Tag: Uyghurs

World’s Largest Drone Maker Expands in US Amid Rights Abuse Allegations  

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washington —  Chinese drone maker DJI is expanding in the U.S. with its first flagship store in New York City amid allegations of links to human rights abuses and ties to China’s military. DJI’s “first concept” North American store on New York’s Fifth Avenue welcomes customers into a futuristic, minimalist space to shop. The company describes itself on its website as “the world’s leader in civil drones and creative camera technology.” “We continue to see growing consumer demand throughout North America as we expand our consumer product portfolio,” said Christina…

China’s Inviting Sympathetic Foreign Media to Xinjiang Can Backfire

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hong kong —  Albanian Canadian scholar Olsi Jazexhi seemed to be the perfect foreign writer for the Chinese government to invite to Xinjiang, its westernmost province and home to the ethnic Uyghur Muslim minority so mistreated by Beijing that its critics have called it cultural genocide. “My initial intention was to visit Xinjiang myself to investigate and to prove the West wrong,” Jazexhi tells VOA. During an interview for a journalist visa at the Chinese Embassy in Tirana, Albania, in 2019, he says he told the consular official, “I want…

Genetics journal retracts 17 papers from China due to human rights concerns

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A genetics journal from a leading scientific publisher has retracted 17 papers from China, in what is thought to be the biggest mass retraction of academic research due to concerns about human rights. The articles were published in Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine (MGGM), a genetics journal published by the US academic publishing company Wiley. The papers were retracted on 12 February after an agreement between the journal’s editor in chief, Suzanne Hart, and the publishing company. In a review process that took over two years, investigators found “inconsistencies” between…

German firm BASF to pull out of Xinjiang after Uyghur abuse claims

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The German chemicals producer BASF has said it will withdraw from its two joint ventures in Xinjiang, after media reports about alleged human rights abuses relating to its partner company, which BASF’s CEO said crossed a red line. In a statement on Friday, BASF said that while “regular due diligence measures including internal and external audits have not found any evidence of human rights violations in the two joint ventures”, the recent reports “indicate activities inconsistent with BASF’s values”. On Monday, a group of politicians from around the world urged…

German firm BASF urged to quit Xinjiang over ‘gross abuses’ of Uyghurs

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The German chemicals producer BASF “appears to be implicated in gross abuses” of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and should withdraw from the Chinese province, a group of politicians from around the world have said. The group made the allegation in a letter to BASF’s chair, Martin Brudermüller, on Monday, after the German media outlets Der Spiegel and ZDF published a joint investigation on Friday. The investigation found that in 2018 and 2019 people employed by BASF’s Chinese partner company, Xinjiang Markor Chemical Industry, in Xinjiang accompanied Chinese state officials on home…

Uyghur News Recap: January 26 – February 2, 2024

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washington —  US Lawmaker Sounds Alarm on Uyghur Forced Labor Act Loopholes In a recent session at the International Religious Freedom Summit, Republican Representative Chris Smith raised concerns about the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, highlighting loopholes that may enable forced labor. The act assumes goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region involve forced labor unless proved otherwise. However, Smith pointed out flaws in the law allowing shipments under $800 to evade scrutiny, potentially enabling companies to import goods without proper verification. China Tightens Grip on Religious Practices in Xinjiang…

Elderly Uyghur women imprisoned in China for decades-old religious ‘crimes’, leaked files reveal

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Hundreds of thousands of Uyghur female religious leaders are estimated to have been arrested and imprisoned in Xinjiang since 2014, with some elderly women detained for practices that took place decades ago, according to an analysis of leaked Chinese police files. There is growing evidence of the abusive treatment of the Uyghur Muslim population of the north-west Chinese region of Xinjiang, with their traditions and religion seen as evidence of extremism and separatism. New analysis of leaked police files found more than 400 women – some more than 80 years…

Report: Global Carmaker Supply Chains Exposed to Xinjiang Forced Labor

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Taipei, Taiwan —  A new report finds that some global carmakers are applying weaker human rights and responsible-sourcing standards to their joint ventures in China due to pressure from the Chinese government. The lax standards increase the risk of exposing supply chains to forced labor from China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region, where more than 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities have been subject to mass internment and other forms of persecution. According to the report from Human Rights Watch, titled Asleep at the Wheel, several major global carmakers, including Volkswagen,…

Nearly Half of Journalists Jailed in China Are Uyghurs, Report Says

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washington —  Nearly half of the 44 journalists imprisoned in China in 2023 were Uyghurs, according to a report released Thursday. Data from the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ — which offered a global snapshot of journalists jailed for their work as of December 1 — found China had the most media workers imprisoned. The high proportion of Uyghurs detained in the country highlights the intersection between Beijing’s poor press freedom record and its human rights abuses against the majority-Muslim ethnic group, analysts said. An examination of the cases…

Thermo Fisher stops sale of DNA kits in Tibet after activists raised fears of rights abuses

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The US biotech company Thermo Fisher has halted sales of its DNA identification kits in Tibet, nearly five years after it made a similar commitment about the sale of its products in the neighbouring western Chinese region of Xinjiang. It decided to stop sales in Tibet after months of complaints from rights groups and investors that the technology may be used in a way that abuses human rights. The company said that the decision was made in the middle of 2023, but it was only revealed to investors late last…