Recently, after announcing plans to “Sinicize” Islam, the Chinese state has
reportedly accelerated the demolition of mosques belonging to the Hui, a Chinese-speaking Muslim minority group. Amid China’s saber-rattling toward Taiwan, every Uyghur felt a shiver of recognition to hear the Chinese ambassador to France
declare that Taiwan’s people should be “re-educated” if China took the island.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Xi Jinping’s China has resisted describing Putin’s war as an “invasion.” You don’t need to be a political scientist to see these two authoritarians’ shared interests.
Not long after the war in Ukraine began, I was moved to hear that a number of Uyghur youths living in Europe had gone to help Ukraine. Two young Uyghurs living in Turkey even reached out to me to ask if I knew how they could join the Ukrainians on the front lines. I stressed how dangerous that would be, but their response was firm.
They told me that, even if they died in battle, it was important for the world to see Uyghurs stand in solidarity with others who need help. They said, in essence, that as long as their deaths brought more attention to our people’s plight, that was enough for them.
Although their uncertain legal status in Turkey and their unfamiliarity with the language prevented them from reaching Ukraine, it was clear that they understood the connection between their own community’s oppression and Russia’s devastation of Ukraine.
The Uyghur diaspora has worked tirelessly to let the world know about the genocide unfolding in our homeland and to ask the world to take action. Over and over we have shared our bitter experiences; only we know the pain we feel each time we relive them.
But this catastrophe does not end with our community. The defense of Uyghurs’ human rights is the defense of human rights everywhere. If repression can be contagious, so can justice. Humanity’s shared values have a broader reach than any autocrat.
I urge you: Do not ignore the signs of creeping authoritarianism. Do not make the mistake of thinking that something like what has happened to my people couldn’t happen elsewhere, that it couldn’t happen in your country. It can.
