Uyghur related news – World Uyghur Congress Foundation

Politco. 25 April 2021

Below is an article published by Politco. Photo:Nelson Ching/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

The European Union’s stance on China is hardening, and that should go down well in Washington.

Only four months after Beijing and Brussels concluded the principles of a landmark investment agreement, ahigh-level internal report seen by POLITICO shows the EU is now increasingly pessimistic about keeping business interests separate from political concerns over what it calls President Xi Jinping’s “authoritarian shift.” This tougher language reflects a new approach in the EU’s official communications on China.

South China Morning Post. 24 April 2021

Below is an article published by Soutch China Morning Post. Photo:TNS.

The United States will urge its Group of Seven (G7) allies to increase pressure on China over the use of forced labour in its northwestern Xinjiang province, home to the Muslim Uygur minority, a top White House official said on Friday.US President Joe Biden will attend a meeting of the G7 advanced economies in person in Britain in June, where he is expected to focus on what he sees as a strategic rivalry between democracies and autocratic states, particularly China.Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser to Biden and deputy director of the National Economic Council, said the G7 meeting in Cornwall would focus on health security, a synchronised economic response to the Covid-19 pandemic, concrete actions on climate change and “elevating shared democratic values within the G7”.

BBC. 23 April 2021

Below is an article published by BBC. Photo:PA Media.

More than a million people are estimated to have been detained at camps in the region of Xinjiang.

The motion approved by MPs does not compel the UK to take action, but is a sign of growing discontent towards the Chinese government in Parliament.

In response, China said the UK should “immediately right its wrong moves”.

ABC News. 21 April 2021

Below is an article published by ABC News. Photo:Carlos Barria/File.

Australian trade unions are calling for the federal government to invest in local manufacturing of solar energy components in Australia, amid growing concerns that solar products from China could be linked to forced labour.

ABC News. 19 April 2021

Below is an article published by ABC News. Photo:Grace Tobin.

Melbourne woman Mehray Mezensof has been married for five years, but her husband has been absent for most of that time.

Instead, he has been in and out of detention centres and concentration camps multiple times in China’s far north-western region of Xinjiang.

Ms Mezensof has never spoken publicly before, fearing it would make an already perilous situation more dangerous for her husband Mirzat Taher.

Foreign Policy. 15 April 2021

Below is an article published by Foreign Policy. Photo:OZAN KOSE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES.

On his way out of office on Jan. 19, then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a determination that China “has committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.” Nobody in the U.S. policy community seriously disputes that atrocities are occurring in Xinjiang—but some analysts have zoomed in on the term “genocide.” Sometimes it seems to be a way of trying to force policies back toward the failed engagement of the past rather than confronting what’s happening in China and rethinking policy accordingly.

Nouse. 15 April 2021

Below is an article published by Nouse. Photo:Leif Harboe.

In an age of fast fashion and even faster news, staying ‘woke’ presents itself as an exhausting task. A topic that isn’t just another uninformed marketing faux pas, the issue of forced labour in Xinjiang involves one million people and demands everyone’s attention.

Middle East Monitor. 12 April 2021

Below is an article published by The Middle East Monitor. Photo:ZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images.

It is a fact that rape and sexual abuse have been used as weapons of war throughout history. The lack of security leaves women and girls, in particular, more vulnerable than usual to violence. For a long time, this was just accepted as inevitable in conflicts, and few efforts were made to prosecute perpetrators of mass rapes and sexual violence. We saw this in Bosnia in the 1990s where, for example, the UNHCR reported that 50,000 women were raped by Bosnian Serbs as a war tactic.

Financial Times. 12 April 2021

Below is an article published by Financial Times. Photo:Sedat Suna/EPA/Shutterstock.

Ankara has summoned China’s ambassador over a tweet that targeted Turkish politicians critical of the treatment of the country’s Uyghur minority, in a rare show of displeasure with Beijing. The Chinese embassy said it had “a right to respond” after Meral Aksener, chair of the centre-right Good party, and Mansur Yavas, mayor of Ankara, wrote tweets commemorating a 1990 Uyghur uprising in the Chinese region of Xinjiang. A tweet from the embassy’s official account, tagging the Turkish politicians, said it “opposes and violently condemns any sort of challenge to Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity by any person or power”.

Human Rights Watch. 8 April 2021

Below is an article published by Human Rights Watch. Photo:AP.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is hoping the Chinese government will grant UN experts unrestricted access to detention centers in Xinjiang where over a million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims have faced torture and myriad other human rights abuses. But he should make clear to Beijing that an investigation can take place with or without access.