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:
West demands publication of UN’s long-awaited Xinjiang report
Pressure to release a long-awaited Xinjiang report is mounting on the UN’s rights head, as her recent six-day visit to China left activists, western governments and commentators unsatisfied. In a press conference on Saturday, Bachelet promised to “follow up” on instances of China’s human rights abuse.
Xinjiang cotton found in Adidas, Puma and Hugo Boss tops, researchers say
Researchers say they have found traces of Xinjiang cotton in shirts and T-shirts made by Adidas, Puma and Hugo Boss, appearing to contradict the German clothing companies’ promises to revise their supply chains after allegations of widespread forced labour in the Chinese region.
Beijing 2022 organisers claim stories of Xinjiang human rights abuses are ‘lies’
The Winter Olympics have been plunged into further controversy after Beijing 2022 spokesperson Yan Jiarong dismissed human rights violations among the Uyghur Muslim population as “lies” and insisted Taiwan was part of China. Yan, a former member of the Chinese delegation to the UN general assembly, referred to “so-called forced labour” in Xinjiang in response to one question, before saying China was against the “politicising of sports”.
Tory peer to lead boycott of Coca-Cola over role in Beijing Winter Olympics
A Tory peer has vowed to lead a boycott of Coca-Cola products over the company’s sponsorship of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, saying its bid to profit from an event organised by the Chinese government was shameless.
China replaces Xinjiang party boss associated with Uyghur crackdown
China has replaced the Communist party official widely associated with a security crackdown targeting ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslims in the far-west region of Xinjiang. The state-owned Xinhua news agency said in a brief announcement on Saturday that Ma Xingrui, the governor of the coastal economic powerhouse Guangdong province since 2017, had replaced Chen Quanguo as the Xinjiang party chief.
‘The world must boycott’: Australian Uyghur calls for more pressure on Beijing Games
Almas Nizamidin, whose wife has been sentenced to seven years in prison in Xinjiang, says a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics is not enough. What Almas Nizamidin knows of his wife’s arrest and disappearance is second-hand: the harried reports relayed by his relatives as it rapidly unfolded. She remains incarcerated in Xinjiang Women’s Prison, sentenced to seven years’ jail on “disturbing social order” charges her family says are baseless.
IOC says it ‘respects’ US boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said that it respects the United States’ decision to diplomatically boycott the forthcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, while defending its “quiet diplomacy” in handling the case of Chinese tennis player, Peng Shuai. “We always ask for as much respect as possible and least possible interference from the political world,” said Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, the IOC’s coordination commission chief for the Beijing Winter Olympics. “We have to be reciprocal. We respect the political decisions taken by political bodies.”
UK MPs declare China is committing genocide against Uyghurs in Xinjiang
British MPs voted to declare that China is committing genocide against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang province. The motion passed on Thursday does not compel the government to act but is likely to mark a further decline in relations with China.
Our souls are dead': how I survived a Chinese 're-education' camp for Uighurs
After 10 years living in France, I returned to China to sign some papers and I was locked up. For the next two years, I was systematically dehumanised, humiliated and brainwashed.
Uighur Muslim teacher tells of forced sterilisation in Xinjiang
A teacher coerced into giving classes in Xinjiang internment camps has described her forced sterilisation at the age of 50, under a government campaign to suppress birth rates of women from Muslim minorities. Qelbinur Sidik said the crackdown swept up not just women likely to fall pregnant, but those well beyond normal childbearing ages. Messages she got from local authorities said women aged 19 to 59 were expected to have intrauterine devices (IUDs) fitted or undergo sterilisation.
US imposes sanctions on senior Chinese officials over Uighur abuses
The United States has imposed sanctions on three senior officials of the Chinese Communist party, including a member of the ruling politburo, for alleged human rights abuses targeting ethnic and religious minorities in the western part of the country.
China's hidden partner in suppressing the Muslim Uighurs – the US
Last week, President Trump signed the Uyghur Human Rights Protection Act, the first US legislation to focus on the role of the US in protecting the rights of Uighurs and other indigenous Muslims inside China. On the same day, former national security adviser John Bolton revealed in an excerpt from his book that Trump had allegedly told the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, perhaps as early as 2017 and again in 2019, that he agreed with his policy of placing Muslims in mass internment camps.
China says it will 'resolutely hit back' at US over sanctions law on Uighur abuses
Beijing has criticised a new US law that would sanction Chinese officials over the mass incarceration of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, saying it “maliciously attacks” China’s policy in the Xinjiang region.
'If you enter a camp, you never come out': inside China's war on Islam
Beijing has aggressively defended its policies and sought to portray the camps as benign and Xinjiang as peaceful thanks to government efforts. A starkly different reality emerges in Lop county, where Guardian interviews and analysis of public documents reveal new details about the government’s continuing campaign in one of the worst-affected areas of Xinjiang.
China testing facial-recognition surveillance system in Xinjiang
Chinese surveillance chiefs are testing a facial-recognition system that alerts authorities when targets stray more than 300 metres from their home or workplace, as part of a surveillance push that critics say has transformed the country’s western fringes into a high-tech police state. Authorities in Xinjiang have been experimenting with the “alert project” since early 2017, according to Bloomberg.
China begins trial of Ilham Tohti
Chinese authorities began trying the Uighur academic Ilham Tohti on charges of “separatism” on Wednesday morning, in what human rights groups have called a “travesty of justice”.
Old suspicions magnified mistrust into ethnic riots in Urumqi
On the night of 25 June, two Uighurs were killed by a Han mob. A week later, a Uighur protest on the streets of Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, turned into one of the worst race riots in China’s history.