ALL Xinjiang related issues e.g. uyghur people, development, videos etc, In here please.
- Thread starter beijingwalker
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T-SaGe
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Correction: Turkey did not support any separatist movement about the Uighurs in any period. There is not even one official basis on this issue. Fabrication post-truth activities only... Of course, the Turkish public highly sensitive on this, But I don't think there is an environment where I can explain these in such a toxic discussion culture (just read a litle similiar threads).
This sensitivity of the Turkish people has sociological and historical reasons. We experienced worse of them during the Bulgarian Communist Party era, even the names of our people were changed. We experienced similar problems in Cyprus in the 60s and 70s. And many many other examples we had to experience it. And the most terrifying thing we saw was during the period of the Russian communism. Probably half of the Turkish people in Turkey have such a story. Those who fled the Circassian genocide, those who fled the Cretan or Crimea massacres and, those who were expelled or subjected cruelties from the Balkans and even in the Asia Minor... Anatolia became the last stronghold we took shelter in. Turkish state was able to help when it could. When our strength is not enough, we had to watch them from afar. The assimilation and even massacres experienced by the Turks without a state are the great tragedies in our history. That is why, when a Turkish Uighur girl comes across with crying and says "I want my father", or when describes how her mother died in the concentration camp or telling about the rapes and systematic abusing, our hearts will not stand it.
Giving a residence permit to someone who has taken refuge in your country does not mean to support anything.
The only issue that can be the subject of discussion here is the political asylum requests. Some Uighurs who are threatened to be deprivation of liberty (or threatened to be taken to internment, (aka concentration camp) in today's terminology) or whose family members are in this situation, apply for political asylum. Moreover, these are not all ordinary people as you might think. In the 80s, political asylum requests were received even from Chinese consular mission members.
Among these, extradition procedures are carried out for those who wanted by ordinary crimes, etc., or those who have a request for arrest through Interpol.
Well, Uighurs living in Turkey are doing what? They they try to make their voices heard and explain the oppression they are subjected in their homeland to in every environment they are in. Do they get support? Yes. We speak the same language. We are part of the same culture.
Turkey is trying to stay away as much as possible from US propagandas and its interests in China. If Turkey had supported the activities of the USA on this issue, believe me, the developments would have proceeded very differently. However, the Turkish government sees that being provoked on this issue more about itself. The main problem is that the US future global economic strategy is incompatible with Turkish interests.
The problem here is the wholesale view that wants to understand everything about the Uighurs in the way of a US conspiracy, and the discomfort even to talk about it. I don't think there is a single member here who has written anything with the Uighurs and has not been insulted or provoked to be banned.
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Naram_Sin
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Turkey plays nice with China publicly, while it pushes its muslim brotherhood cult to demonize china 24 hours all over the sunni muslim space.
Eventually an entity similar to Isis will emerge in afghanistan right on Chinas border, the goal is to obtain the power to jeoperdize the BRI.
Eventually an entity similar to Isis will emerge in afghanistan right on Chinas border, the goal is to obtain the power to jeoperdize the BRI.
CAPRICORN-88
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The way I look at him. USA and allies have lost it in Xinjiang.
Now BCI has removed all the contents relating to allegations about forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang from it official websites as most of its members threatened to leave.
It has backfired in them.
Thanks to USA , ASPI in Australia, iSIS terrorists, etc many people around the world esp. the Muslim nations suddenly discovered how effective China reeducation and retraining programs worked.
Their lies are all debunked.
Today Uyghurs are in fact living better.
China succeeded in eliminating iSIS terrorism in Xinjiang.
Now BCI has removed all the contents relating to allegations about forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang from it official websites as most of its members threatened to leave.
It has backfired in them.
Thanks to USA , ASPI in Australia, iSIS terrorists, etc many people around the world esp. the Muslim nations suddenly discovered how effective China reeducation and retraining programs worked.
Their lies are all debunked.
Today Uyghurs are in fact living better.
China succeeded in eliminating iSIS terrorism in Xinjiang.
The US government and their pawns dont care about people proving their lies wrong. Their agents are trained to lie straight into your face about the most basic facts and insist the most ridicolous bullshit. Like that hundreds of people lifestreaming or daily reporting their travel are all staged by actors or otherwise dismiss them as illegitmate or deflect with dumb nonsense "but I cant visit Guantanamo without any supervisors so every lie about China is true". They will go there and claim Mosques are shut down while walking by an open Mosque or two then pretend nobody can go there. They will report the three different stories of the same fake US agent and not bat an eye about the contradictions. They will use the pictures of some happy old Han Chinese grandma and claim shes some Uighur slave laborer. They will claim moral superiority in a noexistant argument between their blatant lies and the plain truth because of some imaginary buzzword like free speech while actively supressing, deplatforming and censoring and threatening people speaking the truth.
It didnt start with the US governments campaign to harm Chinese in Xinjiang and laying the groundwork to grow extremist terrorism in China viccinity. They spread these ridicolous lies all the time. "Aggressive Chinese invasions" into invented airspaces marked by invented air idenfitication zones drawn randomly over Chinas airports. Calling Vietnamese commuters and traders Chinese refugees to cope with Chinas economic rebound. Inventing power outages in China to cope with sanctions on Australia. Blaming China for debts when China bails countries out of Western and primarily British and American debt traps shackeling African and Asian countries since centuries. Dumb shit like grossly miscounting cars on some arbitrary satellite pictures just to produce some story out of nowhere to jump to some conclusions feeding their Covid lies about China. Blaming China for hiding information they got from Chinese media in first place. Gloating about overbearing Chinese presence in Africa while driving trough an African street seamed by English rather than African signs and interviewing Africans with an English surnames in a country whos mines are almost entirely owned by English foreigners. Inventing Chinese spy chip discoveries using Japanese chip images that never happend because the site never even used the Chinese hardware they tried to slander. They dont care how ridicolous the fabrications are.
