Remembering the Ürümchi Fire Victims and the Need for a Unified Solidarity Movement in China
November 24, 2025
A UHRP Insights column by Zubayra Shamseden, UHRP Chinese Outreach Coordinator
On November 24 2022, three years ago today, a fire broke out in a predominantly Uyghur residential building in Ürümchi that killed at least ten people. According to a relative of one of the fire victims, the strict Covid-19 lockdown measures had prevented residents from escaping and slowed rescue efforts. The tragedy sparked widespread anger across China and in the Uyghur diaspora.
In the aftermath, when I saw thousands of Chinese protestors holding a piece of white paper, a symbol of government censorship, to express their solidarity with the fire victims, I felt that something lost had come back again.
On the third anniversary of the renewed White Paper Protests, I thought of Kamile Wayit, a 19-year-old Uyghur student studying in Shangju Institute of Technology in Henan Province. She did what many other Chinese students and supporters did at the time and shared a video about the solidarity protest to express her support. However, in the eyes of China’s authoritarian and dictatorial regime, this simple human act was treated as a “crime.”
According to Amnesty International, the victims were prevented from escaping their apartments due to the government’s strict lockdown barriers. However, none of the government officials were held accountable for upward of 44 deaths that resulted from the fire. For Kamile’s act of solidarity, she was handed a three-year sentence, losing the safety of her campus, the progress of her education, and the simple freedom of being a young Uyghur student.
Witnesses to the fire said that emergency response workers had to remove large bollards from the area surrounding the building in order to allow fire trucks to access the site, which slowed the fire crews from putting out the fire and accessing residents. China’s Covid-19 lockdown policy appeared to be just another excuse to impose even stricter measures against Uyghurs outside camps and prisons.
Muhammadimin, a Uyghur living in Ürümchi at the time, whose aunt and four children died in the fire, said after the incident: “There is a police station 100 meters from the house. There is a fire station within a kilometer. There is a large hospital less than 2 kilometers away. Due to their failed zero-COVID policy and deliberate failure to save lives, my aunt and her four children died.”
The fate of Kamile Wayit is a typical example. Kamile was brought back to East Turkistan from mainland China and sentenced to three years in prison for simply reposting a video about the White Paper movement. Survivors of the prison system in East Turkistan have described harsh conditions, forced labor, and even sexual violence and abuse. We do not know exactly what Kamile endured, but we know she entered that system alone, vulnerable, and silenced. The uncertainty of what she faced is haunting.
Kamile once dreamed of becoming a preschool teacher, a quiet ambition rooted in care and hope. Now, as she approaches her scheduled release, that path has been derailed. Her studies have been interrupted, her future is uncertain, and her life has been forever reshaped by an experience no young person should endure.
In another instance, Yashar (Chinese: Yaxia’er Xiaohelaiti, Uyghur: Yashar Shohret) was detained in Chengdu because of his participation in the White Paper Protests. Later he was charged with “gathering a crowd to disrupt the social order” and was released on bail after 21 days of detention. He was detained again on August 11, 2023 by municipal authorities while he was still residing in Chengdu.
Authorities charged him with “promoting extremism” and “illegally possessing extremist materials” reportedly for his music, published on the Internet, and his possession of Uyghur-language books. Many of these books are regarded by Uyghurs as classic literature essential to understanding their history and culture. He was sentenced on June 20, 2024 to three years in prison and transferred to Wusu Prison in the Uyghur Region.
The scenes reminded me of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, when I was the same age as Kamile Wayit when she simply shared a video of the White Paper Protest.
Back then, I was a student in Shanghai. As an Uyghur I felt something inside me pushing and urging me that I should be there in Tiananmen, or at least on the streets of Shanghai to express my support for those who are sacrificing their lives for freedom in Beijing. I didn’t feel that I was different from anyone; whether it was Uerkesh Davlet (Wu’erkaixi in Chinese) or Wang Dan, who were some of the students leading the protest. To me the slogans they were shouting, “freedom, equality, justice and transparency,” were equally coming out of my own heart, and the desire of my people.
Both the Tiananmen protest and the Ürümchi fire laid the groundwork for both people to understand the commonality that they have against the Chinese repressive regime. What happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989 foreshadowed what would happen to Uyghur protesters on July 5, 2009 in Ürümchi. What happened to the people in the Ürümchi fire could have happened to anyone in China during the lockdowns. The White Paper Movement signifies the power of being together against an oppressor, and showcases the power of unified and organized dissent against the regime as one people.
The Ürümchi fire exposes yet another layer of China’s systematic human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs, of which experts have called crimes against humanity and genocide. Whether talking about the deadly fire and its cause, its handling, or the expression of solidarity to the victims, all were punished by the Chinese government. For China, any incident involving Uyghurs is a political or security issue.
Like many who survive arbitrary detention, both Kamile and Yashar may face lasting trauma, surveillance, and barriers to education or work. Yet they also carry the strength of having lived through what was meant to break them. As we remember the White Paper Movement, we also remember Kamile and Yashar, not just for what they lost, but for the future they still deserve.