(Xinjiang – June 6, 2025) The Xinjiang Victims Database has revealed that Feng Siyu, a young Chinese scholar fluent in Uyghur and admitted to several top global universities, has remained without any communication since her arrest in 2018.
Her fate has sparked grave international concern over China’s arbitrary detention of its citizens. Feng Siyu’s case not only exposes the Chinese authorities’ suppression of academic freedom but also highlights their sweeping crackdown on research of Uyghur culture; even Han Ethnicity scholars have not been spared.
Background of Feng Siyu
Feng Siyu, a distinguished scholar from Jinhua, Zhejiang, went to school at Hangzhou Foreign Languages School and received admission offers from 17 top international universities, including the University of Chicago, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern University. She completed her undergraduate studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts and pursued graduate studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London, SOAS).
Feng Siyu’s passion and commitment to Uyghur culture were both profound and admirable. She studied the Uyghur language at Indiana University, and She was proficient in Uyghur and worked as a translator at the Minorities Folklore Research Center at Xinjiang University prior to her arrest. During her college summer break, she even volunteered to teach in rural primary schools in Jiangxi, demonstrating her care for society.
Arrest and Disappearance: Vague Accusations and Sudden Vanishing
In 2017, Feng Siyu, as a Han Chinese graduate student, began collaborating with renowned Uyghur anthropologist Rahile Dawut at the Minorities Folklore Research Center at Xinjiang University. Her proficiency in both Chinese and Uyghur played a crucial role in preserving and transmitting traditional Uyghur knowledge. It was precisely her dedication to understanding the plight of the Uyghur people, combined with her unique background, that made her a welcome collaborator among Uyghur scholars. However, this very work aimed at cultural exchange became the trigger for her arrest.
According to internal police documents obtained by The Intercept, Feng Siyu was officially detained because a “foreign obscure software” was detected on her smartphone. Although the software was part of the phone’s pre-installed package and there was no evidence she had ever used VPN-like applications, Feng was still detained in 2018 and, like Dawut, subsequently disappeared without a trace. Police records from October 2017 confirm that the software was pre-installed on the phone, and Feng Siyu had never used it.
Double Standards: Stark Contrasts Between Chinese and Foreign Identities
The enforced disappearance of Feng Siyu highlights the threats and deterrents the Chinese government imposes on its own citizens, in contrast to the protections afforded by American citizenship. One anonymous witness testified that he had engaged in work similar to Feng Siyu’s in Urumqi in the same year. Although he faced harassment and brief detention, he was released because his identity was a foreigner from a “powerful country.” This stark contrast reveals the Chinese authorities’ double standards in human rights enforcement between domestic and foreign nationals.
Unknown Fate: Rumors of a 15-Year Sentence and Silence from Her Alma Mater
Feng’s current status remains unknown. A X (Twitter) user mentioned in 2025 that she had allegedly been sentenced to 15 years in prison, though the credibility of this claim has not been independently verified. The only confirmed information is that she was detained around February 2018 and was reportedly sentenced to two years.
In 2017, Feng received the Doshisha Prize for Asian Studies from Amherst College for her undergraduate honors thesis, From Istanbul to Kashgar: Ahmet Kemal’s Education Mission to Chinese Turkestan. To date, Amherst College has made no public statement or comment regarding her arrest and disappearance, raising questions about the role academic institutions should play in the face of human rights abuses in China.
ChinaAid’s Statement
ChinaAid, along with the international community, is calling on the Chinese government to immediately release Feng Siyu and provide transparent explanations for her arrest and detention. Feng Siyu’s case is not only a personal tragedy but also a reflection of the broader state of human rights in China, one that demands urgent global attention.
(ChinaAid Association)