Most of their lies about China exist just for the sake of it. Whatever the lie is about, wether its to create a smokescreen to hide dirty businesss behind or attack some Chinese industry to benefit their own uncompettive and lower quality ones is just secondary. They are happy if you waste time debunking all their bullshit or otherwise draw attention to their lies. Its how libel works and why its frowned upon and outlawed in civilized countries which the USA doesnt belong with.
It didnt start with the US governments campaign to harm Chinese in Xinjiang and laying the groundwork to grow extremist terrorism in China viccinity. They spread these ridicolous lies all the time. "Aggressive Chinese invasions" into invented airspaces marked by invented air idenfitication zones drawn randomly over Chinas airports. Calling Vietnamese commuters and traders Chinese refugees to cope with Chinas economic rebound. Inventing power outages in China to cope with sanctions on Australia. Blaming China for debts when China bails countries out of Western and primarily British and American debt traps shackeling African and Asian countries since centuries. Dumb shit like grossly miscounting cars on some arbitrary satellite pictures just to produce some story out of nowhere to jump to some conclusions feeding their Covid lies about China. Blaming China for hiding information they got from Chinese media in first place. Gloating about overbearing Chinese presence in Africa while driving trough an African street seamed by English rather than African signs and interviewing Africans with an English surnames in a country whos mines are almost entirely owned by English foreigners. Inventing Chinese spy chip discoveries using Japanese chip images that never happend because the site never even used the Chinese hardware they tried to slander. They dont care how ridicolous the fabrications are.
Most of their lies about China exist just for the sake of it. Whatever the lie is about, wether its to create a smokescreen to hide dirty businesss behind or attack some Chinese industry to benefit their own uncompettive and lower quality ones is just secondary. They are happy if you waste time debunking all their bullshit or otherwise draw attention to their lies. Its how libel works and why its frowned upon and outlawed in civilized countries which the USA doesnt belong with.
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denel
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During the time of Ramadhan, make a prayers from brothers/sisters in islam who are held prison for their beliefs and unable to fast or pray.
www.saveuighur.org
This is a global issue hence posting it in world affairs. Pass it along and highlight their plight.
Free the Muslims Detained in Chinese Concentration Camps - Save Uyghur
Millions of Muslims are detained at Chinese concentration camps. This is the largest mass detention of people since the Holocaust. Join us & ACT NOW.
www.saveuighur.org
This is a global issue hence posting it in world affairs. Pass it along and highlight their plight.
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Oh look another 3 letter agency textbook slogan for another U.S. based fake activist front to export U.S. American terrrorism abroad, peddling U.S. state propaganda lies.
Tell us more about the same old China boogeyman story, invented by some "indpendendent" right wing Christian fundamentalist funded by the U.S. regime and its military industry, who calls Muslims heathens that will go to hell, dear Muslim butchering U.S. American terrrorist...
Tell us more about the same old China boogeyman story, invented by some "indpendendent" right wing Christian fundamentalist funded by the U.S. regime and its military industry, who calls Muslims heathens that will go to hell, dear Muslim butchering U.S. American terrrorist...
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@waz @LeGenDDuring the time of Ramadhan, make a prayers from brothers/sisters in islam who are held prison for their beliefs and unable to fast or pray.
Free the Muslims Detained in Chinese Concentration Camps - Save Uyghur
Millions of Muslims are detained at Chinese concentration camps. This is the largest mass detention of people since the Holocaust. Join us & ACT NOW.
This is a global issue hence posting it in world affairs. Pass it along and highlight their plight.
Shouldn't this thread be combined with all about Xinjiang thread? OP try to ignored rules from moderator and start a fresh thread to stir trouble.
@Foxtrot Alpha
This members once again bring in religion hatre and try stir trouble. I am warn once for doing that and I hope he is no exceptional.
ALL Xinjiang related issues e.g. uyghur people, development, videos etc, In here please.
China uses old tricks in new Xinjiang propaganda campaign Under renewed pressure from around the world, the Beijing PR machine is deploying enormous resources to depict a positive image of Uighurs in Xinjiang - but the West is not buying it. Michael SmithChina correspondent Apr 8, 2021 – 5.22pm...
defence.pk
Women who made allegations last month of rape and sexual abuse in Chinese detention camps have been harassed and smeared in the weeks since. Rights groups say the attacks are typical of an aggressive campaign by China to silence those who speak up.
BBC
Qelbinur Sedik at her home in the Netherlands this week
IMAGE SOURCE,JEREMY MEEK/BBC
Image caption,
Qelbinur Sedik at her home in the Netherlands this week
BBC
Qelbinur Sedik was making breakfast when the video call came, and the sight of her sister's name made her nervous. Many months had passed since the two had spoken. In fact, many months had passed since Sedik had spoken to any of her family in China.
Sedik was in the kitchen of her temporary home in the Netherlands, where she shared a room with several other refugees, mostly from Africa. Two weeks earlier, she and three other women had spoken to the BBC for a story about alleged rape and torture in China's secretive detention camps in the Xinjiang region, where Sedik worked as a camp teacher.
Now her sister was calling.
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She hit answer, but when the picture appeared it wasn't her sister on the screen, it was a policeman from her hometown in Xinjiang.
"What are you up to Qelbinur?" he said, smiling. "Who are you with?"
This was not the first time the officer had called from her sister's phone. This time, Sedik took a screenshot. When he heard the sound it made, the officer removed his numbered police jacket, Sedik said. She took another screenshot.
BBC
Police composite
BBC
'You must think very carefully'
In conversations with the BBC over the past few weeks, 22 people who have left Xinjiang to live abroad described a pattern of threats, harassment, and public character attacks they said were designed to deter them from speaking out about alleged human rights abuses back home.
According to UN estimates, China has detained more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims in camps in Xinjiang. The Chinese state has been accused of an array of abuses there including forced labour, sterilisation, torture, rape, and genocide. China denies those charges, saying its camps are "re-education" facilities for combatting terrorism.
