Last week, a court in China’s far western East Turkistan (Xinjiang) region sentenced Ilham Tohti, a member of the Uyghur minority, to life in prison for the crime of “inciting separatism.” The conviction of this moderate scholar elicited international condemnation; the sentence was an order of magnitude longer than those given to other Chinese dissidents. But,…
Beijing should learn from the mistakes of the U.S.’s “war on terror” as it mounts its own campaign against attacks allegedly perpetrated by its predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority, analysts said Thursday. Speaking at a George Washington University conference on Uyghur affairs — what aims to be an annual dialogue to influence how Washington addresses the…
Despite the official stance of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which nominally recognizes the Uyghur people as equal citizens, Uyghur Muslims have always had a troubled relationship with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) central government authorities. The CCP currently considers Uyghurs part of the global radical Islamist threat. Facing a Beijing-supported influx of Chinese migrants,…
A professor who has become the most visible symbol of peaceful resistance to Chinese policies by ethnic Uyghurs was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday after being found guilty of separatism by court officials here in the western region of East Turkistan (Xinjiang), which Uyghurs consider their homeland. The punishment handed down to Ilham…
In my series of interviews with Chinese intellectuals, there is an empty chair for Ilham Tohti, the economist and Uyghur activist. It’s not that I hadn’t heard of him or hadn’t been in China long enough to have met him before he was arrested earlier this year. I had, but foolishly had put off pursuing…
The Uyghur economics professor, and founder of Uyghurbiz website, is on trial today in Urumqi on separatism charges. The following excerpts were compiled by Ilham’s close friend and Tibetan writerTsering Woeser in February this year shortly after his arrest. – The editor Currently in East Turkistan (Xinjiang), a developing tendency is that the authorities are over-extending anti-terrorism measures to conceal other problems in…
Sky’s Mark Stone reveals some of the difficulties facing journalists attempting to report from China’s East Turkistan (Xinjiang) province, including fake identities and government surveillance. Sky News has obtained rare access to China’s East Turkistan (Xinjiang) Province to investigate reports Muslims are being targeted and oppressed by the government. Since December, a series of bloody…
There is little reason to wake up early in Kashgar, an ancient Silk Road city of 350,000 in the southwestern corner of China’s vast East Turkistan (Xinjiang) region. The local Uyghur people, a Muslim, Turkic-speaking minority from the northwestern region, adhere to a time zone two hours behind China Standard Time, the officially designated time…
Following deadly attacks in Beijing, Kunming and Urumqi over the last year, the East Turkistan (Xinjiang) government has intensified its efforts to regulate Uyghur religious activities. The provincial government has once again reinforced its ban on Ramadan fasting for Uyghur civil servants and students in 2014, as it has frequently done since at least 2001.…
Exactly a month ago, disturbing reports emerged from the county of Yarkand in the far southwest of China’s East Turkistan (Xinjiang) Province. According to several different sources, including the Chinese government, a riot between local Uyghur Muslims and the Chinese military had left many people dead. The initial reports from the Chinese state media claimed…
