Experts asked lawmakers to build an international coalition of support for the Uyghurs, increase tariffs on China and work to prevent U.S. companies from profiting off of forced labor.
A guard tower and barbed wire fences surround an internment facility in the Kunshan Industrial Park in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)
WASHINGTON (CN) “I feel like I must speak up as a survivor for all those who have not survived.”
Tursunay Ziyawudun is a Uyghur, someone indigenous to the Xinjiang region of China known to them as East Turkistan. She is also a two-time survivor of Uyghur concentration camps, where the Chinese government has held up to 3 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, subjecting them to rape, forced labor, sterilizations and political indoctrination.
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The union representing rail workers is calling for an audit of KiwiRail locomotives amid slave labour concerns. (File photo) As a state-owned enterprise, any involvement with unethical practices would place both KiwiRail and New Zealand in a compromised position, he said. Late last month, a KiwiRail spokesperson told
Newsroom the state-owned company didn’t have the skills or experience required to carry out comprehensive human rights assessments of overseas corporations. “Instead we rely on government policy as advised by agencies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Similarly, assessments of any security implications related to our suppliers are more appropriately made at a government level, and we would follow government advice on such matters.
KASHGAR, China
Tursunjan Mamat, a practicing Muslim in western China’s Xinjiang region, said he’s fasting for Ramadan but his daughters, ages 8 and 10, are not. Religious activity including fasting is not permitted for minors, he explained.
The 32-year-old ethnic Uyghur wasn’t complaining, at least not to a group of foreign journalists brought to his home outside the city of Aksu by government officials, who listened in on his responses. It seemed he was giving a matter-of-fact description of how religion is practiced under rules set by China’s Communist Party.
“My children know who our holy creator is, but I don’t give them detailed religious knowledge,” he said, speaking through a translator. “After they reach 18, they can receive religious education according to their own will.”
170 Mosques Destroyed in China s Xinjiang Crackdown, Australian Think Tank Says
On 5/6/21 at 10:51 AM EDT
A report from an Australian think tank says a Chinese government campaign to destroy mosques has impacted the number of people openly practicing Islam.
While Chinese citizens are permitted to follow Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Roman Catholicism or non-denominational Protestantism, there are rules that govern how citizens practice their beliefs. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) released a report in 2020 that said at least 170 destroyed mosques were identified through satellite images, about 30% of the sample they analyzed.
In the past decade, attendance at the Id Kah Mosque in the historic Silk Road city of Kashgar has dropped from up to 5,000 people to a maximum of about 900, the mosque s imam, Mamat Juma, told the
Why Australia-China War Talk is Rising Between the Two Nations
On 5/6/21 at 9:49 AM EDT
Australia s relationship with China appears to be locked in a downward spiral due to seemingly irreconcilable differences. Moreover, discussions about a hot war between the countries are also brewing, despite solemn calls to avoid potentially inflammatory language.
The prospect of a direct military confrontation between Australia and China remains slim, most observers agree. Growing tensions and occasional diplomatic spats notwithstanding, Beijing remains Australia s largest two-way trading partner worth A$251 billion ($194 billion), according to the latest figures from the Australian government.
In terms of conventional strength, nuclear-capable China outnumbers most militaries in the world. Its most recent defense budget of 1.36 trillion yuan ($210 billion) is six times that of Australia s A$42.7 billion ($33 billion), as reported by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.