Among the few who have fled Xinjiang and spoken publicly, many have received a call like the one to Sedik that morning - from a police officer or government official at their family home, or from a relative summoned to a police station. Sometimes the calls contain vague advice to consider the welfare of their family in Xinjiang, sometimes direct threats to detain and punish relatives.
Others have been publicly smeared in press conferences or state media videos; or been subjected to barrages of messages or hacking attempts directed at their phones. (Last week, Facebook said that it had discovered "an extremely targeted operation" emanating from China to hack Uyghur activists abroad.)
Some of those who spoke to the BBC - from the US, UK, Australia, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, and Turkey - provided screenshots of threatening WhatsApp, WeChat and Facebook messages; others described in detail what had been said in phone and video calls. Everyone described some form of detention or harassment of their family members in Xinjiang by local police or state security officials.
BBC
A gate of what is officially known as a "vocational skills education centre" in Xinjiang
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
Image caption,
A gate of what is officially known as a "vocational skills education centre" in Xinjiang
BBC
When Qelbinur Sedik recounted the call from the policeman that morning, via her sister's phone, she buried her head in her hands and wept.
"He said, 'You must bear in mind that all your family and relatives are with us. You must think very carefully about that fact.'
"He stressed that several times, then he said, 'You have been living abroad for some time now, you must have a lot of friends. Can you give us their names?'
When she refused, the officer put Sedik's sister on the call, she said, and her sister shouted at her, 'Shut up! You should shut up from now on!', followed by a string of insults.
"At that point I couldn't control my emotions," Sedik said. "My tears flowed."
Before the officer hung up, Sedik said, he told her several times to go to the Chinese embassy so the staff there could arrange her safe passage back to China - a common instruction in these kinds of calls.
"This country opens its arms to you," he said.
'Misogyny as a communication style'
Reports of this type of intimidation are not new, but Uyghur activists say China has become more aggressive in response to growing outrage over alleged rights abuses in Xinjiang. The Chinese government has gone on the attack in public in recent weeks, directing a slew of misogynistic abuse specifically at women who have spoken up about alleged sexual assaults.
At recent press conferences, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin and Xinjiang official Xu Guixiang held up pictures of women who gave first-hand accounts of sexual abuse in detention camps and called them "liars"; said one was "morally depraved" and of "inferior character"; and accused another of adultery. One woman was branded a "bitch of bad moral quality" by a former husband in what appeared to be a staged video put out by state media; another was called a "scumbag" and "child abuser" by a Chinese official.
BBC
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin holds pictures while speaking during a news conference in Beijing, China February 23, 2021,
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
Image caption,
Wang Wenbin holds up pictures of witnesses at a press conference in Beijing last month
BBC
Wang, the foreign ministry spokesman, revealed what he said were private medical records, claiming that they disproved one woman's account of having an IUD forcibly fitted. Officials have also claimed that sexually transmitted diseases were responsible for fertility problems suffered by former camp detainees, rather than violent physical abuse, and put out a range of propaganda material calling the women "actresses".
Tursunay Ziawudun, a former camp detainee who is now in the US, was one of the women attacked at a press conference. When she watched it, she was relieved Wang had not mentioned her family, she said, but "deeply sad" about the rest. Ziawudun has previously recounted being raped and tortured during her detention in Xinjiang in 2018.
"After all the horrors they inflicted on me, how can they be so cruel and shameless as to attack me publicly?" she said in a phone interview after the press conference.
The attacks on Ziawudun and others showed that China was "adopting misogyny as a style of public communication," said James Millward, a professor of Chinese history at Georgetown University.
"We have these various women coming forward and telling very credible stories about how they've been abused," he said. "And the response shows a complete tone deafness and misunderstanding of how sexual assault and sexual trauma is being understood and treated now. Besides being horrifying, it's also completely counterproductive for the Chinese state."
The Chinese embassy in London told the BBC that China stood by its assertions that the women's accounts of rape and sexual abuse were lies, and said it was reasonable to publicise private medical records as evidence.
BBC
Tursunay Ziawudun at her new home in the US last month
IMAGE SOURCE,HANNAH LONG-HIGGINS/BBC
Image caption,
Tursunay Ziawudun at her new home in the US last month
BBC
Two other women who spoke to the BBC have been the targets of what appear to be highly staged videos, published by Chinese state media, in which their family and friends insult them and accuse them of stealing money and telling lies. According to a report published last month by the US-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, China has produced at least 22 videos in which individuals are allegedly forced to make scripted statements, often denouncing their family members as liars or thieves.
Aziz Isa Elkun, a Uyghur exile in the UK, had not been able to contact his elderly mother and sister for years when he saw them in a Chinese state media video calling him a liar and a shame on the family. Elkun's crime had been to draw attention to the destruction of Uyghur cemeteries in Xinjiang, including his father's tomb.
"You could tell what they were saying was scripted, but it was still extremely painful to see my elderly mother in a Chinese propaganda film," Elkun said.
Qelbinur Sedik is worried a similar video of her husband could be released any day, she said. He told her on the phone late last year that Chinese officials had visited him at home in Xinjiang and forced him to recite lines calling her a liar. He said he struggled so much to say the lines correctly that it took four hours to film the short clip.
BBC
Qelbinur Sedik recently moved out of refugee accommodation into a small home in the Netherlands
IMAGE SOURCE,JEREMY MEEK/BBC
Image caption,
Qelbinur Sedik recently moved out of refugee accommodation into a small home in the Netherlands
BBC
'Maybe we can co-operate'
Another common form of harassment described by those who spoke to the BBC was pressure to spy on fellow Uyghurs and organisations that scrutinise China, often in return for contact with family, guarantees of relatives' safety, or access to visas or passports.
