Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, I definitely think that the UN could play a major role in reversing what's happening by exerting pressure on the Chinese state. Leveraging that would be a wonderful approach. I don't know enough about the specifics of what would be available to you to speak with a lot of co

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Uighurs are one of 56 ethnic groups in China, according to the official framework. For a long period of time, Uighurs and ethnic minorities in general were permitted. They were celebrated as a form of a socialist multiculturalism, but really only certain permitted differences wer

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  They're far and away the most threatening to the nation, from the Chinese state's perspective.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I don't know all the specifics of the charges, but it's the sort of thing that the Chinese state has used against numbers of Uighurs in the diaspora. Rebiya Kadeer, who is based in Washington, D.C., has also been described as a terrorist, as an extremist—all these sorts of things

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think it had something to do with one of the leaders at Interpol being a Chinese national and his putting Dolkun Isa on the list. He was just detained very briefly and then was released, which seems to indicate that whatever charges they had could not be substantiated. He was r

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  To engage them on this issue, I think sanctions are something that could be put in play. Also, I think it would be wise to divest from technological companies that are working in this system. One of the things that China is trying to do through this process is to develop a new

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In terms of the scale on which it's happening, we can say with pretty good confidence that it's actually happening to that scale. When I was there visiting, it was apparent in the cities themselves that large segments of the population were missing. In talking to people, as I hav

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There's definitely a targeting of what they call “foreign religions”, which are religions that are not traditional to the Han majority. Christianity is being targeted to some extent, as is Islam. I think Islam is targeted to a much greater extent, though, because it's seen as a t

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  My sense is the legalization of the camps was a direct response to international pressure from the UN, from western governments, and from the international media discourse that's talking about what's happening in these camps. It's them doubling down, in some ways, on what they're

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Do you mean the status quo among Uighurs—

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  —or that Uighurs were a threat to the Chinese status quo?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No, I don't think the Uighurs have ever been an existential threat to China. I think what they do see, though, is that Uighur autonomy and Uighur society, as it was, was preventing open access to markets and to the natural resources of the region. That was part of the reason they

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It's directed primarily towards Uighurs, but there are other minorities in the province. There are around 11 million Uighurs, around 1.5 to 2 million Kazakhs, and another one million Hui, who are Chinese Muslims who live in the province. Those three populations of Uighurs, Kazakh

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I've heard in a few cases that people have been detained as they arrive in the airport in Shanghai or Beijing. Agents will escort them off the plane. They are often held in detention for a period of time in the locality where they arrived, the port of entry, and then police offic