Category: China

Coercion by the Chinese of the Uyghur diaspora


Chinese government seeks to coerce Uyghurs living overseas

August 20206

Not content with seeking to extinguish a people and a culture in its own backyard, the Chinese are engaged in a variety of coercive tactics overseas. In Australia theย Chineseย government is interrogating Uyghur Australians visiting Xinjiang, pressing them to collect information on Uyghurs inย Australia, Human Rights Watch said today as its executive director, Philippe Bolopion, visited Australia.ย 

Chinese authorities have long engaged inย transnational repressionโ€”human rights abuses committed beyond a countryโ€™s borders to curtail dissentโ€”against Uyghurs living abroad and their relatives in Xinjiang, by targeting activists critical of the Chinese government. By pressing visitors to provide information about Uyghur activists, organizations, and language schools in Australia, the authorities are repressing the rights of Uyghurs in Australia to freedom of expression, association, culture, and family life.

โ€œThe Chinese government exploits the vulnerability of separated Uyghur families as an opportunity for surveillance and disruption of communities abroad,โ€ saidย Philippe Bolopion, executive director at Human Rights Watch. โ€œInterrogating Uyghurs visiting Xinjiang and strict monitoring of diaspora activities have a chilling effect emblematic of Beijingโ€™s transnational repression in Australia.โ€

Transnational repression

Visitors to Xinjiang can only do so under very strict conditions and are required to report to the authorities every day. Another Uyghur Australian said authorities interrogated him more than a dozen times, once for more than seven hours: โ€œThey asked for addresses and phone numbers of several prominent Uyghur activists in Australia.โ€ When he said he did not have that information, the police pressed him to monitor the activistsโ€™ activities upon returning to Australia and photograph them during events.ย 

Beijingโ€™s transnational repression derives its impact abroad from these crimes. Chinese authorities use the vulnerability of relatives in Xinjiang, restrictions on travel and communication, and fear of retaliation to pressure Uyghurs abroad.

Since the start of Chinese leader Xi Jinpingโ€™s Strike Hard Campaign in Xinjiang in late 2016, the authorities have arbitrarily confiscated Uyghursโ€™ passports in the region, and punished Uyghurs for contacting family members and others abroad. While the authorities are now permitting select Uyghurs to travel internationally or to visit family members in Xinjiang, they continue to exert tight control over those who travel.

Although this is a description of the CCP’s actions in Australia, it will be replicated around the world including the UK.

Massive destruction of mosques

We have concentrated in these posts on people aspects which of course is extremely important. But the UK government also discusses actions by the Chinese against culture including mosques. Satellite imagery and witness reports indicate that around 16,000 mosques, approximately 65% of the total in Xinjiang, have been destroyed or damaged by the government, with about 8,500 demolished entirely and much of the land left vacant. Additionally, 30% of key Islamic sacred sites, including shrines and cemeteries, have been demolished, and 28% of altered mosques have been repurposed (see State treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang province – Mosques and Islamic spaces). The full analysis by the UK government of the tragedy taking place there can be read here.

These actions represent a crime against humanity and are receiving too little attention in the West as we have noted previously.

We are grateful to Human Rights Watch for much of the material in this post. Image: protestors in Australia.

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Zoom meeting on the Uyghur campaign


Well attended meeting added useful insights into the campaign

August 2026

Several new topics and concerns emerged from this well attended Zoom meeting including from four Uyghurs living in the West. It is worth reflecting on the wider issues that the repression of minorities in China – of which the Uyghur people are just one – and that is the extent of the barbarity being perpetrated by the Chinese state and the CCP. This is a highly organised and well planned series of actions against an entire community of people which is unparalleled in the modern era. It is being committed by a state which was closely involved in the preparation and signing of the Universal Declaration after the War. China is also on the Security Council of the United Nations a position and status which is entirely undeserved.

The numbers are massive with 1.8 million taken away from their homes to be ‘re-educated’ but a further half million have been sentenced and forced to work in China itself.