A Uyghur British citizen who did not want to be named said he was harassed repeatedly by intelligence officials during and after a visit to Xinjiang and told to spy on Uyghur groups and on Amnesty International, by joining the charity as a volunteer. When he refused, he received repeated calls from his brother pleading with him to do it, he said.
Jevlan Shirmemmet, who left Xinjiang to study in Turkey, gave the BBC a recording of a call he received a few weeks after posting on social media about his family's mass arrest in Xinjiang. The caller, who said he was from the Chinese embassy in Ankara, told Shirmemmet to "write down everyone you've been in contact with since you left Xinjiang," and send an email "describing your activities," so that "the mainland might reconsider your family's situation". Another Uyghur in exile in Turkey described a similar call from the same embassy.
Mustafa Aksu, a 34-year-old activist in the US who said his parents had been harassed in Xinjiang, showed the BBC text and voice messages from an old school friend - now a Chinese police officer - who Aksu said was pressuring him to provide information about Uyghur activists.
"He says, 'Maybe we can co-operate. I'm sure you must miss your parents.'"
BBC
Jevlan Shirmemmet has publicly protested for the release of his mother
Image caption,
Jevlan Shirmemmet has publicly protested for the release of his mother
BBC
Not everyone feels that they can refuse these requests. "When I say no, they get my younger brother and sister to call and tell me to do it," said a Uyghur student in Turkey, who provided screenshots of the messages from police. "They could send my brother and sister to a concentration camp. What choice do I have?" she said.
Some have sought to protect themselves by gradually cutting off means of contact. "You can throw away the phone and cancel the number," said Abdulweli Ayup, a Uyghur linguist in Norway, "but you cancel your number and they contact you on Facebook; you delete Facebook and they contact you by email."
Others have tried beyond hope to stay in touch. A Uyghur exile in the Netherlands said she still sends pictures and emojis to her young son and parents, four years after her number was blocked. "Maybe one day they will see," she said.
The BBC was not able to independently verify the identities of the people behind the calls and messages provided by various interviewees, but Uyghur rights activists say efforts to coerce Uyghurs to spy for the Chinese government are common.
"It comes as an offer first - 'You won't have any more visa problems', or 'We can help your family' - that kind of thing," said Rahima Mahmut, a prominent UK-based Uyghur activist. "Later it comes as a threat," she said.
The UK Foreign Office told the BBC it was "closely monitoring reports that members of the Uyghur diaspora in the UK have been harassed by the Chinese authorities", and that it had "raised our concerns directly with the Chinese embassy in London".
The Chinese embassy in London told the BBC that the allegations in this story were "completely untrue" and it was "baffling that the BBC so readily believes whatever is said by a few 'East Turkestan' elements outside China" - using another term for the Xinjiang region.
BBC
Members of Uighur minority hold placards as they demonstrate on February 22, 2021 near China consulate in Istanbul
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY
Image caption,
Uyghur protesters in Istanbul last month. Uyghurs in Turkey fear they could be deported to China
BBC
Despite the growing public outrage over alleged abuses in Xinjiang, the number of people who have spoken publicly remains vanishingly small compared with the estimated number detained. China has been tremendously successful at silencing people through fear, said Nury Turkel, a commissioner on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
"Millions of people have disappeared into the camps, and yet we have only a handful of Uyghurs speaking out against the detention of their loved ones," Turkel said. "Why? Because they are afraid."
Some Uyghurs who have criticised China have managed to maintain limited contact with loved ones. Ferkat Jawdat, a prominent activist in the US, speaks to his mother regularly now, after campaigning publicly for her release from detention. She is under house arrest, and her calls are monitored, but she is there on the other end of the line.
It can be hard to make sense of why some Uyghurs are harassed and others are not; some allowed contact with loved ones and others not. Some have speculated that China is "A/B testing" - trying to work out whether fear or kindness is more efficient. For the thousands who are cut off, it can feel ruthless and arbitrary.
Jawdat knows that the likelihood of seeing his mother again before she dies is diminishing, so when they speak on the phone they speak carefully. He did tell her once that Chinese state media had put out a video of her saying she was ashamed of him. She said she knew, they had come to film it a few days earlier. "How did I look?" she joked. Then, taking a risk, she told him she was proud of him.
"It was the unscripted version," he said.
www.google.com
BBC
Qelbinur Sedik at her home in the Netherlands this week
IMAGE SOURCE,JEREMY MEEK/BBC
Image caption,
Qelbinur Sedik at her home in the Netherlands this week
BBC
Qelbinur Sedik was making breakfast when the video call came, and the sight of her sister's name made her nervous. Many months had passed since the two had spoken. In fact, many months had passed since Sedik had spoken to any of her family in China.
Sedik was in the kitchen of her temporary home in the Netherlands, where she shared a room with several other refugees, mostly from Africa. Two weeks earlier, she and three other women had spoken to the BBC for a story about alleged rape and torture in China's secretive detention camps in the Xinjiang region, where Sedik worked as a camp teacher.
Now her sister was calling.
ADVERTISEMENT
She hit answer, but when the picture appeared it wasn't her sister on the screen, it was a policeman from her hometown in Xinjiang.
"What are you up to Qelbinur?" he said, smiling. "Who are you with?"
This was not the first time the officer had called from her sister's phone. This time, Sedik took a screenshot. When he heard the sound it made, the officer removed his numbered police jacket, Sedik said. She took another screenshot.
BBC
Police composite
BBC
'You must think very carefully'
In conversations with the BBC over the past few weeks, 22 people who have left Xinjiang to live abroad described a pattern of threats, harassment, and public character attacks they said were designed to deter them from speaking out about alleged human rights abuses back home.
According to UN estimates, China has detained more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims in camps in Xinjiang. The Chinese state has been accused of an array of abuses there including forced labour, sterilisation, torture, rape, and genocide. China denies those charges, saying its camps are "re-education" facilities for combatting terrorism.
