The persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang by the Chinese government is being called a genocide by human rights advocates.
The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See hosted a webinar to call attention to the Chinese government's crimes against humanity. Gulchehra Hoja, a journalist and Uyghur herself, shared her own experience of the government's harsh repression.
GULCHEHRA HOJA
Journalist
“Unfortunately the Chinese government sees any religion as a threat to its rule, and therefore, it is trying its best to get away with this genocide by silencing all of us, including me.”
The Chinese government has sent at least 24 members of Hoja's family to concentration camps, and she has been accused of terrorism and put on a government watch list.
GULCHEHRA HOJA
Journalist
“For Uyghurs today, choosing faith is tantamount to choosing death. Yet they have not lost faith in justice. There they are. True believers. They are paying the price with their lives.”
Since 2018, over 15,000 mosques and cemeteries in Uyghur regions have been destroyed, and as of June 2020, 613 imams are reported missing.
It started with the government setting up a surveillance system. Then from 2017 to 2019 Uyghurs were imprisoned in droves. And since 2019 they have been subjected to forced labor, forced sterilization, torture and death.
The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada have been coordinating sanctions against human rights abusers, including perpetrators of atrocities in Xinjiang.
CT