We were introduced to the observable fact that there is little press or media interest in the fate of these people. Indeed, one can mention the campaign and the plight of the Uyghurs usually to receive blank looks. Awareness is low. The reasons are not hard to find: it is a long way away and the Chinese have banned almost all journalists from entering the region. So what extra did we learn this evening?

First from a Uyghur woman living in the US whose father is in prison for life for speaking out. He has not been heard from since 2017. She does not know whether he is alive and a request for ‘proof of life’ has not been answered. It is hard to imagine an action so cruel as this.

Another Uyghur who is living in the UK has witnessed the pain in her parent’s lives as they have lost contact with their culture. Contact is banned and contacts from overseas can result in punishment for those receiving them in Xinjiang. She is often asked about Uyghur culture but in fact seldom knows how to reply since all contact is lost. Another spoke of his brother in gaol for his journalism and he believes his conditions have got harsher.

Organ harvesting

The most chilling of the comments however concerns organ harvesting. Visitors might want to read the Hansard debate on this topic ten years ago which discussed this disgusting activity or a more recent UN report. The focus at the time was the Falun Gong but it has spread to Tibetans, Mongolians and now the Uyghur. The harvesting of organs is on a massive scale. According to the allegations received, the most common organs removed from the prisoners are reportedly hearts, kidneys, livers, corneas and, less commonly, parts of livers. They are extracted from prisoners often without anaesthetic. The role of a British university in the trade has been recently revealed.

Transnational repression

Other speakers told of Chinese transnational repression. Nobody in the Chinese diaspora is safe from the activities of the Chinese state which expends enormous efforts to silence critics overseas. This is why plans to build the massive embassy in London is so dangerous. Not only will it enhance and facilitate Chinese espionage activities but it will also help in their attempts to intimidate, threaten or coerce those who criticise China. That this embassy is even being considered is extremely unwise.

There was brief mention of the reach of our posts into China with views from over 50 cities and from Hong Kong.

The CCP and its leader Xi Jinping seems almost paranoid. The state has the most extensive video surveillance system in the world. Media and the internet are closely controlled. It is hellbent on extinguishing any non-Chinese culture such as the Uyghurs, having done the same in Tibet and Mongolia. Freedoms in Hong Kong were quickly extinguished.

But we hear little of this in the UK. Politicians are largely mute. The Chinese are sensitive to direct or forthright criticism and so western politicians express their disquiet in private (they claim). But do they? There is next to no media interest or reporting. Issues in which Beijing diverges from the norms of the current system, such as human rights, it seeks to undermine those values and create alternative institutions and models. China works with otherย authoritarian powersย such as Russia to create standards that reflect their interests for example internet governance.

The campaign continues …

Recent posts:

Image: repression in Xinjiang, Hudson

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Podcast Episode: Xinjiang Forced Labour Campaign


Pip: A local Amnesty group in Salisbury posts about Uyghur rights โ€” and suddenly cities across China are reading. That is either heartening or a sign that someone in Beijing is taking notes.

Mara: This episode covers Salisbury Amnesty’s recent posts on the Uyghur campaign, from the surprising reach of their online presence to the forced labour hidden inside your high street wardrobe. Let’s start with the campaign itself and what those viewing figures actually revealed.

Uyghur Campaign Reaches Across the Firewall

Pip: The Salisbury group ran a daily posting campaign on Uyghur rights โ€” and the audience that showed up was not quite the one anyone expected.

Mara: The campaign newsletter reported figures that stopped people mid-scroll. Here is what it said: “Around 70% were from China and Hong Kong SAR, a figure we have never seen before. Usually, views from China seldom reach double figures.”

Pip: So a small Wiltshire group is somehow punching through one of the most sophisticated censorship systems on earth. That is the real story here โ€” not the post count, but who is reading.

Mara: The breakdown gets more specific. Fifty-six cities across China are represented in the data, with 31 views from Beijing and 15 from Shanghai. The newsletter notes that “views from nine cities in China even exceeded the views of people from Salisbury.”

