The Uyghur Reader: Stories We’re Following (Issue 6)

Uyghur Reader 6

Issue 6: August 7 – August 20, 2025

Welcome to the sixth issue of The Uyghur Reader, a biweekly content roundup curated by the staff of the Uyghur Human Rights Project.

Each issue features carefully selected articles, reports, and publications from media outlets, academic institutions, NGOs, and government sources. While we highlight urgent human rights issues, we also aim to reflect the breadth of the Uyghur experience, including politics, economics, history, and culture.

This week’s selections come from Director of Research Henryk Szadziewski, Associate Director for Research and Advocacy Peter Irwin, and Chinese Outreach Coordinator Zubayra Shamseden. 

📌 A new research report, released in mid-August, by David Tobin and Nyrola Elimä finds China’s harassment of Uyghur and Kazakh communities abroad is intensifying, with threats spanning Türkiye, Kazakhstan, and the UK. Civil society groups are countering with cybersecurity measures, cooperation with local authorities, and tighter information control, steps that could be strengthened through greater coordination and training. “Preventing Transnational Repression: the case of the Uyghur diaspora,” International Network for Critical China Studies & University of Sheffield.

📌 Iris Hsu of Radio Taiwan International speaks to Jewher Ilham, daughter of Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, about how her father’s life imprisonment is part of China’s broader campaign to erase Uyghur voices and suppress peaceful dialogue. “I will forever fight for you, dad,” August 19.

📌 The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, has expanded its enforcement to target imports of steel, copper, lithium, caustic soda, and red dates from China, citing the regime’s brutal forced labor practices against Uyghurs. “US targets steel, copper, lithium imports under Uyghur forced labor law,” Reuters, August 19.  

📌 Chinese universities, including Central South University, have quietly erased online announcements after inviting Yale’s Darius Longarino, a scholar known for critiquing policies in the Uyghur Region, to lecture. In the South China Morning Post, Alcott Wei writes that the public backlash in China accused the Chinese universities of being infiltrated by “foreign hostile forces,” prompting the institutions to scrub posts from their sites, even as search engines still show the broken links. “Xinjiang posts by Yale researcher put Chinese universities in line of online fire,” August 17.

📌 A four-part investigation exposes Beijing’s systematic effort to erase Uyghur culture—through laws, technology, and persecution of individuals. Episode 1 follows Abduweli Ayup, a Uyghur language teacher whose kindergarten was shut down, turning him from an educator into an “enemy of the state.” “Erased: Silencing a kindergarten,” Recorded Future News & PRX, August 12. Listen to Episode 2, The curious case of UyghurEdit++.

📌 Published on August 12, the 2024 U.S. State Department Country Report on Human Rights Practices in China accused the Chinese government of genocide and crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples, citing mass internment, forced “re-education,” torture, coercive population control procedures, and transnational repression. 

📌 Poppy McPherson and Napat Wesshasartar report that the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre removed or altered artworks by Tibetan, Hong Kong, and Uyghur artists after pressure from the Chinese embassy, which warned the exhibit could “risk creating diplomatic tensions” with Thailand. The exhibition, focused on authoritarian cooperation, saw references to “Hong Kong,” “Tibet,” and “Uyghur” redacted, and entire pieces withdrawn, including works featuring Uyghur and Tibetan flags. “Thai gallery removes China-focused artworks after ‘pressure’ from Beijing,” August 10, Reuters. Co-curator of the exhibition, Sai, an artist from Burma/Myanmar, told Reuters on August 11, “Censorship is never the weapon of those confident in the strength of their ideas.”

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