Among the few who have fled Xinjiang and spoken publicly, many have received a call like the one to Sedik that morning - from a police officer or government official at their family home, or from a relative summoned to a police station. Sometimes the calls contain vague advice to consider the welfare of their family in Xinjiang, sometimes direct threats to detain and punish relatives.
Others have been publicly smeared in press conferences or state media videos; or been subjected to barrages of messages or hacking attempts directed at their phones. (Last week, Facebook said that it had discovered "an extremely targeted operation" emanating from China to hack Uyghur activists abroad.)
Some of those who spoke to the BBC - from the US, UK, Australia, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, and Turkey - provided screenshots of threatening WhatsApp, WeChat and Facebook messages; others described in detail what had been said in phone and video calls. Everyone described some form of detention or harassment of their family members in Xinjiang by local police or state security officials.
BBC
A gate of what is officially known as a "vocational skills education centre" in Xinjiang
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
Image caption,
A gate of what is officially known as a "vocational skills education centre" in Xinjiang
BBC
When Qelbinur Sedik recounted the call from the policeman that morning, via her sister's phone, she buried her head in her hands and wept.
"He said, 'You must bear in mind that all your family and relatives are with us. You must think very carefully about that fact.'
"He stressed that several times, then he said, 'You have been living abroad for some time now, you must have a lot of friends. Can you give us their names?'
When she refused, the officer put Sedik's sister on the call, she said, and her sister shouted at her, 'Shut up! You should shut up from now on!', followed by a string of insults.
"At that point I couldn't control my emotions," Sedik said. "My tears flowed."
Before the officer hung up, Sedik said, he told her several times to go to the Chinese embassy so the staff there could arrange her safe passage back to China - a common instruction in these kinds of calls.
"This country opens its arms to you," he said.
'Misogyny as a communication style'
Reports of this type of intimidation are not new, but Uyghur activists say China has become more aggressive in response to growing outrage over alleged rights abuses in Xinjiang. The Chinese government has gone on the attack in public in recent weeks, directing a slew of misogynistic abuse specifically at women who have spoken up about alleged sexual assaults.
At recent press conferences, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin and Xinjiang official Xu Guixiang held up pictures of women who gave first-hand accounts of sexual abuse in detention camps and called them "liars"; said one was "morally depraved" and of "inferior character"; and accused another of adultery. One woman was branded a "bitch of bad moral quality" by a former husband in what appeared to be a staged video put out by state media; another was called a "scumbag" and "child abuser" by a Chinese official.
BBC
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin holds pictures while speaking during a news conference in Beijing, China February 23, 2021,
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
Image caption,
Wang Wenbin holds up pictures of witnesses at a press conference in Beijing last month
BBC
Wang, the foreign ministry spokesman, revealed what he said were private medical records, claiming that they disproved one woman's account of having an IUD forcibly fitted. Officials have also claimed that sexually transmitted diseases were responsible for fertility problems suffered by former camp detainees, rather than violent physical abuse, and put out a range of propaganda material calling the women "actresses".
Tursunay Ziawudun, a former camp detainee who is now in the US, was one of the women attacked at a press conference. When she watched it, she was relieved Wang had not mentioned her family, she said, but "deeply sad" about the rest. Ziawudun has previously recounted being raped and tortured during her detention in Xinjiang in 2018.
"After all the horrors they inflicted on me, how can they be so cruel and shameless as to attack me publicly?" she said in a phone interview after the press conference.
The attacks on Ziawudun and others showed that China was "adopting misogyny as a style of public communication," said James Millward, a professor of Chinese history at Georgetown University.
"We have these various women coming forward and telling very credible stories about how they've been abused," he said. "And the response shows a complete tone deafness and misunderstanding of how sexual assault and sexual trauma is being understood and treated now. Besides being horrifying, it's also completely counterproductive for the Chinese state."
The Chinese embassy in London told the BBC that China stood by its assertions that the women's accounts of rape and sexual abuse were lies, and said it was reasonable to publicise private medical records as evidence.
BBC
Tursunay Ziawudun at her new home in the US last month
IMAGE SOURCE,HANNAH LONG-HIGGINS/BBC
Image caption,
Tursunay Ziawudun at her new home in the US last month
BBC
Two other women who spoke to the BBC have been the targets of what appear to be highly staged videos, published by Chinese state media, in which their family and friends insult them and accuse them of stealing money and telling lies. According to a report published last month by the US-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, China has produced at least 22 videos in which individuals are allegedly forced to make scripted statements, often denouncing their family members as liars or thieves.
Aziz Isa Elkun, a Uyghur exile in the UK, had not been able to contact his elderly mother and sister for years when he saw them in a Chinese state media video calling him a liar and a shame on the family. Elkun's crime had been to draw attention to the destruction of Uyghur cemeteries in Xinjiang, including his father's tomb.
"You could tell what they were saying was scripted, but it was still extremely painful to see my elderly mother in a Chinese propaganda film," Elkun said.
Qelbinur Sedik is worried a similar video of her husband could be released any day, she said. He told her on the phone late last year that Chinese officials had visited him at home in Xinjiang and forced him to recite lines calling her a liar. He said he struggled so much to say the lines correctly that it took four hours to film the short clip.
BBC
Qelbinur Sedik recently moved out of refugee accommodation into a small home in the Netherlands
IMAGE SOURCE,JEREMY MEEK/BBC
Image caption,
Qelbinur Sedik recently moved out of refugee accommodation into a small home in the Netherlands
BBC
'Maybe we can co-operate'
Another common form of harassment described by those who spoke to the BBC was pressure to spy on fellow Uyghurs and organisations that scrutinise China, often in return for contact with family, guarantees of relatives' safety, or access to visas or passports.
A Uyghur British citizen who did not want to be named said he was harassed repeatedly by intelligence officials during and after a visit to Xinjiang and told to spy on Uyghur groups and on Amnesty International, by joining the charity as a volunteer. When he refused, he received repeated calls from his brother pleading with him to do it, he said.