Pip: Which suggests ordinary people actively routing around the Great Firewall to find this material โ€” not just state monitors checking in.

Mara: Facebook told a different story. The same posts drew only around twenty views each there, with almost no engagement from the eighteen-to-twenty-four age group. The campaign also secured a letter in the Salisbury Journal, which the newsletter describes as a paper that does not usually publish material on topics outside the local area.

Pip: Harder to get into than Beijing, apparently.

Mara: The Uyghur Crisis Response Team acknowledged the group’s posts on Bluesky, which rounds out a campaign the newsletter calls “altogether a satisfactory response.” And the month was not yet over when those figures were filed. That reach into China sets up the harder question โ€” what exactly are people in Xinjiang living under?

Forced Labour in the Clothes on Your Back

Pip: The post titled “Slavery was abolished in 1807 โ€” Not in Xinjiang” opens with a blunt premise: the system did not end, it just became harder to see on a label.

Mara: The post draws on Sheffield Hallam University research, which states that “previous research has provided significant evidence indicating that these programmes are indeed tantamount to forced labour, human trafficking, and modern slavery and that this system of repression is particularly deployed in the cotton and textile industries.”

Pip: Xinjiang produces around eighty percent of China’s cotton โ€” which is roughly twenty percent of global supply. The brands that pledged to cut ties in 2020 did not necessarily solve anything.

Mara: That is the mechanism the post calls “cotton laundering.” Once raw cotton becomes yarn or fabric and passes through a third country like Bangladesh or Vietnam, its origin becomes nearly impossible to trace. Even the “Better Cotton” label offers no guarantee โ€” the post notes it “can be mixed or blended with what they call conventional cotton very early on in the supply chain.”

Pip: So the ethical label is doing the laundering for them. Efficient.

Mara: The post names M&S specifically, via an RTร‰ investigation, as a retailer featured in footage about vague labelling practices. The campaign asks readers to write directly to retailers โ€” a sample letter is included โ€” asking what safeguards they have in place to verify their cotton’s origin.

Mara: The post closes with a line worth sitting with: “The products of this obnoxious and cruel system are sitting on the clothing racks of our major high street retailers and hence in your wardrobes. Truly we are all involved.”

Pip: And that is the thread connecting both posts โ€” the question of who is paying attention, and whether attention is enough.

Pip: A record month of hits from inside China, and forced labour woven into everyday retail. The local and the global keep colliding.

Mara: They do. Next time, we will see where that thread leads.

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Slavery was abolished in 1807* – Not in Xinjiang


Slavery and forced labour is alive and well in Xinjiang. Major retailers complicit. Welcome to ‘cotton laundering’

August 2026

Many people believe that slavery ended sometime in the 19th Century and many – certainly older people reading this – think that Britain led the way. Slavery continued for many years afterwards. The reality is that slavery is alive and well and that you are wearing the products of this vile system while sat reading this. You may feel that you have purchased your cotton garments from a respectable high street retailer so this surely cannot be the case. If you watch the video in the RTE programme [link below], they will explain how retailers such as M&S who feature strongly in the film, are evading controls with vague labelling.

The story of cotton

Around 80% of cotton production in China comes from Xinjiang, using forced labour from the Uyghur which represents 20% of the global cotton production. Following an uproar and call to action in 2020 that called on numerous fashion brands (such as Nike, Adidas, Zara, H&M, Amazon, etc) to sever ties with Uyghur forced labour, many of these brands decided apparently to stop sourcing cotton from Xinjiang. If we were to ask these brands today about their commitment to Uyghur rights, they would answer that Uyghur forced labour has been cut from their supply chain. (Photo is one of the major companies involved in China).

However, the reality is not that simple. Cotton production has not reduced in the region since 2020; instead, Chinese manufacturers have resorted to โ€œcotton launderingโ€. Once the cotton has been transformed into yarn or fabric, the cotton enters the supply chain through third countries such as Bangladesh or Vietnam. This results in cotton that is extremely difficult to trace.

