Uygur professor battles for his people: Outspoken activist vows to fight on until Uygurs in China get rights and respect
Originally published by South China Morning Post, 31 May 2010
By Ng Tze-wei
Most people learned the name of Beijing-based Uygur professor Ilham Tohti only after he was detained following the deadly riots in Urumqi last July. His Xinjiang -focused Chinese-language website, uighurbiz.cn, was attacked by authorities for “inciting propaganda and spreading rumours”.
But Tohti, 41, said he had actually begun writing about the plight of Uygurs 17 years ago, and different forms of government surveillance and harassment had been a fixture of his and his family’s lives ever since.
The two-month detention (at his home and at hotels with all external communication severed) last year was the longest he had experienced; normally it was just hours and hours of “chat” from dusk till dawn, which exhausted him. And occasionally it could almost be considered comical: he was banned at the last minute from attending an academic conference in Turkey last month, and in exchange, he and his family were “treated to a holiday in Hainan “, accompanied at all times by three government security guards, who were very polite and even apologetic. The professor was allowed to return to Beijing 10 days later, after the conference had ended.
Shortly after Tohti returned he angrily wrote of the travel ban as “an extremely outrageous affront against a citizen’s right to leave the country”; in fact, since October the professor has missed eight academic exchanges abroad.
In person, Tohti mostly spoke of these restrictions in a tone of resignation, punctuated by his signature slightly-tilted smile.
“What I want to do is to promote the legal awareness of the Uygurs, and the country’s rule of law,” Tohti said of his commitment to activism over nearly two decades, which has almost bankrupted him, resulted in one divorce and kept him forever one step from imprisonment.
He spoke to the South China Morning Post (SEHK: 0583, announcements, news) over several interviews at Minzu University of China. He has been teaching there since 1991: first law, then economics and more recently two sensitive electives – Xinjiang population studies and Central Asian politics and culture.
“I don’t have a stance on independence, but I oppose shedding blood,” the professor said. “I believe China is moving forward; Uygurs can contribute to China’s development, and also benefit from it. The key is to ensure true autonomy in Xinjiang.”
As Chinese leaders held an unprecedented high-level work conference concerning Xinjiang earlier this month, talking about “leapfrog development and long-term stability”, Tohti cautioned that raising the gross domestic product is not enough.
“Listen and be sensitive to the needs and hardships of Uygur residents”, he said. The Uygurs, he repeatedly emphasised, are “the Chinese people who look least like Chinese”, and discrimination and a sense of alienation are very real emotions that Uygurs experience daily.
“We have our own religion, culture, language and history. But there are very few Han scholars who speak Uygur or who have tried to understand us,” Tohti said, as opposed to Western scholars, who studied the region with respect and vigour.
True autonomy – which is clearly set out in existing laws, in particular the 1984 Ethnic Regional Autonomy Law – would ensure at least that Uygur is adopted as an official language and that officials there would learn the language. It would also guarantee that any economic development would include benefits for the locals.
The rule of law and improving inter-ethnic understanding are two cornerstones of the professor’s works.
“If I were Han, advocating these things would probably not bring me trouble today,” Tohti said. “But because I’m a Uygur, I run the risk of being branded a separatist.”
Born in Aktu , Xinjiang, Tohti grew up speaking Putonghua and was admitted into Northeast Normal University in Changchun , Jilin , to study geography. He obtained his PhD in economics from Minzu University and stayed on to teach.Tohti first wrote about the education and employment problems in Xinjiang in the early 1990s.
Through the years, Tohti said he had not stopped offering financial help to Uygur students struggling in Beijing, Uygur petitioners, or Uygur residents who ran into problems with authorities in the capital.
In 2006, he started uighurbiz.cn, made up of news items and bulletin boards. He insisted on commenting in Chinese on the issues that matter to Uygurs; he also translated relevant Chinese news and legislation, such as the 1984 Ethnic Regional Autonomy Law, into Uygur.
He started a Uygur saloon at Minzu University in 1994 and began opening some of his lectures to the public in 2003. He would often stray from the curriculum and speak on topical issues relevant to Xinjiang. The lectures did not always take place as scheduled, and depended on the good will of the university.
Earlier this month, Tohti prepared a 29-page slide presentation for his audience of about 30 people, mostly Uygur in appearance, on a new development from the day before: the resumption of internet service in Xinjiang.
“The authorities are now making it a reason to celebrate that the internet is back on in Xinjiang, but what was the legal basis for shutting it down in the first place?” the professor asked his audience.
