How Should the World Respond to Intensifying Repression in Xinjiang?

A ChinaFile Conversation

By Rian Thum, Rachel Harris & more on June 4, 2018

Deliberate, systematic human rights abuses are happening in China’s northwest. Reporting and research published in recent weeks shows that the Chinese government is targeting the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region’s roughly 11 million Muslims for “re-education.” Anywhere from several hundred thousand to more than a million people have been or are being held in “centers,” where they have to “disavow their Islamic beliefs, criticize themselves and their loved ones and give thanks to the ruling Communist Party.” Some are tortured. While several U.S. lawmakers have called for sanctions, much of the world remains silent, including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which calls itself “the collective voice of the Muslim world.” What should the international community do?

Hodan Osman Abdi

on June 3, 2018

Hodan Osman Abdi is a Research Fellow with the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University, where she is also the Executive Director of the Center for East African studies. She received a Ph.D. in Communication studies from Zhejiang University and has since then published several journal articles and translated books. She is also the co-director of the award-winning documentary film Africans in Yiwu, a six-episode documentary film describing the lives of the African community in one of China’s most popular business hubs. Recently, Abdi was appointed as a Senior Adviser to the President of the Federal Government of Somalia to advise on policies and strategies to promote Somalia-China Investment and Economic relations.