Cotton laundering

Some brands may claim that having the label ‘Better Cotton’ to claim that their supply chains are ethical. However as investigated by RTร‰, it appears that โ€œthe Better Cotton can be mixed or blended with what they call conventional cotton very early on in the supply chain, and that includes cotton from the Uyghur region“. The RTE film (5 mins) can be viewed here.

Although companies have acted on demands to stop using suppliers that rely on Uyghur forced labour, it can be easy to imagine that cotton harvested in Xinjiang finds its way to those factories through cotton laundering. That is why we are asking you today to write a question to a company that produces apparel which contains cotton to ask them what processes and safeguards are in place to ensure forced labour is not present in their supply chains.

Research published by Sheffield Hallam University shows in detail how the system works and contains much evidence. They say that previous research has provided significant evidence indicating that these programmes are indeed tantamount to forced labour, human trafficking, and modern slavery and that this system of repression is particularly deployed in the cotton and textile industries, which for China are centred in the Uyghur Region. Reports have shown that much of the regionโ€™s cotton is hand-picked by people who are forced to do so, that textile factories in the Uyghur Region employ forced labour, and that minority citizens of the region have been โ€œtransferredโ€ thousands of miles into the interior of China to work in factories for major textile and apparel exporters.

The notion of slavery today is universally condemned. Britain was heavily involved in the trade for nearly two centuries transporting well over 3 million in the triangular trade. Many are often surprised to discover that the slave owners (not the slaves) were compensated and the debt was only paid off in 2015.

As we have noted before, although Xinjiang seems a long way off and few will have been there, the products of this obnoxious and cruel system are sitting on the clothing racks of our major high street retailers and hence in your wardrobes. Truly we are all involved.

[*Quite when slavery ended is difficult to be precise. Many ships simply reflagged to avoid patrols. Slavery persisted for decades in the Caribbean and America. Slaves were still transferred between countries. A separate act was later passed to end the practice in India. Freed slaves simply became indentured.]

Letter

This is a sample letter to a retailer or manufacturer to model yours on. It is likely you will receive a standard reply but it will register with the retailer that they are being watched and if not careful, they could receive reputational damage:

Dear xx,
I am writing to express my concern as to the possibility that your cotton products contain cotton produced in Xinjiang using Uyghur forced labour.
One tactic used by Chinese manufacturers to sell cotton produced by forced labour and internal displacement of Uyghur population is โ€œcotton launderingโ€. These companies will transform cotton into yarn or fabric and then introduce them to global chains through third countries such as Bangladesh or Vietnam. As a result, the origin of the cotton is extremely difficult to trace.
In addition, the label โ€œBetter Cottonโ€ does not prevent products from containing cotton produced through forced labour. The Better Cotton Initiative does not have a traceability protocol and enable mixed or blended cotton with ethically sourced material. Cotton from the Uyghur region may very well be present in those mixes or blends.
As a concerned consumer, I would like to ask you: what protocols and safeguards do you have in place to absolutely ensure that none of the cotton present in your garments is a result of Uyghur forced labour? How do you verify that the cotton used in your garment does not come from Xinjiang?
Thank you in advance for your reply.
Yours sincerely,

We have drawn from material produced by RTE (Ireland), Sheffield Hallam University, Statista and from the Uyghur Solidarity Team with thanks.

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Uyghur campaign progress


Local group features in today’s action

August 2026

We are pleased to report that the activities of the Salisbury group feature in part of today’s (16th August) action by the campaign team. We have put up a post on most days of the campaign using material provided by the team and we have a letter published in the local paper.

What has been remarkable however, is the numbers viewing the posts from China itself. China rarely appears in our viewing figures, we suspect because our posts are blocked. We reported the latest figures – accessed yesterday (15th August) – i.e. half way through the month and these are reproduced in the newsletter:

“The Salisbury group has experienced considerable interest in the Uyghur campaign on its website with a record number of views from China itself. The numbers are high for the site and the month looks as though it is heading for a record number of hits likely to exceed 3,000ย for the first time led by the Uyghur campaign although there is other material posted.

