#xinjiang

Tian Shan 天山 (also known as Tengri Tagh or Tengir-Too) is a large system of mountain ranges in Western China and Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan)

Tian Shan is considered sacred in Tengrism, a religion originating in the Eurasian steppes. It was the prevailing religion of ancient nomadic groups like the Göktürks, Xianbei, Xiongnu, Mongolic peoples, and the Huns. As well as the state religion of several medieval states, such as the Turkic Khaganates and the Mongol Empire.

A portrait of Mao In Tajik Autonomous County Tashkorgan, China.

China forces Uyghurs to show video proof they are not fasting during Ramadan

Cubic fluorite crystals from Xinjiang, China

My last visit home to Kumul, Xinjiang, was in June 2016, when I was just a Uyghur youth studying abroad. I did not know it would be my last trip home, my last meal with my grandparents, the last hug from my father and the last time I felt I belonged.

Later that year, the Chinese government under Xi Jinping began a campaign of mass arbitrary detention of up to a million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Chinese authorities detained people in political reeducation camps, officially called “vocational education and training centers,” and in prisons without due process.

Since 2016, my organization and others, have documented torture, forced disappearances, mass surveillance, cultural and religious persecution, separation of families and forced labor.

In August 2022, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights released a landmark report finding that these abuses “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity” and urged the Chinese government to take “prompt steps to release all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty” in the region

Three years on, the Chinese government continues to deny the report’s findings and recommendations as “illegal and void.” It has also doubled down on propaganda by trying to cultivate a sense of “normalcy” in the region.

However, as U.N. High Commissioner Volker Turk said last year, “many problematic laws and policies remain in place” in Xinjiang.

An estimated half-million people who received long prison sentences remain in custody, including many prominent Uyghur intellectuals, cultural figures and religious leaders.

Many Uyghurs abroad, myself included, still have little to no contact with family members. Some don’t even know if their loved ones taken into custody or forcibly disappeared by Chinese authorities are still alive.

Since the early days of the crackdown, friends and relatives deleted me from their WeChat and stopped answering my phone calls. Because I live abroad, I became a “threat” to their security.

I lost contact with the last person on my WeChat — my father, Memet Yaqup, a businessman and former civil servant — in June 2018.