“What does the internet mean to us Uygurs?” he continued. “On the internet, we can learn our own language, our history, our religion. We can freely write and publish, which in reality is impossible.
“They call us `the ignorant mass easily incited by outside force’. Is the shutting down of the internet an attempt to keep this ignorance going?”
On a national news broadcast on July 6, Xinjiang Governor Nuer Baikeli, the highest-ranking Uygur official, named self-styled Uygur leader-in-exile Rebiya Kadeer as the chief instigator of the bloody riot, with Tohti’s website coming in second for blame.
While extending an olive branch to the Chinese government, Tohti made no attempt to tone down his criticisms of government policies, or to hide his contempt for those Uygurs who had become “dogs” for the authorities.
An animated and eloquent speaker, he drew giggles from the audience when he imitated the Uygur students whom he said were sent to keep an eye on him, and how they walked away meekly when he exposed them as spies.
On only one topic did Tohti become visibly uneasy: the parallel mention of him and Kadeer. Reluctant to comment on the president of the World Uygur Congress, a Germany-based advocate for independence, the professor said only that the two were different.
“I’ve had many chances to move to another country. Several universities have offered me very handsome packages,” Tohti said. “But I chose to stay in China.
“I want to act as a bridge between the two ethnic groups. If I moved abroad, yes, I would enjoy more freedom, but only here can I really access my people and speak for them.”
He wants to set up a research centre on Uygur issues, and he appeals to the government for the freedom to do so, as well as the freedom to raise funds within the country. The professor, who has been supporting the operation of uighurbiz.cn mainly with his own money, earns an “unpredictable” 800 yuan (HK$910) to 3,800 yuan per month with his teaching job.
“There are official research centres on the Tibetans, the Manchurians and many other ethnic groups, some with a very small population. Why not the Uygurs?” Tohti asked. He said the centre could work independently or for the government.
Bad law enforcement and a general lack of understanding of the Uygurs are for Tohti the two key causes of the plight of his people, and the July 5 riots. The professor says he has many Han friends, but in his view the majority of Han hold a dual attitude towards the Uygurs, which was largely shaped by bad government policies and contradictory portrayals of Uygurs in the media.
Take religion, for example.
“On the one hand, the media condemns the United States on its policy towards Muslims; on the other hand, they would immediately side with the Chinese government on Xinjiang policies and say the United States is rallying the Islamic world to pressure China,” the professor said.
“The government’s policies towards Islam are, of course, contradictory, too, and divided along ethnic lines. For example, there are religious schools teaching in Arabic in the Hui [Muslims largely integrated into Han culture] regions but not in Xinjiang.
“Of course, if you look at a pluralistic society like the US, there are still misunderstandings towards Islam. But at least they have open public space to talk about it.
“While traditional media won’t say much about Islam, new media knows very little about Islam and displays a conflicted attitude towards Islam, as shown in the number of unfriendly messages online against Uygur Muslims,” many of which remain undeleted today despite new legislation making such messages criminal offences.
“The government has itself politicised Xinjiang’s religion,” Tohti said. “The tough situation Uygur Muslims face today is partly due to a change in the global attitude towards Islam, but it is mainly created by the domestic situation.”
Well aware that he might end up in prison if he continues to be so outspoken, Tohti said he was nevertheless confident that this worst-case scenario would not happen.
“I’m still giving public lectures at the university,” he said. “And based on my research, legislators have made proposals on Uygur street kids at the National People’s Congress.”
The change in leadership in Xinjiang also sparked hope that the new party secretary, Zhang Chunxian , would “right the wrongs of the past”. For example, there were signs that Tohti’s close ally at uighurbiz.cn – reporter Hailaite Niyazi, who was arrested for endangering state security in October – would be released soon, the professor said.
Once the richest Uygur in Beijing, Tohti said he had to sell his two flats in prime locations for half price in 2008 when he was placed under tight police surveillance. Most of the money he gave to editors and staff on the website so they could move abroad. The website was shut down at least nine times in 2008 and it was moved to a server in the United States in July.
Frequent police visits have exerted immense stress on his family, which he tries to keep away from Beijing. His second wife just gave birth to his youngest son, but Tohti still has not seen him. His mother suffered a stroke last year after his detention.
“I feel such pain that my family is suffering, but I do not feel regret,” Tohti said. “If you look at history, people always have to pay for their country. Perhaps history has chosen me. This is what I tell my family.”
One of his students, 21-year-old Mutellip Imin, inspired by his teacher’s beliefs, decided to switch to sociology for his postgraduate studies. “If no one is doing it, the job is left to ourselves to do,” he said. “But I know it’s not going to be an easy path.”