“No less than 88% of the hits were posts on the campaign partly because we have posted something on almost every day. Around 70% were from China and Hong Kong SAR a figure we have never seen before. Usually, views from China seldom reach double figures. And it is not just China as a country, further analysis reveals it is cities all over China which are viewing. There were 88 from Hong Kong, 31 from Beijing and 15 from Shanghai. A total of 56 cities throughout China are represented.

“One might expect the CCP to monitor posts about their country but the fact that views are coming from all over suggests that ordinary people may be evading the tight controls over access to foreign sites such as ours. Views from nine cities in China even exceeded the views of people from Salisbury. The group also managed to get a letter published in the Salisbury Journal which sees itself as very much a local paper and does not usually publish material on topics outside the area.

“Sadly, this interest was not reflected on Salisbury Amnestyโ€™s Facebook page with only twenty or so views for each of the posts. Almost none were in the 18-24 age group. We are pleased to note the Uyghur Crisis Response Team thanked us for our posts on Bluesky @ucrt.bsky.social.

“Altogether a satisfactory response and we are of course not at the end of the month. The group is proud to have played a small part in this campaign. Salisbury groupโ€™s website:ย https://salisburyai.comย and Bluesky: @salisburyai.bsky.social. We no longer post on X.”

The campaign continues …

Image: Observe Algerie

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Uyghur campaign: letter


Group members publish letter in local paper

August 2026

Two members of the local group have their letter published today (13th) on the Uyghur campaign in the Salisbury Journal:

“DURINGย  August, the local Amnesty group is taking part in the Uyghur Solidarity Month to highlight the dire human rights situation in that part of China.

“The UN Commissioner for Human Rights said there were credible allegations that the Chinese government had carried out arbitrary detention, torture, forced labour, family separation and severe restrictions on religious and cultural freedoms on a vast scale.ย ย  Reading a book in their language is punished and might result in execution.

“Despite these findings, the suffering of the Uyghur people continues while the world looks on.ย More than a million Uyghurs have been detained and countless families have been torn apart.ย 

“Survivors describe detention camps where torture, rape, forced labour and coercive birth control measures are carried out by the Chinese. Whether one views this issue through the lens of International law, religious freedom human rights or human dignity, the plight of these people deserves continued public attention.ย 

“Further background can be found on the Salisbury Amnesty siteย www.salisburyai.com

Lesley and Peter Curbishley”

The letter was modelled on one suggested by the campaign team which had to be shortened because of the paper’s word limit.

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Uyghurs: getting the word out


Try telling a friend or neighbour about how the Uyghurs are treated

August 2026

Bringing back media and governmental attention on the Uyghurs is an essential step in ensuring that the current crisis is not simply ignored and forgotten. But these actions are only as strong as the wider support from the population. The more people know, care, and act for the Uyghurs, the stronger the influence we can have will be.ย That is why we are asking you today to simply talk to someone you know – a friend, a neighbour, or a colleague for example – about the Uyghur crisis.

Earlier posts will give you a flavour of the issues, the cruelty and repression these people are experiencing so we hope that with the information we have shared this far you will feel empowered to discuss the issue if in simple terms.