Jevlan Shirmemmet, who left Xinjiang to study in Turkey, gave the BBC a recording of a call he received a few weeks after posting on social media about his family's mass arrest in Xinjiang. The caller, who said he was from the Chinese embassy in Ankara, told Shirmemmet to "write down everyone you've been in contact with since you left Xinjiang," and send an email "describing your activities," so that "the mainland might reconsider your family's situation". Another Uyghur in exile in Turkey described a similar call from the same embassy.
Mustafa Aksu, a 34-year-old activist in the US who said his parents had been harassed in Xinjiang, showed the BBC text and voice messages from an old school friend - now a Chinese police officer - who Aksu said was pressuring him to provide information about Uyghur activists.
"He says, 'Maybe we can co-operate. I'm sure you must miss your parents.'"
BBC
Jevlan Shirmemmet has publicly protested for the release of his mother
Image caption,
Jevlan Shirmemmet has publicly protested for the release of his mother
BBC
Not everyone feels that they can refuse these requests. "When I say no, they get my younger brother and sister to call and tell me to do it," said a Uyghur student in Turkey, who provided screenshots of the messages from police. "They could send my brother and sister to a concentration camp. What choice do I have?" she said.
Some have sought to protect themselves by gradually cutting off means of contact. "You can throw away the phone and cancel the number," said Abdulweli Ayup, a Uyghur linguist in Norway, "but you cancel your number and they contact you on Facebook; you delete Facebook and they contact you by email."
Others have tried beyond hope to stay in touch. A Uyghur exile in the Netherlands said she still sends pictures and emojis to her young son and parents, four years after her number was blocked. "Maybe one day they will see," she said.
The BBC was not able to independently verify the identities of the people behind the calls and messages provided by various interviewees, but Uyghur rights activists say efforts to coerce Uyghurs to spy for the Chinese government are common.
"It comes as an offer first - 'You won't have any more visa problems', or 'We can help your family' - that kind of thing," said Rahima Mahmut, a prominent UK-based Uyghur activist. "Later it comes as a threat," she said.
The UK Foreign Office told the BBC it was "closely monitoring reports that members of the Uyghur diaspora in the UK have been harassed by the Chinese authorities", and that it had "raised our concerns directly with the Chinese embassy in London".
The Chinese embassy in London told the BBC that the allegations in this story were "completely untrue" and it was "baffling that the BBC so readily believes whatever is said by a few 'East Turkestan' elements outside China" - using another term for the Xinjiang region.
BBC
Members of Uighur minority hold placards as they demonstrate on February 22, 2021 near China consulate in Istanbul
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY
Image caption,
Uyghur protesters in Istanbul last month. Uyghurs in Turkey fear they could be deported to China
BBC
Despite the growing public outrage over alleged abuses in Xinjiang, the number of people who have spoken publicly remains vanishingly small compared with the estimated number detained. China has been tremendously successful at silencing people through fear, said Nury Turkel, a commissioner on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
"Millions of people have disappeared into the camps, and yet we have only a handful of Uyghurs speaking out against the detention of their loved ones," Turkel said. "Why? Because they are afraid."
Some Uyghurs who have criticised China have managed to maintain limited contact with loved ones. Ferkat Jawdat, a prominent activist in the US, speaks to his mother regularly now, after campaigning publicly for her release from detention. She is under house arrest, and her calls are monitored, but she is there on the other end of the line.
It can be hard to make sense of why some Uyghurs are harassed and others are not; some allowed contact with loved ones and others not. Some have speculated that China is "A/B testing" - trying to work out whether fear or kindness is more efficient. For the thousands who are cut off, it can feel ruthless and arbitrary.
Jawdat knows that the likelihood of seeing his mother again before she dies is diminishing, so when they speak on the phone they speak carefully. He did tell her once that Chinese state media had put out a video of her saying she was ashamed of him. She said she knew, they had come to film it a few days earlier. "How did I look?" she joked. Then, taking a risk, she told him she was proud of him.
"It was the unscripted version," he said.
The cost of speaking up against China
Uyghurs abroad describe a pattern of harassment and intimidation they say is designed to silence them.
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denel
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Women who made allegations last month of rape and sexual abuse in Chinese detention camps have been harassed and smeared in the weeks since. Rights groups say the attacks are typical of an aggressive campaign by China to silence those who speak up.
BBC
Qelbinur Sedik at her home in the Netherlands this week
IMAGE SOURCE,JEREMY MEEK/BBC
Image caption,
Qelbinur Sedik at her home in the Netherlands this week
BBC
Qelbinur Sedik was making breakfast when the video call came, and the sight of her sister's name made her nervous. Many months had passed since the two had spoken. In fact, many months had passed since Sedik had spoken to any of her family in China.
Sedik was in the kitchen of her temporary home in the Netherlands, where she shared a room with several other refugees, mostly from Africa. Two weeks earlier, she and three other women had spoken to the BBC for a story about alleged rape and torture in China's secretive detention camps in the Xinjiang region, where Sedik worked as a camp teacher.
Now her sister was calling.
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She hit answer, but when the picture appeared it wasn't her sister on the screen, it was a policeman from her hometown in Xinjiang.
"What are you up to Qelbinur?" he said, smiling. "Who are you with?"
This was not the first time the officer had called from her sister's phone. This time, Sedik took a screenshot. When he heard the sound it made, the officer removed his numbered police jacket, Sedik said. She took another screenshot.
BBC
Police composite
BBC
'You must think very carefully'
In conversations with the BBC over the past few weeks, 22 people who have left Xinjiang to live abroad described a pattern of threats, harassment, and public character attacks they said were designed to deter them from speaking out about alleged human rights abuses back home.
According to UN estimates, China has detained more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims in camps in Xinjiang. The Chinese state has been accused of an array of abuses there including forced labour, sterilisation, torture, rape, and genocide. China denies those charges, saying its camps are "re-education" facilities for combatting terrorism.
