A Conference on Uyghur crisis and professor Ilham Tohti
Ilham Tohti
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Economist Speaks Out Again [Archive]
RFA 2009.05.12 A prominent Uyghur economist takes outspoken aim at the Chinese government’s handling of his native Xinjiang region. HONG KONG—A prominent economist from China’s mainly Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority has called on authorities to ease curbs on free expression and foster greater economic opportunity for Uyghurs in their native Xinjiang region, where poverty and joblessness are commonplace. Ilham Tohti, an economics professor at the Central Nationalities University in Beijing, said he was interrogated repeatedly and accused of separatism after he spoke out in March against Chinese policies in Xinjiang. He said at the time that unemployment remains the single biggest problem in Xinjiang and that Uyghurs have suffered under the current governor. “There are visible changes in China,” he said in an interview. “But in terms of freedom and democracy, Xinjiang’s situation is the worst of the worst-compared with other regions of China. “What I have encountered at this time is typical. My Web site was shut down without notice. I was interrogated many times and threatened. I am a legal Beijing resident, and by law I should not be interrogated by Xinjiang police officials, but it has happened.” “This shows how long the local authorities’ reach is. They accused me of separatism,” he said. “But is demanding implementation of the autonomy law separatism?” I have received more than 1,000 e-mails from intellectuals—Chinese, Tibetans, and Uyghurs—all saying they are behind me.” Ilham Tohti, economist China’s 1984 Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law is the main legal framework for managing the affairs of China’s ethnic minorities, and it promises a high degree of autonomy for minority groups. Critics say its implementation in many areas has been weak. “There is no major problem with the main points of the central government’s policy,” Tohti said. Sharp criticism His goal, he said, is “equal opportunity […]
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Uyghur Economist Silenced [Archive]
RFA 2009-03-26 HONG KONG – Chinese authorities have warned a prominent economist from China’s mainly Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority against speaking or writing publicly after he criticized China’s handling of his native Xinjiang region, friends and colleagues who have seen him in recent days said. Ilham Tohti, an economics professor at the Central Nationalities University in Beijing, “is working as usual, but he’s being questioned by state security police after class every day,” one friend who spoke on condition of anonymity said in an interview. Other friends, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Tohti had been warned against speaking or writing in the media. “His Web site has been shut down. We don’t know how long this situation will continue,” one friend said. In a blog post dated March 12, Tohti himself wrote: “I apologize to my readers, but I’m told I must be silent for some time. I am facing unbelievable threats and pressure now, but whatever happens, I call on my friends to stay firmly on course.” Officials contacted by telephone on Wednesday at the Central Nationalities University’s economics, security, and propaganda departments declined to comment on Tohti or where he could be reached. Outspoken interview In an interview earlier this month, Tohti sharply criticized Chinese policies in the northwestern Xinjiang region where he was born, saying that joblessness remains the single biggest problem and residents have suffered under the current governor. “Unemployment has existed in Xinjiang since the 1950s,” Tohti told RFA’s Uyghur service after returning home to Beijing from a weeklong academic exchange in France. “No matter what … I will still talk about the issue of unemployment.” He also sharply criticized the governor of Xinjiang, Nur Bekri, as incompetent. “I think he’s unqualified … I don’t know how he became governor of Xinjiang, […]
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The genocide committed by Chen Quanguo and the CCP against Uyghurs will eventually be tried!
ASIYE ABDULAHAD (Researcher of Ilham Tohti Institute and Dutch Uyghur Human Rights Foundation) August 29, 2020 is the 4th anniversary of the transfer of Chen Quanguo, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Party Committee. During the four years of Chen’s repressive rule, Uyghurs have experienced unprecedented suffering, including being detained in concentration camps and being subject to ethnic cleansing. The CCP has always had an obsessive fixation on public opinion; however, after the so-called “Xinjiang re-education camps” were severely criticised by the media and the public alike, Chen Quanguo was still able to sit firmly in the position of “Xinjiang’s most powerful man” without any change. This shows that Chen is “special” to the CCP. This “special” status of Chen reflects Xi Jinping’s “employment methods”. Xi Jinping has mentioned many times in public that “the rise and fall of a career depends on the effective use of people; the most important thing in using people is to guide them.” So in the key position of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Party Committee, Xi Jinping needs to choose a “special” person . He needs someone like Chen Quanguo, who has accumulated all kinds of experience in suppressing people at the grassroots level for many years. Furthermore, Chen knows the grassroots level well, and he understands the laws of operation that govern the CCP. Since Chen Quanguo started at the base level in Henan in 1983, he has 27 years of grassroots governance experience. After that, he was appointed as the secretary of the Party Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the Communist Party of China on August 25, 2011. On May 8, 2012, he was elected as the first secretary of the Party Committee of the […]
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Uyghur Scholar Calls for Jobs [Archive]
RFA News 2009.03.09 HONG KONG—A leading moderate in China’s mainly Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority has sharply criticized Chinese policies in the northwestern Xinjiang region, saying that joblessness remains the single biggest problem and residents have suffered under the current governor. “Unemployment has existed in Xinjiang since the 1950s,” Ilham Tohti, an economics professor at the Central Nationalities University in Beijing, said in an interview with RFA’s Uyghur service. “No matter what … I will still talk about the issue of unemployment.” “Unemployment among Uyghurs is among the highest in the world,” he said after returning home to Beijing from a weeklong academic exchange in France. Xinjiang has developed, but the people are living in poverty, especially Uyghurs.” Ilham Tohti Tohti spoke as the National People’s Congress, China’s annual session of parliament, met in Beijing—where the governor of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), Nur Bekri, warned Friday of a “more fierce struggle” against separatist unrest in the region. China has accused Uyghur separatists of fomenting unrest in the region, particularly in the run-up to and during the Olympics in August last year when a wave of violence hit the vast desert region. The violence prompted a crackdown in which the government says 1,295 people were detained for state security crimes. “The [security] situation will be more severe, the task more arduous, and the struggle more fierce in the region this year,” Nur Bekri said Friday, according to the official Xinhua news agency. “It’s a time of celebration for Xinjiang people, but hostile forces will not give up such an opportunity to destroy it.” This year marks 60 years since China’s People’s Liberation Army entered Xinjiang and implemented what it calls a “peaceful liberation” of the region. Many Uyghurs regard the move as an invasion. Tohti also called for the inclusion […]
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