Nobody has all the answers to all the questions that may be asked, but creating that spark of curiosity within someone, who may learn more on their own, is so important and powerful. A simple conversation can make all the difference. You may get a response that it has little to do with us. It is sad and terrible that these things are happening but what can we do? Some points to consider:

  • You are involved. If you have cotton garments in your wardrobe, there is a 25% chance that the cotton was harvested by Uyghurs using forced labour.
  • Repression and denial of free speech is not confined to the Uyghurs. Mongolia and Tibet has also suffered and more recently Hong Kong. Britain has taken in many thousands of people fleeing the territory. There is great anxiety about immigration and considerable political and media attention to the Channel crossings. The thousands of Chinese who have come here receive little attention.
  • We discussed the new China Unity Law in our last post and this has incorporated repression and discrimination into all of China’s minorities.
  • As China becomes ever more powerful, Xi Jinping’s ambitions increase. Taiwan is in his sights and he is fomenting unrest in Japan and elsewhere in Asia
  • China is providing massive weapons assistance to Russia in its war with Ukraine. The war has resulted in many thousands of Ukrainians coming to Britain as well.
  • China is demanding a massive embassy be allowed in Britain which is almost certainly to be used for espionage it is alleged.

Although the Uyghurs may seem a long, long way away, they are but the latest victims of China’s relentless desire for power and commercial domination. The effects of this will increasingly be felt in the UK. Regrettably, it does not get the attention it deserves and governments are keen to pursue trade interests. China is said to be sensitive to criticism and claims that human rights and other matters are raised behind the scenes are to be questioned. They certainly had little or no effect in Hong Kong.

So please mention the Uyghurs to your friends and add that China is becoming ever more important in our lives and it is beginning to affect all of us.

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Uyghurs part of repression of all minorities in China


The China Unity law is an act of cultural genocide

The China Unity Law came into force in July and is intended to establish Chinese dominance over all its ethnic minorities. Mandarin will become the dominant language and all 51 of China’s minorities will be affected, around 9% of the total population. We are focusing on the Uyghurs who are being persecuted as part of Amnesty’s Uyghur Awareness Month. The law will be used to justify ever more repression and discrimination over its minorities.

We have to be aware of the wider context however and the threat to human rights inside and outside China. An article By Simon Tisdall in the Guardian (8th August) discusses these wider issues. The new law has been condemned but not too loudly by western governments but more loudly by Amnesty. We must not forget the repression which went on Tibet and also Mongolia: the Uyghurs are just the latest in a line of minorities persecuted by an increasingly authoritarian Xi Jinping.

Tisdall argues that a kind of ‘debilitating fatalism’ has taken hold of the western powers who just watch the ever increasing exercise of power by China. They are threatening Taiwan and with US military stocks reported to be much reduced by the Iran excursion, is now the time when an assault is right for them? They also threaten Japan.

Hong Kong is another example and thousands left the former colony to come to the UK. Free speech is no longer possible. The publisher Jimmy Lai was sentenced in December to 20 years in prison and is in solitary confinement and in poor health. His family say he is denied medical attention which is denied by the Chinese but they do not allow independent verification.

The sad fact is that the cause of human rights in that country and those of its minority populations in particular is bleak. As China becomes more economically and politically powerful and western countries more divided, China is able to pursue its plans with ever greater vigour. Its desire to build the biggest embassy in the west in London seems unstoppable. It is almost certainly to be used for espionage and to exert control over Chinese people living in the UK. Donald Trump’s divisive policies against US allies plays into China (and Russia’s) hands.

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Reading books can get you killed


Reading a Uyghur book can lead to serious punishment

August 2026

This is not the Middle Ages. This is the 21st Century. But the desire of the Chinese to extinguish Uyghur culture can lead to draconian consequences. This short piece and the book, were created by the Amnesty Death Penalty project.

So often, we take our books for granted.ย But if you are Uyghur, reading, promoting or writing books in the Uyghur language – even childrenโ€™s text books – can land you in serious trouble.ย In fact it can and has on a number of occasions, resulted in a death sentence.ย This is all part of the Chinese governmentโ€™s attempts to suppress the Uyghur language, culture and identity.ย Too many governments around the world use the death penalty as a means of intimidating ordinary people into compliance.ย ย Books, things that we take for granted in the West, can be very dangerous for Uyghurs which is why the Anti-Death Penalty Project has created a book (ูƒู‰ุชุงุจ) to show our solidarity. ‘Thank you so much Death Penalty Network for such a beautiful and thoughtful project!ย ย 

The Salisbury group publishes a report each month on the use of the penalty around the world. It does not include China as executions are a state secret. The country is believed to execute more of its citizens than the rest of the world put together.

