Uyghur NextGen News

A lot has been happening at Uyghur NextGen this past summer. We have been building out our internal operations with the goal of more effectively carrying out our mission: to support the Uyghur diaspora and educate the international community about the Uyghur people’s history, culture, and persecution.

To that end, UNGP intern Eric Morais published two illuminating pieces about issues facing the Uyghur community. In the first, he dives into the contentious debate over the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics which are set to begin a mere 6 months from now. Did you know that the United States has actually boycotted an Olympics before? Using historical examples, Eric explores what options the United States and members of the international community have to respond to the “genocide Olympics”.

In the second piece, Eric takes a policy dive into the Uyghur Forced Labor Act that was passed by the U.S. Senate last month. The act seeks to end the use by American companies and their Chinese affiliates of the Chinese government’s forced labor program. The program takes Uyghurs from East Turkestan (“Xinjiang”) and transports them across China to work in factories against their will. Eric breaks down the potential consequences of the Uyghur Forced Labor Act with the goal of determining its future effectiveness.

Uyghur Endurance Challenge

We are one week away from the start of the Second Annual Uyghur Endurance Challenge on August 28th! As you might have seen, the challenge is an open-ended ultramarathon race. Participants have 24 hours to complete as many miles as possible and whoever covers the most distance wins. Over 50 runners from across the United States have signed up for the challenge.

Participants are individually fundraising in support of our primary development project, Palwan Community Center in Istanbul Turkey. The center provides mentoring and both sports and academic classes for at-risk Uyghur teenagers. It is an important and safe place to many Uyghur youth in the refugee community. If you like to donate to Palwan or read more please visit our site.

The UNGP team is stoked to be bringing together American youth in support of the Uyghur diaspora. We are incredibly excited to see everyone on race day! If you would like to pledge in support of a runner or follow race updates please check out the Rally-up page or follow us on Instagram or Twitter.

Thank you all for your incredible support!

-Oliver Crane, Vice President

Uyghur Community Update

The Wall Street Journal: Chinese Suppliers to Apple, Nike Shun Xinjiang Workers as U.S. Forced-Labor Ban Looms

Several Chinese manufacturers, many of whom produce goods for American companies such as Nike and Apple, have stopped employing Uyghur workers from Xinjiang

Worldwide scrutiny and sanctions, including the United States’ Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act which passed with bipartisan support in the Senate last month, have placed pressure on U.S. companies to root out forced labor in their supply chains.
According to Apple, the company completed more than 1,100 audits and over 57,000 worker interviews over the last eighteen months to check if suppliers followed standards prohibiting discrimination.
While activists and Uyghur rights groups have applauded Chinese manufactures withdrawing from the state-sponsored forced labor program, they still note that refusing to hire any Uyghur workers at all is discriminatory because legitimate voluntary workers are shut out.

Politico: Blinken meets Uyghur ex-detainees

Courtesy of RadioFreeEurope RadioFreeLiberty, Andrew Harnik (Reuters).

American Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke virtually with Uyghur survivors of Xinjiang’s internment camps.
Blinken listened to the Uyghurs recount the conditions they faced in the internment camps and what broader issues the Uyghur community faces.
Spokesperson Ned Price framed the meeting as “an opportunity for these participants to offer any recommendations they may have”.
This meeting marks a continuation of the work that Trump Administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did in communicating with victims of the CCP’s ethnic cleansing campaign. Both the Trump and Biden administrations have vocally labelled it a “genocide”.

Reuters: U.S. lawmakers blast Coca-Cola, Visa and other sponsors of Beijing Olympics

A Committee made up of both Republican and Democrat lawmakers questioned representatives from major Olympic sponsors on their positions on several sources of controversy surrounding the 2022 games.

Each “human rights” representative from their respective corporation declined to share their stances on potential actions against China, such as moving or postponing the games, with some citing that they held no responsibility in site selection.
When asked if they believed a genocide was happening in Xinjiang, only one company representative (Steve Rodgers from Intel) said he believed that to be the case, with others saying that while they respected the U.S. government’s verdict, they would not weigh in.
Questioners brought up companies’ histories delving into political matters, citing Coca-Cola’s actions following Georgia Voting legislation, with Democrat congressman Tom Malinowski saying it was "absolutely clear" that Coca-Cola refused to criticize Beijing for fear it would harm its profits in China.
After testimony, including comments such as “human rights are core to our values”, the lawmakers were very critical of the responses, with Republican Tom Cotton calling the hearing “pathetic and disgraceful” and with Malinowski saying "You're just completely absolving yourself of responsibility for being complicit in abject discrimination”.

The New York Times: Kodak Removes Instagram Post by Photographer Who Called Xinjiang an ‘Orwellian Dystopia’

Courtesy of The New York Times, Patrick Wack/Inland.

A post on company instagram shared landscape images of Xinjiang. The photographer described his images as part of a book he was working on to create a visual narrative of Xinjiang’s “abrupt descent into an Orwellian dystopia” over the last five years.

Many Chinese social media users were up in arms about the post, prompting Kodak to delete the post and send out a statement, saying the instagram page is “not intended to be a platform for political commentary” and apologized “for any misunderstanding or offense the post may have caused”.
The company’s posts also sparked criticism from others in the photography field, as Ariane Kovalevsky commented “A company working in photography should not have been afraid to take a stand on a project that’s so important for human rights.”
Other observers pointed out that Kodak has not refrained from sharing other content related to human rights in the past.

VOA News: AP Looks Inside China's Largest Detention Center in Xinjiang

Associated Press journalists were granted access to a state-run tour of Urumqi No. 3 Detention Center in Dabancheng, the largest detention center in all of China.

Following a spike of nearly 227,000 Xinjiang arrests in 2017, researchers described the rise in arrests and sentencing since there as “moving from a police state to a mass incarceration state. Hundreds of thousands have disappeared from the population”.
Officials at the detention center refuted Western claims by insisting “the BBC report said this was a re-education camp. It’s not - it’s a detention center,”. However, photos and publicly available documents contradict the officials’ claim.
The legal process in Xinjiang is subject to much scrutiny; whereas China typically makes legal records accessible, almost 90 percent of Xinjiang criminal records are withheld from the public. Chinese officials repeatedly deny that Uyghurs are held on false charges.

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August Update