Engnews January 2020

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RFA Breaking News: Police, Uyghur Twitter Campaign Contradict China’s Claim to Have Emptied Camps

by Paul Eckert

Police, Uyghur Twitter Campaign Contradict China’s Claim to Have Emptied Camps Aug. 1, 2019 - China’s assertion that it has released 90 percent of the million-plus Uyghurs held in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) internment camps was refuted by police in the region and by members of the Uyghur community living in exile who launched a twitter campaign challenging the claim. China presented the two top ethnic Uyghur officials in the XUAR at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday to deliver a surprising claim that the vast majority of Uyghurs had completed training in re-education camps and rejoined their families. “The majority of people who have undergone education and training have returned to society and returned to their families,” Erkin Tuniyaz, the vice chairman of the XUAR government, told the news conference. “Most have already successfully achieved employment,” he said. “Over 90 percent of the students have returned to society and returned to their families and are living happily,” said Tuniyaz, who was flanked by Shohrat Zakir, the XUAR government chairman. The two Uyghur men work under XUAR Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, the architect of the system that has incarcerated up to 1.5 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas since April 2017. The claims, which were presented without evidence, were met with dismissal and derision by leading human rights experts and Uyghur diaspora groups, who described the statements as the latest in a long history of Chinese disinformation about Xinjiang. One expert warned that released detainees could be drafted for forced labor in factories. “China is making deceptive and unverifiable statements in a vain attempt to allay worldwide concern for the mass detentions of Uyghurs and members of other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang,” said Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and South-East Asia. “Given China’s record of heavy censorship, outright falsehoods and systematic obfuscation about the situation in Xinjiang, it remains imperative that UN human rights investigators, independent observers and the media be given unrestricted access to the region as a matter of urgency,” he added. The Germany-based World Uyghur Congress while slamming the Chinese claim noted that Zakir’s own sister and several other relatives have received political asylum in Western countries after fleeing Chinese repression. #prove90% hits Twitter In a view consistent with other human rights and Uyghur groups, Bequelin said Amnesty had “received no reports about large scale releases – in fact, families and friends of people who are being detained tell us they are still not able to contact them.” In an effort to verify the XUAR officials’ assertions RFA’s Uyghur Service, conducted telephone interviews with police in the region. “I did not hear that anybody was released from the education. We would have been informed if anybody had been released,” said a policeman at a village police station in Hotan (Hetian in Chinese). “There are 1700 people in the village, and about 250 of them are in the education camps, and so far we have only one person, aged between 40- 50, who was released,” said the policeman, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity due to the risk of punishment for talking to foreign media. A Uyghur woman in Hotan City told RFA that seven of the 12 houses on her street have been left “ empty and padlocked” by the re-education campaign. “All of them were sent to the education camps for about two years,” she said, describing the detained Uyghurs as all business people from Karakax (Moyu, in Chinese) county in Hotan. “There are fewer people everywhere, even in the city. Stores are open, but there are very few people who are shopping and there is a money shortage,” added the woman. In Kumul (in Chinese, Hami) prefecture, one official in the Kumul city neighborhood committee said he didn’t know that any inmates had been released. Asked about the XUAR government figure presented in Beijing, he then stated: “maybe 90 percent.” Another person from the Kumul city neighborhood committee told RFA, however, that: “We have about 100 people undergoing ‘education’ from our district and three of them were released so far.” Meanwhile, the Uyghurs living in exile with relatives incarcerated in the XUAR have conducted a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #prove90%. “ China show me my parents, my cousin Ilzat and my other relatives. #prove90 % (of) concentration camp detainees (are) being released as you stated. It’s been years since I last heard my parents’ voice,” wrote a man calling himself Alfred Uyghur. ‘Where the hell is my father-in-law?’ Another Uyghur man on Twitter, Arslan Hidayat, wrote “#China says they’ve released 90% of #Uyghurs from “Re-Education” camps, then where the hell is my father-in-law, prominent actor and comedian ‘Adil Mijit’?” Adil Mijit, a well-loved Uyghur comedian, went missing in late 2018, and social media sources as well as anonymous reports shared with RFA confirmed he was now serving a three-year prison term for making a trip to the Muslim holy city of Mecca without authorities’ permission. The latest campaign follows a similar one in February, when after China showed a video of a Uyghur mistakenly thought to have died, the Uyghur exile community had launched a social media campaign under the hashtag #MeTooUyghur, calling on Chinese authorities to release video of their relatives who were missing and believed detained in the vast camp network. Beijing initially denied the existence of internment camps, but changed tack earlier this year and started describing the facilities as “boarding schools” that provide vocational training for Uyghurs, discourage radicalization and help protect the country from terrorism. Reporting by RFA’s Uyghur Service and other media outlets that those in the camps are detained against their will and subjected to political indoctrination, routinely face rough treatment at the hands of their overseers, and endure poor diets and unhygienic conditions in the often overcrowded facilities. RFA has also discovered repeatedly that many of the Uyghurs forced to go through vocational training were already highly educated, accomplished professionals in various fields. The mass incarcerations of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and Kirgiz have prompted increasing calls by the international community to hold Beijing accountable for its actions in the region, and Tuesday’s claim that many Uyghurs were released was seen as an effort to blunt that criticism. The Global Times , a tabloid published by the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, doubled down on the “vocational education” propaganda on Thursday in an editorial praising the purported release of “trainees.” “This time, the autonomous region released a great amount of crucial information on the vocational education and training centers. Information received by the Global Times through other channels also shows that a great number of trainees have indeed graduated and returned to the society,” it said. “Although officials have yet to publish detailed figures, the improving situation of Xinjiang is expanding to all spheres. As a powerful interim measure, the vocational education and training centers play a pivotal role in making these achievements possible,” said the daily. Reported by Mamatjan Juma and Alim Seytoff for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Paul Eckert. View this story online at: [ https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/twitter-campaign-08012019163200.html | https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/twitter-campaign-08012019163200.html ] Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA ’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the U.S. Agency for Global Media ( [ https://www.usagm.gov/home/ | USAGM ] ) . If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to [ mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org | engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org ] . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to [ mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org | engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ] .

