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When I was a Uyghur child living in communist China in the 1970s, we had no way of knowing what was happening around the world, within China, or even to our own Uyghur people in our homeland of East Turkistan (also known as Xinjiang, China). For colonized people like us, living under a total information blackout and bombarded by communist propaganda 24/7, discovering the truth was not a luxury – it was a yearning, something we sometimes risked our lives for. I remember those days vividly. My father would gather…

The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee this week approved bipartisan legislation to support Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities subject to human rights abuses by China. The Uyghur Policy Act is the latest legislative effort to protect the rights of persecuted Muslim minority. The U.S. government has determined that China’s treatment of Uyghurs amounts to genocide. The bill is co-sponsored by nine Republicans and Democrats led by Rep. Young Kim and Rep. Ami Bera, who are the chair and ranking member respectively of the House sub-committee for East Asia and the…

The World Uyghur Congress says a man detained in Sweden on suspicion of spying on fellow Uyghurs there for China served as a spokesman for the exiled group for two decades. The WUC said in a statement Wednesday that Dilshat Reshit, has been its Chinese-language spokesman since 2004. The WUC said its presidency had decided at an emergency meeting to remove Reshit from his position “in line with our commitment to integrity, transparency, and the safety of our community.” Reports citing the Swedish prosecution authority said an unnamed Uyghur resident…

The European Parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a new law that prevents the import and distribution of goods made with forced labor, a move that Uyghur advocates said would help clamp down on China’s use of forced labor in far western Xinjiang. The Forced Labour Regulation, which places the burden of proof on the EU rather than on companies, was approved in a 555-6 vote, with 45 abstentions. The law will allow authorities in EU member states and the European Commission to investigate suspicious goods, supply chains and manufacturers. Products…

A Uyghur butcher serving a seven-year prison sentence in southern Xinjiang for advising friends not to drink alcohol or smoke at a gathering has been released alive and returned to his family, sources with knowledge of the situation said. It marks the first time that one of the roughly 100 jailed Uyghur residents from Xaneriq village had been released alive, said an Uyghur from the area who now lives abroad, but who did not give his name for fear of retribution. Authorities freed Mahmudjan Muqeddem, 46, who hails from the…

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party last week released a report detailing investments by two American financial institutions for Chinese companies “red-flagged or blacklisted” by the United States for advancing China’s military or for rights abuses. The report says two fund providers, in particular, are responsible for funneling billions of dollars invested by regular Americans in their index and retirement funds into the companies – even if it’s all legal. The first, MSCI, which it calls “the world’s foremost index fund provider,” has $3.7 billion invested in…

The hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs subjected by China to detention, forced labor and cultural erasure underscores the urgency for global action, panelists said at a two-day interfaith conference on disrupting Uyghur genocide organized by The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity that wrapped up Thursday. Survivors, experts, religious leaders and activists participated in panels to discuss the situation of the Uyghurs and called on governments to promote pro-Uyghur policies and to pressure businesses that profit from Uyghur forced labor, said a notice about the conference on the foundation’s website. An…

Authorities in Xinjiang have banned Uyghurs from using social media apps including Chinese-owned TikTok and tools to circumvent censorship, according to a video released from Chinese police, in what experts say could be the beginning of another major crackdown on the region’s 11 million mostly Muslim Uyghurs. A video notice about the ban was released April 8 by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a state-run economic and paramilitary organization also known as Bingtuan that has played a key role in suppressing the Uyghurs. Violators face arrest, a fine of…

The Congressional Uyghur Caucus is back. Though the caucus never disbanded, the activities of the bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers slowed to a trickle after its chair, Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat from New York, retired from his district, which Republican Rep. George Santos then won in the 2022 midterms. Shortly after his shock win, Santos’ personal biography was proved to be a series of lies by a New York Times report. He was then expelled from the House of Representatives in December, less than a year after taking his…

A Uyghur activist on Thursday received a Four Freedoms award from the Roosevelt Foundation for years of campaigning for the rights of Muslim Uyghurs in far-western China’s Xinjiang region. Zumretay Arkin, director of global advocacy and chair of the Women’s Committee at the World Uyghur Congress, was presented the Freedom of Worship Award at a ceremony attended by members of the Dutch royal family and Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Zumretay Arkin is awarded the Freedom of Worship medal by the Roosevelt Foundation at a ceremony in Middelburg, the Netherlands, April…