjiang region unless the importer can prove they were not made with forced labor.
China committed genocide against Uyghurs, independent tribunal rules
China has committed genocide against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, an unofficial UK-based tribunal has found. The Uyghur Tribunal cited birth control and sterilisation measures allegedly carried out by the state against the Uyghurs as the primary reason for reaching its conclusion.
Canada, U.K. and Australia join U.S. in diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics
Canada will join the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics over human rights concerns, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday.
White House announces US diplomatic boycott of 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing
The Biden administration will not send an official US delegation to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing as a statement against China's "ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang."
Leaked papers link top Chinese leaders to Uyghur crackdown
A newly published cache of documents directly links top Chinese leaders including President Xi Jinping to the state's crackdown on Uyghur Muslims. China has consistently denied that it is committing genocide against Uyghurs. Some of the documents were the subject of an earlier report, but the latest leak has previously unseen information.