Uyghur concentration camp survivor '100%' supportive of efforts to boycott Beijing Olympics.
Mihrigul Tursun, a Uyghur survivor of a Chinese concentration camp, is expressing support for efforts to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics taking place in Beijing, China. | United States State Department/D.A. Peterson
This is part 5 of The Christian Post's series on China's human rights abuses under the spotlight of the Olympic Games and features the testimony of a Uyghur Muslim woman who was persecuted under the communist regime. Read part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.
The survivor of a Chinese concentration camp is expressing support for efforts to boycott the Beijing Olympics, joining a long list of public figures and human rights activists hoping to make this year’s Winter Games “the least-watched Olympics” in history.
Mihrigul Tursun, a Uyghur Muslim woman who was detained in Chinese concentration camps on three different occasions, detailed her experiences in an interview with The Christian Post. Tursun was one of millions of Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority residing in the far-western Chinese province of Xinjiang. From the perspective of Uyghurs, Xinjiang constitutes occupied territory.
The Uyghurs
Uyghurs instead refer to their native homeland as East Turkistan and believe that China has illegally occupied the area since December 1949. Many residents of East Turkistan or Xinjiang now reside in the U.S. Several U.S.-based Uyghurs are part of the East Turkistan Government in Exile, the democratically elected leadership of the region and the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement, which seeks to officially restore East Turkistan as an independent republic.
These groups frequently lobby the U.S. State Department to push for recognition and representation on the world stage. The Uyghurs have been subject to adverse treatment by the Chinese Communist Party, which has sought to strip the group of their identity and culture and turn them into loyal servants of the state by detaining them into what critics describe as concentration camps. The CCP refers to these facilities as re-education camps and claims that they are necessary to root out extremism.
At last summer’s inaugural International Religious Freedom Summit, concentration camp survivor Tursunay Ziyawudun recalled that she was raped and exposed to Chinese propaganda films during her detention. A video preceding her remarks explained that “1 [million] to 3 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims” have been detained in concentration camps since 2016.
Additionally, detainees at Uyghur concentration camps are often subject to forced labor. A study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that several prominent corporations are “directly or indirectly benefitting from the use of Uyghur workers … through potentially abusive labor transfer programs.”
The 83 companies singled out in the ASPI report include: Abercrombie & Fitch, Acer, Adidas, Amazon, Apple, Calvin Klein, Cisco, Dell, Gap, General Electric, General Motors, Google, Hewlett Packard, L.L. Bean, Lenovo, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, Nike, Nintendo, The North Face, Panasonic, Polo, Ralph Lauren, Samsung, Sharp, Skechers, Sony, Tommy Hilfiger, Toshiba, Victoria’s Secret and Volkswagon.
Elected officials in Washington have made efforts to prevent businesses from taking advantage of forced labor.
President Joe Biden signed into law the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would ban goods made by Uyghurs subject to forced labor from entering the U.S. market. The measure unanimously passed the U.S. Senate and all but one member of the House voted to approve the legislation.
The belief that China has committed genocide against the Uyghurs cuts across party lines. The administration of former President Donald Trump, a Republican, classified the Chinese government’s actions against Uyghurs as genocide shortly before leaving office last year, while the Biden administration imposed sanctions on top Chinese officials in response to what it also described as genocide.
The Beijing Olympics
The Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghurs is one reason why many religious freedom advocates have expressed outrage that this year’s Winter Olympics is taking place in China's capital of Beijing. While the Biden administration has implemented a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics, meaning that no representatives from the U.S. government will attend, U.S. athletes are participating in this year’s Winter Games. The competition kicked off Friday and will last through Feb. 20.
For many, including the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement and the East Turkistan Government in Exile, these diplomatic boycotts of what they refer to as the “Genocide Games” do not go far enough. Salih Hudayar, the Prime Minister of East Turkistan Government in Exile and founder of the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement, characterized the diplomatic boycotts as “weak” and launched the #LeastWatchedOlympics campaign. CP.
Blogger: note how huge the support for this idea from many Christians - myself included.
Just as a matter of interest, where is the support for all the Christians being abused, maltreated incarcerated, and even murdered in countless moslem nations?
Embarrassing question, I know, but it does need to be asked!