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Uyghur solidarity month


Salisbury MP’s activity on this topic is poor

August 2026

It is often suggested we write to MPs on matters of concern and this can achieve something but too often it doesn’t. An MP receives a lot of messages from constituents most of which concern local matters. Indeed, it is a criticism of the system that much of their postbag are issues more properly the concern of local councillors. MPs feel obliged to engage in these matters however, because it is clearly the expectation of their constituents that they should.

Salisbury has two MPs, Mr Danny Kruger (Reform) who represents East Wiltshire which runs down to the northern part of the City, and Mr John Glen (Conservative) who represents the City itself and most of south Wiltshire. Their involvement in Chinese human rights issues is slight.

Mr Kruger asked the prime minister (then Sir Keir Starmer) the following question in February:

“The Prime Minister is very full of the abstract virtue of engaging with China and getting in the room with them. He used to say that Britain should not even sign a trade deal with China because of the persecution of the Uyghur people. Having now got into the room with the Chinese leader, can he tell the House a single thing that he achieved on behalf of the Uyghurs, or indeed on behalf of the security of this country?

“[Starmer] Yes. Engaging is really important for the security of this country. Just for clarity, we did not sign a trade deal on the visit; we simply looked at the ways in which we can open the opportunities for businesses. There were 60 big businesses with us on the visit, and they are absolutely clear about the advantages to them. I would much rather take their view on the advantages than the nonsense that is being spouted on the other side of this House”.

A good question receiving a complete non answer. The prime minister talks vaguely about engagement and then on to talk about the trade talks. He does not answer the Uyghur point at all. In the same session, Jim Shannon (DUP) also asks about, inter alia, the Uyghurs:

[…] what steps forward remain in terms of the Chinese treatment of Christians, Uyghur Muslims, Falun Gong and other religious minorities? Was the Prime Minister able to use diplomatic soft power to bring about the changes required to provide human rights protection, to stop religious persecution and to enable successful trade between the two nations?

“[Starmer] The hon. Gentleman is right to raise these really important issues. I raised them myself during the course of the visit, and I thank him”.

With what result we do not know. Danny Kruger asked again about the Uyghurs in March and a junior minister simply replied that “[the government] continues to engage with the Chinese on human rights and religious freedom”. The results do not look to be that impressive. At least it can be said that Mr. Kruger has tried to raise the matter.

There is one speech by Mr John Glen which mentions the Uyghurs in part of a long speech much of which was devoted to the treatment of Christians. A mention of Uyghurs is as follows:

“[…] It is not a binary question; it is not that we cannot talk about what is happening with the Uyghur Muslims in China while recognising that China is an important economic actor in the world that needs to be respected. We need to find ways of interacting well together and respecting, as far as we can, what common ground exists. It troubles me sometimes that when we have statements in the House, we revert to a binary: โ€œItโ€™s all good or itโ€™s all the opposite.โ€ The hon. Member for North Northumberland [David Smith, Labour] grasps the right way to approach this”.

The full speech can be accessed on the They Work for You website. It is not clear what ‘common ground’ exists with repression, torture and cultural genocide or where we could find it. On the subject of China generally, Mr Kruger has mentioned it 14 times and Mr Glen on no less than 41 occasions. We can conclude that the issue of persecution of Uyghurs is not high on either MP’s concerns. Both are Christians and seem more concerned about how they are treated rather than Muslims. According to They Work for You, Mr Glen ‘generally votes against laws to promote human rights’ and Mr Kruger ‘consistently votes against equality and human rights’.

Overall, both MPs do not seem to concern themselves with human rights issues. They are concerned about problems experienced by Christians and about political issues to do with China with little recognition of the plight of Uyghurs although Mr. Kruger has tried. We were unable to find anything relevant on their websites.

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