The Uyghur Reader: Stories We’re Following (Issue 9)

Uyghur Reader 9

Issue 9: September 18 – October 1, 2025

Welcome to the ninth 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 Associate Director for Research and Advocacy Peter Irwin, Director of Research Henryk Szadziewski, Director of Global Advocacy Louisa Greve, and Chinese Outreach Coordinator Zubayra Shamseden. 

📌 Professor Magnus Fiskesjö, in a paper for Sinopsis, argues that the role of forced assimilation in genocide has been overlooked and badly misunderstood. The paper applauds the recent moves to re-integrate “cultural genocide” (forced assimilation) into the legal identification and prosecution of genocide, after it was partly left out in the 1948 U.N. Genocide Convention. Any classification of the ongoing mass atrocities in East Turkistan should take into account forced assimilation as a key component of genocide. “Comparing genocides: Forced assimilation in Nazi Europe and East Turkestan (Xinjiang), China,” September 26.

📌 Joe Galvin of Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) reveals how cotton produced under coerced labour in East Turkistan is seeping into global textile supply chains, with Irish and other retailers unknowingly selling garments tainted by state sponsored forced labor. Despite laws such as the U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, weak oversight and loopholes let fabrics manufactured through Uyghur forced labour evade scrutiny and enter wardrobes worldwide. “How forced Uyghur labour could be woven into your wardrobe,” September 24. Watch the video report RTÉ Investigates: Forced Fashion.

📌 An Uyghur woman now living in Ireland, Nuria Zyden, recounts how Chinese authorities have harassed and pressured her, including threats and surveillance, in retaliation for her activism. Nuria says this intimidation also extends to her relatives in China, who are punished as a means to silence her and deter others from speaking out. Joe Galvin, RTÉ, “Uyghur woman in Ireland details Chinese pressure and harassment,” September 24.

📌 Writing for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Balkan Service, Meliha Kesmer profiles Qalbinur Sidiq, an Uzbek teacher coerced into working in East Turkistan’s mass detention camps. Sidiq describes torture, humiliation, and propaganda indoctrination, as well as widespread forced sterilization of Uyghur women and girls. After being sterilized herself, she fled to the Netherlands, where she now speaks out despite threats from Chinese authorities. Her testimony underscores both the personal toll of Beijing’s campaign and the ongoing risks faced by survivors who demand accountability. September 21.

📌 Reporting for The Herald Sun, Ryan Bourke details how Victoria’s government in Australia approved a $453 million battery project with Chinese solar giant Trina Solar, despite evidence linking its supply chain to Uyghur forced labor through its supplier Daqo New Energy. Uyghur community leaders in Australia condemned Premier Jacinta Allan’s announcement during her trade mission to Beijing, calling the deal a betrayal of Victoria’s Uyghur families. The controversy underscores how state-level partnerships risk legitimizing companies tied to atrocities in the Uyghur Region. “Labor signs off on $453m battery build by controversial Chinese firm,” September 21.

📌 Writing for Scroll.in, James Leibold examines Xi Jinping’s project of “soul-casting” (铸魂)—a campaign to forcibly remold Uyghur and other groups into a homogenized “Zhonghua nation.” Leibold shows how mass detention, coercive labor transfers, intrusive home-stay campaigns, mosque demolitions, and forced sterilizations are deployed not only as tools of repression, but as a systematic effort at cultural and biological re-engineering. The goal, he argues, is to eradicate difference at its roots, in culture, faith, family, and fertility. A longer version of the article was originally published by Melbourne Asia Review, Asia Institute, University of Melbourne. “Forged souls, broken lives: China’s ‘soul-casting’ project in Xinjiang,” September 21.

📌 Mara Hvistendahl reports for The New York Times that the Trump administration’s retreat from U.N. funding and participation is creating a power vacuum that China and other authoritarian-aligned states are seeking to fill. Drawing on interviews with diplomats, U.N. staff, and human rights experts, Hvistendahl explains how U.S. funding cuts have pressured human rights investigations and labor oversight, leaving international institutions more vulnerable to influence by governments like China. “Autocrats Move Quickly to Fill Void as Trump Retreats From U.N.,” September 19, 2025.

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