A Uighur woman who immigrated to the US, where she published a book about her experiences in a Xinjiang concentration camp, yesterday said via videoconference that she continues to face threats from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“Even while living in exile, I am constantly under surveillance and threats from China,” Mihrigul Tursun told a launch event at the legislature in Taipei for the Chinese translation of her book organized by the legislature’s Human Rights Committee.
“This book describes the terrible situation that all Uighurs are facing,” she said.
Photo: CNA
Mihrigul Tursun said she hoped the book would encourage people to speak up for Uighurs, and hopefully people would “not be fooled by the CCP.”
While writing the book, Mihrigul Tursun had to recall her experiences in the concentration camp, which gave her nightmares and affected her mental state, she said.
“I have recovered since publishing the book, but I am still afraid to reread it, because recalling those experiences is torture,” she said.
Mihrigul Tursun said that she was forced to move seven times within a two-year period after moving to the US due to constant harassment by CCP agents.
Beijing’s English-language China Global Television Network has also posted a video on YouTube calling her allegations “lies.”
During the book launch, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said that a cross-party bill calling for sanctions against officials guilty of crimes against Uighurs in Xinjiang had been passed by the legislature.
New Power Party Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said that the CCP’s actions in Xinjiang and Tibet constituted genocide, as they involve the “use of state machinery to oppress an ethnic group’s culture, religion and language, and systematically prevent the biological continuation of the ethnic group.”
“As a nation that enjoys freedom and human rights, Taiwan should speak up for Uighurs, who cannot speak up for themselves,” DPP Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) said.
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