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Read RFA coverage of this story in Uyghur Chinese authorities in Xinjiang’s regional capital Urumqi on July 4 arrested two Uyghur sisters and their mother for sending goods to their eldest sister in Turkey, and a third sister was arrested a week later, the eldest told Radio Free Asia. Guzelnur Kamil said her family had been shipping ordinary household goods, including clothing, footwear, hats, daily necessities, seasonings, and packaged food items to support her business in Turkey. “They were simply miscellaneous everyday items,” she told RFA. “My mother said, ‘Even…

A Bangkok court on Thursday sentenced two Uyghur men to death for triggering the bomb explosion which killed twenty and injured over a hundred others over a decade ago. “The deaths and injuries caused by the attack were a terrible tragedy, and the victims and their families deserve justice,” Rebiya Kadeer of the International Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation (IUHRDF) told RFA. “However, justice cannot be achieved through proceedings that leave significant questions unanswered regarding due process, the treatment of defendants, and the reliability of key evidence,” Kadeer added.…

During U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to China, pay special attention to China’s track record of manipulating information. The Chinese government has distorted the statements of foreign visitors and used them to serve its own rule over the people under its control. For example, during the 2022 visit of United Nations High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet to China, her statement “I admire China’s economic development” was expanded and promoted as “I admire China’s economic and human rights development.” China ignored corrections issued by the UN office, and the misleading report remained…

WASHINGTON — The House passed the Uyghur Policy Act on Tuesday, a bill that advances a strategy for the United States to support Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities enduring persecution at the hands of China’s government. It’s the latest try for the measure, which was passed by the House in the past two congressional terms without advancing further. Sponsored by a bipartisan group led by Rep. Young Kim, a California Republican, and Rep. Ami Bera, a California Democrat, the measure calls on the State Department to oversee Uyghur human rights-related…

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers this week announced a bill that would broaden existing sanctions to combat what one senator called “a deliberate and systematic campaign to destroy the Uyghur people” — one of a set of bills targeting China over its treatment of minority groups, dissidents and Taiwan as bilateral trade negotiations continue. The measure would expand the sanctions under a previous law to include actions like forced family separations and organ harvesting. It would also deny entry to the U.S. for people found to have participated in…

A new report says major Chinese producers of critical minerals are using state-imposed forced labor programs in the Uyghur region to meet rising global demand, putting international brands they export to at risk of complicity in human rights violations. According to the report by Hague-based rights group Global Rights Compliance, 77 companies and downstream manufacturers of critical minerals-based products operate in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), placing them at risk of participation in the labor transfer programs in the lithium, titanium, beryllium, and magnesium industries. The findings are likely…

Radio Free Asia has provided a unique, international news service for Uyghurs that has exposed China’s creeping persecution of the minority Muslim group in real time, culminating in the eventual U.S. government declaration of a genocide. RFA Uyghur was in the vanguard on reporting a massive crackdown in the Xinjiang region in the far west of China in 2017 which led to an estimated 1.8 million people confined in internment camps. By speaking directly to sources inside Xinjiang, it documented the repression of Uyghurs as the crackdown began before other…

Uyghur human rights advocates are criticizing Harvard University for training officials from a Chinese paramilitary organization sanctioned by the U.S. government for human rights abuses, including mass detention and forced labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Officials from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) participated in Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s executive training programs in 2023 and 2024, according to research by the China-focused think tank Strategy Risks. The program, delivered in partnership with China’s National Healthcare Security Administration, focused on health insurance governance and public…

Rushan Abbas is one of the most prominent international advocates for the rights of ethnic Uyghurs. Her memoir, “Unbroken: One Uyghur’s Fight for Freedom,” will be published on June 10. The book explores her personal journey from her pro-democracy activism as a student in China in the 1980s, to her move to the United States in 1989, and her efforts to draw attention to the plight of Uyghurs in the face of mass internments and other grave abuses that the U.S. government says constitute genocide. uyghur-rushan-abbas-book-interview Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.,…

The British government says a new state-owned renewable energy company will not be allowed to source solar panels made with Chinese slave labor. The government announced Wednesday that it will introduce an amendment to ensure that the planned company, Great British Energy, will not have slavery in its supply chains. China is the dominant global player in the renewable energy market including solar energy. The BBC cited customs data that Britain imports more than 40% of its solar photovoltaics from China. A key component is polysilicon sourced from the Xinjiang…