Among the few who have fled Xinjiang and spoken publicly, many have received a call like the one to Sedik that morning - from a police officer or government official at their family home, or from a relative summoned to a police station. Sometimes the calls contain vague advice to consider the welfare of their family in Xinjiang, sometimes direct threats to detain and punish relatives.
Others have been publicly smeared in press conferences or state media videos; or been subjected to barrages of messages or hacking attempts directed at their phones. (Last week, Facebook said that it had discovered "an extremely targeted operation" emanating from China to hack Uyghur activists abroad.)
Some of those who spoke to the BBC - from the US, UK, Australia, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, and Turkey - provided screenshots of threatening WhatsApp, WeChat and Facebook messages; others described in detail what had been said in phone and video calls. Everyone described some form of detention or harassment of their family members in Xinjiang by local police or state security officials.
BBC
A gate of what is officially known as a "vocational skills education centre" in Xinjiang
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
Image caption,
A gate of what is officially known as a "vocational skills education centre" in Xinjiang
BBC
When Qelbinur Sedik recounted the call from the policeman that morning, via her sister's phone, she buried her head in her hands and wept.
"He said, 'You must bear in mind that all your family and relatives are with us. You must think very carefully about that fact.'
"He stressed that several times, then he said, 'You have been living abroad for some time now, you must have a lot of friends. Can you give us their names?'
When she refused, the officer put Sedik's sister on the call, she said, and her sister shouted at her, 'Shut up! You should shut up from now on!', followed by a string of insults.
"At that point I couldn't control my emotions," Sedik said. "My tears flowed."
Before the officer hung up, Sedik said, he told her several times to go to the Chinese embassy so the staff there could arrange her safe passage back to China - a common instruction in these kinds of calls.
"This country opens its arms to you," he said.
'Misogyny as a communication style'
Reports of this type of intimidation are not new, but Uyghur activists say China has become more aggressive in response to growing outrage over alleged rights abuses in Xinjiang. The Chinese government has gone on the attack in public in recent weeks, directing a slew of misogynistic abuse specifically at women who have spoken up about alleged sexual assaults.
At recent press conferences, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin and Xinjiang official Xu Guixiang held up pictures of women who gave first-hand accounts of sexual abuse in detention camps and called them "liars"; said one was "morally depraved" and of "inferior character"; and accused another of adultery. One woman was branded a "bitch of bad moral quality" by a former husband in what appeared to be a staged video put out by state media; another was called a "scumbag" and "child abuser" by a Chinese official.
BBC
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin holds pictures while speaking during a news conference in Beijing, China February 23, 2021,
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
Image caption,
Wang Wenbin holds up pictures of witnesses at a press conference in Beijing last month
BBC
Wang, the foreign ministry spokesman, revealed what he said were private medical records, claiming that they disproved one woman's account of having an IUD forcibly fitted. Officials have also claimed that sexually transmitted diseases were responsible for fertility problems suffered by former camp detainees, rather than violent physical abuse, and put out a range of propaganda material calling the women "actresses".
Tursunay Ziawudun, a former camp detainee who is now in the US, was one of the women attacked at a press conference. When she watched it, she was relieved Wang had not mentioned her family, she said, but "deeply sad" about the rest. Ziawudun has previously recounted being raped and tortured during her detention in Xinjiang in 2018.
"After all the horrors they inflicted on me, how can they be so cruel and shameless as to attack me publicly?" she said in a phone interview after the press conference.
The attacks on Ziawudun and others showed that China was "adopting misogyny as a style of public communication," said James Millward, a professor of Chinese history at Georgetown University.
"We have these various women coming forward and telling very credible stories about how they've been abused," he said. "And the response shows a complete tone deafness and misunderstanding of how sexual assault and sexual trauma is being understood and treated now. Besides being horrifying, it's also completely counterproductive for the Chinese state."
The Chinese embassy in London told the BBC that China stood by its assertions that the women's accounts of rape and sexual abuse were lies, and said it was reasonable to publicise private medical records as evidence.
BBC
Tursunay Ziawudun at her new home in the US last month
IMAGE SOURCE,HANNAH LONG-HIGGINS/BBC
Image caption,
Tursunay Ziawudun at her new home in the US last month
BBC
Two other women who spoke to the BBC have been the targets of what appear to be highly staged videos, published by Chinese state media, in which their family and friends insult them and accuse them of stealing money and telling lies. According to a report published last month by the US-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, China has produced at least 22 videos in which individuals are allegedly forced to make scripted statements, often denouncing their family members as liars or thieves.
Aziz Isa Elkun, a Uyghur exile in the UK, had not been able to contact his elderly mother and sister for years when he saw them in a Chinese state media video calling him a liar and a shame on the family. Elkun's crime had been to draw attention to the destruction of Uyghur cemeteries in Xinjiang, including his father's tomb.
"You could tell what they were saying was scripted, but it was still extremely painful to see my elderly mother in a Chinese propaganda film," Elkun said.
Qelbinur Sedik is worried a similar video of her husband could be released any day, she said. He told her on the phone late last year that Chinese officials had visited him at home in Xinjiang and forced him to recite lines calling her a liar. He said he struggled so much to say the lines correctly that it took four hours to film the short clip.
BBC
Qelbinur Sedik recently moved out of refugee accommodation into a small home in the Netherlands
IMAGE SOURCE,JEREMY MEEK/BBC
Image caption,
Qelbinur Sedik recently moved out of refugee accommodation into a small home in the Netherlands
BBC
'Maybe we can co-operate'
Another common form of harassment described by those who spoke to the BBC was pressure to spy on fellow Uyghurs and organisations that scrutinise China, often in return for contact with family, guarantees of relatives' safety, or access to visas or passports.
