American officials should press for progress on Uyghur issues during the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue
For immediate release
May 6, 2011, 3:00 pm EST
Contact: Uyghur American Association +1 (202) 478 1920
On the eve of the third meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) on May 9 and 10, 2011, the Uyghur American Association (UAA) calls upon Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to set an agenda in talks with their Chinese counterparts in which human rights progress is a prominent and robust part of the discussion. In the wake of the U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue, held in late April, UAA urges U.S. officials to maintain a focus on human rights in talks with Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo, and to address the centrality of human rights issues to all aspects of the U.S.-China relationship.
UAA commends Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner for raising the issues of human rights in East Turkestan and Tibet, religious freedom and Internet freedom with Chinese officials in Beijing in talks last month. As noted by Secretary Posner, there has been a “serious back-sliding on human rights” in China in recent months. The fact that no headway was made when specific cases, such as that of imprisoned artist Ai Weiwei, were raised, illustrates the need for U.S. officials to continue delivering a strong message to China on rights abuses.
“Next week’s dialogue provides the opportunity for the United States to seek binding agreements from China, and to publicly seek assurances regarding human rights improvements,” said Uyghur democracy leader Rebiya Kadeer. “As American officials have noted, the human rights situation has worsened in East Turkestan and elsewhere in China over the past year, and a frank discussion of this disturbing trend during the upcoming bilateral talks is integral to advancing the rights of Uyghurs and all Chinese citizens.”
UAA is grateful to the U.S. State Department for raising the “severe cultural and religious repression of ethnic minorities” in East Turkestan and Tibet in its most recent report on human rights conditions around the globe, and for citing documentation of the mass disappearance of Uyghur men following unrest that took place in the regional capital of Urumchi in July 2009.
In addition, UAA commends the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for raising the issue of the repression of Uyghurs in its most recent annual report. UAA urges U.S. officials to act on the recommendations laid out in USCIRF’s report with respect to Uyghurs and East Turkestan, and to continue pressing Chinese officials regarding the persecution of Uyghurs in the wake of the July 2009 unrest. It is important for U.S. officials to urge Chinese authorities to stop politically-motivated trials and executions of Uyghurs in relation to the July 2009 unrest, and to request that the Chinese government fully account for all those detained, charged, tried and sentenced and/or missing, secretly tortured to death and publicly executed. It is also crucial for Chinese authorities to allow immediate access for international observers to all acknowledged or unacknowledged detention facilities in East Turkestan.
In addition, UAA recommends that U.S. officials call for the release of Uyghur journalists and webmasters who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms in the year following the July 2009 unrest, including Memetjan Abdulla, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2010, and Gheyret Niyaz, who was sentenced to 15 years in jail in July 2010 for “endangering state secrets” after he spoke with journalists in Hong Kong.
UAA further recommends that U.S. officials, in line with USCIRF recommendations, press Chinese authorities to end the harassment, arrest, detention, and mistreatment of lawyers who take on cases of Falun Gong, unregistered Protestants, Uyghur Muslims, or Tibetan Buddhists, and to reinstate the licenses arbitrarily removed from lawyers who take on sensitive human rights cases.
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