Scholars to hold press conference on China’s jailing of ethnic minorities

Chinese authorities often use torture methods, such as the one pictured above, on innocent ethnic minority prisoners held in Xinjiang’s camps. (Photo: ChinaAid)

ChinaAid

(Washington, D.C.—Nov. 19, 2018) Alarmed by China’s mass crackdown on ethnic minorities in its northwestern Xinjiang, scholars worldwide will hold a press conference after signing a statement condemning the atrocities.

Conditions for the mostly-Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang have rapidly deteriorated as Chinese officials demonstrate increased paranoia about terrorism coming from the region. This has led to people being arrested for actions as trivial as asking if food is halal, and in some areas, the police have been ordered to take specific quotas of people into custody but are given no names, causing the mass incarceration of citizens on trumped up charges. These people are often held in camps renowned for torturing, brainwashing, and starving inmates. Many inmates have suffered mental breakdowns, and some report that suicidal ideation is common.

According to a media advisory (reproduced here with the event’s permission), the conference will take place on Nov. 26 at 2:00 p.m. ET and introduce the statement and present policy guidance. Those presiding will be Sean R. Roberts of The George Washington University, Newcastle University’s Jo Finley-Smith, Sandrine Emmanuelle Catris of Augusta University, Elise Marie Anderson from Indiana University, Dilnur Reyhan of Paris’s INALCO, Darren Byler from the University of Washington, James Millward of Georgetown University, Seiji Nishihara from the International University of Kagoshima in Japan, Australian National University’s Michael Clarke, and Timothy Grose from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Those at the conference will also have the opportunity to hear from an unnamed Uyghur woman who was imprisoned in one of the camps.

ChinaAid supports attempts to expose China’s atrocities against Xinjiang’s residents in order to stand in solidarity with the persecuted and promote religious freedom, human rights, and rule of law.