World Uyghur Congress, 25 October 2019

WUC Joins Civil Society Calling on Apple to End Its Support of Chinese Censorship

On October 17, the World Uyghur Congress issued a joint statement alongside Students for a Free Tibet, Tibet Action Institute and SumOfUs to press Apple to stop collaborating with China’s repressive policies and censorship on freedom of speech. 

In 2017, Apple made the decision to remove over 1000 Virtual Private Network (VPN) apps from its China App Store. The resolution has impacted Uyghur, Tibetan and Chinese rights defenders on the ground and made it impossible to safely communicate information labeled “sensitive” by China. In addition to this decision, the giant tech company recently chose to remove HKmap.live from the App Store and put Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters at risk of an escalating police crackdown. 

WUC President Dolkun Isa said:  “Anonymous communication online through VPNs is often the only lifeline that our people have to share information and avoid punishment for simply speaking about the treatment of their loved ones. Companies like Apple have a responsibility to ensure they do not bolster the Chinese government’s repressive regime.”

Uyghur, Tibetan, Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese rights activists joined SumOfUs at the NYC store to protest against Apple’s cooperation with the Chinese government for its censorship efforts.

WUC Welcomes the Decision to Award Ilham Tohti 2019 Sakharov Prize

On October 24, the World Uyghur Congress released a press statement to welcome the European Parliament’s decision to award imprisoned Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti with the 2019 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. 

Ilham Tohti, a renowned Uyghur Economics professor has persistently worked to create a dialogue and better understanding between Uyghurs and Hans. Professor Tohti established a website, Uyghurbiz.net in 2006 to encourage conversation and reconciliation between the groups. In January 2014, he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in September for “inciting separatism’’, after only a two-day trial. 

This award represents a powerful declaration that Europe and the international community choose not to remain silent on the human rights violations occurring in China and that the Uyghur people will not be forgotten. 

WUC is profoundly grateful to the European Parliament for awarding this prestigious prize to Ilham Tohti. On this occasion, WUC demands the immediate release of Professor Tohti, as well as all those arbitrarily detained, and urges China to respect the rights of the Uyghur people. 

WUC Receives Distinguished Guests at Berlin Office Opening Reception

On October 22, the World Uyghur Congress officially opened its Berlin office with a reception attended by German government representatives and Members of Parliament as well as representatives of foreign governments and from civil society and the international press. WUC President, Dolkun Isa, greeted the guests with a strong message, reiterating the crucial point in time for support for Uyghur rights, as the feeling of fear among Uyghurs is prevailing in a total state of surveillance in the Uyghur region.

The new WUC representation was cordially received into the German capital in the form of welcome addresses from a number of distinguished guests. The Representative of Taiwan, Ambassador Prof. Dr. Jhy-Wey Shieh, Mr. Jake Nelson from the US Embassy in Berlin, Ms. Margarete Bause, MP for the Green Party, Mr. Martin Patzelt, MP for the CDU, Mr. Ulrich Delius, Director of the Society for Threatened People, and Mr. Kai Müller, Executive Director of the International Campaign for Tibet, expressed their support for the Uyghur struggle for human rights and basic freedoms. The event concluded with a buffet of Uyghur speciality dishes.

The WUC is looking forward to using the new office to coordinate its advocacy efforts with the Berlin stakeholders interested in human rights in China to overcome the challenges ahead together and to create a prosperous future of respect for human rights for Uyghurs everywhere.

UHRP Releases Report on Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

On October 21, the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) released a report entitled “The 2022 Winter Olympics and Beijing’s Uyghur Policy: Sports in the Shadows of Concentration Camps”, in which it reveals the blatant discrepancies between the essence of the Olympic Charter and the way in which China abuses the Olympic movement for their own political agenda. The Chinese authorities see the Games as the perfect opportunity to project an image of openness and unity, where in reality China is detaining millions of Uyghurs in internment camps, and using high-tech surveillance to subdue ethnic groups.

Recently, the National Basketball Association was caught in controversy, after Houston Rockets General Manager Darly Morey tweeted to show support to Hong Kong protesters. NBA’s response was to write a letter of apology saying that it recognized that ‘’Morey’s views had offended many friends and fans in China, which is regrettable’’. In 2016, NBA set up a training center in Urumqi,and continues to run it, despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Uyghur region, where millions of people are being sent into internment camps. The international community has called China’s policies in the region crimes against humanity and cultural genocide, but NBA has not pointed out that it will close its facility there. 

This week, FIFA has announced China will host the 24-team Club World Cup in 2021. Fifa has decided to look the way from China’s crackdown on Uyghurs and other ethnic groups. This comes as a shock after FIFA introduced a human rights policy in 2017, that is used to assess the suitability of event hosts. International sports governing bodies have a responsibility to use their influence to promote human rights and stop supporting repressive policies of the hosting countries.

With a key event, like the Winter Olympics to be hosted in Beijing, the UHRP calls on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to inform the Chinese government that if they do not change their oppressive policies against Uyghurs and other minority groups, “the IOC will no longer be able to cooperate with Beijing in planning for the 2022 Games and will immediately seek an alternate location.”