4 years, 4 months

Statement of RFA President on Former Cambodia Journalists’ Appeal

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 27, 2020 Contact: Rohit Mahajan | 202.530.4976 |mahajanr(a)rfa.org Statement of RFA President on Former Cambodia Journalists’ Appeal WASHINGTON – The appeal by former Radio Free Asia (RFA) journalists Yeang Sothearin and Uon Chhin to drop the reinvestigation into espionage charges laid against them was rejected by Cambodia’s Appeals Court today. The two were arrested after RFA was forced to close its Phnom Penh bureau in the fall of 2017. RFA President Bay Fang made the following statement: “Today’s decision is a disappointment. The legal limbo that Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin have endured for more than two years still drags on, as does the threat of long prison terms. Cambodian authorities should heed what the international community is telling them: This legal process is deeply unfair and undermines the principles of free expression and respect for a free press that are enshrined in Cambodia’s constitution. The case against Chhin and Sothearin should be dismissed.” # # # Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the United States Agency for Global Media. Rohit Mahajan | Radio Free Asia | Vice President of Communications & External Relations mahajanr(a)rfa.org | O: 202.530.4976 | M: 202.489.8021

4 years, 8 months

RFA Publishes Rebel Pepper e-Book with Hong Kong, Uyghur Focus

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 9, 2019 Contact: Rohit Mahajan | 202.530.4976 | mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> RFA Publishes Rebel Pepper e-Book with Hong Kong, Uyghur Focus WASHINGTON - Radio Free Asia <https://www.rfa.org/english> (RFA) has released its second e-book featuring the artwork of Wang Liming, RFA's award-winning resident political cartoonist, known to many by his pen name "Rebel Pepper." The 60 illustrations, caricatures, and cartoons included in the latest volume, titled "Eyes on China: A Cartoonist's Take on Hong Kong, the Uyghurs, and More," display Wang's knack for commenting on complex newsworthy topics through wit and humor. This edition homes in on the ongoing human rights abuses <https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur> in China's Uyghur Region and the months-long pro-democracy protests <https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/hongkong-protest-01062020121707.ht ml> in Hong Kong -- two unfolding sagas covered closely by RFA's journalists and language services. The e-book is available free to download on iTunes <https://books.apple.com/us/book/eyes-on-china-cartoonists-take-on-hong-ko ng-uyghurs/id1493018048?ls=1> , Google Play <https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Radio_Free_Asia_Eyes_on_China _A_Cartoonist_s_Take?id=EVLHDwAAQBAJ> , and on RFA's e-book shelf <http://www.rfa.org/english/bookshelf> . "Rebel Pepper uses his trademark brand of political and social satire to focus on the pressing issues of the day for Radio Free Asia's audiences," said RFA President Bay Fang. "This new volume spotlights Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests and China's mass oppression of the Uyghurs, bringing an incisive, artistic perspective to two of the most critical stories that RFA has covered extensively." Wang grew up in China, where he began producing artwork on the many "sensitive" subjects deemed taboo by the ruling Communist Party. The severe restrictions on freedom to discuss certain political topics stifled his creativity, and his cartoons drew the ire of party officials. Wang was forced to leave his native China for Japan in 2014, before moving to Washington, D.C., where he started working for RFA in 2017. "As a political cartoonist in the United States, I am able to express myself in ways that are off-limits to people in China," said Wang. "It's my hope that through my work in this e-book more people can learn about the hugely significant issues that the Chinese government, and other repressive governments in Asia, try so hard to keep hidden." RFA previously published <https://www.rfa.org/about/releases/politicalcartoonist-ebook-121320171158 27.html?searchterm:utf8:ustring=%20rebel%20pepper> another e-book featuring Wang's artwork, "Drawing Fire: The Political Cartoons of Rebel Pepper," in December 2017, for which Wang was awarded the Society of Professional Journalists <https://www.spj.org/> ' Sigma Delta Chi Award. Wang's cartoons have also been featured in the Japanese edition of Newsweek, Index of Censorship and China Digital Times. # # # Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the United States Agency for Global Media. Rohit Mahajan | Radio Free Asia | Vice President of Communications & External Relations <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org | O: 202.530.4976 | M: 202.489.8021

4 years, 9 months

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Engnews January 2020