A Uyghur British citizen who did not want to be named said he was harassed repeatedly by intelligence officials during and after a visit to Xinjiang and told to spy on Uyghur groups and on Amnesty International, by joining the charity as a volunteer. When he refused, he received repeated calls from his brother pleading with him to do it, he said.
Jevlan Shirmemmet, who left Xinjiang to study in Turkey, gave the BBC a recording of a call he received a few weeks after posting on social media about his family's mass arrest in Xinjiang. The caller, who said he was from the Chinese embassy in Ankara, told Shirmemmet to "write down everyone you've been in contact with since you left Xinjiang," and send an email "describing your activities," so that "the mainland might reconsider your family's situation". Another Uyghur in exile in Turkey described a similar call from the same embassy.
Mustafa Aksu, a 34-year-old activist in the US who said his parents had been harassed in Xinjiang, showed the BBC text and voice messages from an old school friend - now a Chinese police officer - who Aksu said was pressuring him to provide information about Uyghur activists.
"He says, 'Maybe we can co-operate. I'm sure you must miss your parents.'"
BBC
Jevlan Shirmemmet has publicly protested for the release of his mother
Image caption,
Jevlan Shirmemmet has publicly protested for the release of his mother
BBC
Not everyone feels that they can refuse these requests. "When I say no, they get my younger brother and sister to call and tell me to do it," said a Uyghur student in Turkey, who provided screenshots of the messages from police. "They could send my brother and sister to a concentration camp. What choice do I have?" she said.
Some have sought to protect themselves by gradually cutting off means of contact. "You can throw away the phone and cancel the number," said Abdulweli Ayup, a Uyghur linguist in Norway, "but you cancel your number and they contact you on Facebook; you delete Facebook and they contact you by email."
Others have tried beyond hope to stay in touch. A Uyghur exile in the Netherlands said she still sends pictures and emojis to her young son and parents, four years after her number was blocked. "Maybe one day they will see," she said.
The BBC was not able to independently verify the identities of the people behind the calls and messages provided by various interviewees, but Uyghur rights activists say efforts to coerce Uyghurs to spy for the Chinese government are common.
"It comes as an offer first - 'You won't have any more visa problems', or 'We can help your family' - that kind of thing," said Rahima Mahmut, a prominent UK-based Uyghur activist. "Later it comes as a threat," she said.
The UK Foreign Office told the BBC it was "closely monitoring reports that members of the Uyghur diaspora in the UK have been harassed by the Chinese authorities", and that it had "raised our concerns directly with the Chinese embassy in London".
The Chinese embassy in London told the BBC that the allegations in this story were "completely untrue" and it was "baffling that the BBC so readily believes whatever is said by a few 'East Turkestan' elements outside China" - using another term for the Xinjiang region.
BBC
Members of Uighur minority hold placards as they demonstrate on February 22, 2021 near China consulate in Istanbul
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY
Image caption,
Uyghur protesters in Istanbul last month. Uyghurs in Turkey fear they could be deported to China
BBC
Despite the growing public outrage over alleged abuses in Xinjiang, the number of people who have spoken publicly remains vanishingly small compared with the estimated number detained. China has been tremendously successful at silencing people through fear, said Nury Turkel, a commissioner on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
"Millions of people have disappeared into the camps, and yet we have only a handful of Uyghurs speaking out against the detention of their loved ones," Turkel said. "Why? Because they are afraid."
Some Uyghurs who have criticised China have managed to maintain limited contact with loved ones. Ferkat Jawdat, a prominent activist in the US, speaks to his mother regularly now, after campaigning publicly for her release from detention. She is under house arrest, and her calls are monitored, but she is there on the other end of the line.
It can be hard to make sense of why some Uyghurs are harassed and others are not; some allowed contact with loved ones and others not. Some have speculated that China is "A/B testing" - trying to work out whether fear or kindness is more efficient. For the thousands who are cut off, it can feel ruthless and arbitrary.
Jawdat knows that the likelihood of seeing his mother again before she dies is diminishing, so when they speak on the phone they speak carefully. He did tell her once that Chinese state media had put out a video of her saying she was ashamed of him. She said she knew, they had come to film it a few days earlier. "How did I look?" she joked. Then, taking a risk, she told him she was proud of him.
"It was the unscripted version," he said.
The cost of speaking up against China
Uyghurs abroad describe a pattern of harassment and intimidation they say is designed to silence them.
We need to start protesting outside these chinese consulates and make the voices of uighurs heard.
Unfortunately, when we raise here same concerns, the forum is overwhelmed by the wumao bots who are will do their best to shut the news down.
How to Spot a State-Funded Chinese Internet Troll
Personal attacks, appeals to communal loyalty, and pleas for patience are some telltale signs.
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Beefeatergin
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Why don’t you protest against India’s child molestation policy in Kashmir?We need to start protesting outside these chinese consulates and make the voices of uighurs heard.
Unfortunately, when we raise here same concerns, the forum is overwhelmed by the wumao bots who are will do their best to shut the news down.
How to Spot a State-Funded Chinese Internet Troll
Personal attacks, appeals to communal loyalty, and pleas for patience are some telltale signs.
Is it because you are involved in it?
BCS it's reported.dm any Chinese media has reported this bot any Chinese media on this news or subject how many months before you reavel this news
Is should spam reply to u on this with 50 article of mass rape and incarceration by china but this place will gete banned where you are not be happy
@waz @krash can I reply with spam as well
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denel
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Stick to the topic vs trying to troll off topic as per w..0 protocol.
@waz @LeGenDWe need to start protesting outside these chinese consulates and make the voices of uighurs heard.
Unfortunately, when we raise here same concerns, the forum is overwhelmed by the wumao bots who are will do their best to shut the news down.
How to Spot a State-Funded Chinese Internet Troll
Personal attacks, appeals to communal loyalty, and pleas for patience are some telltale signs.
Another name calling with wumao and all kind of stereotyping trying to provoke a fight. Shall this forumer be warned?
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