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Uyghur News Recap: Feb.17-23, 2022


FILE - People from China's Uyghur Muslim ethnic group protest outside the city's Turkish Olympic Committee building, calling for a boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing over China's treatment of the minority, in Istanbul, Turkey, Jan. 23, 2022.
FILE - People from China's Uyghur Muslim ethnic group protest outside the city's Turkish Olympic Committee building, calling for a boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing over China's treatment of the minority, in Istanbul, Turkey, Jan. 23, 2022.

Here is a summary of Uyghur-related news around the world in the past week.

Beijing Olympics pestered by questions about Taiwan, treatment of Uyghurs

There's only one China, and the allegations of Uyghur forced labor and rights abuses are just lies, a Beijing Olympic organizing committee spokesperson said at the committee's last regularly scheduled daily news conference three days before the end of the games.

Islamic State Khorasan reportedly recruiting Uyghur fighters in Afghanistan

Despite Taliban assertions that it won't harbor foreign militants, Islamic State Khorasan has reportedly been trying to capitalize on the dire conditions in the country to recruit fighters from the Turkestan Islamic Party.

Report: World Bank division financed Chinese companies that allegedly repressed Uyghurs

According to an Atlantic Council report titled "Financing and Genocide: Development Finance and the Crisis in the Uyghur Region," the International Financial Corporation, a private-sector lending arm of the World Bank, has funded some Chinese companies accused of using Uyghur forced labor.

Uyghur American activist to publish book

Nury Turkel's "searing and timely" exposé of China's human rights abuses of Uyghurs in Xinjiang will be published by William Collins in May.

UN human rights chief can visit Xinjiang, Chinese foreign minister says

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet can visit Xinjiang, but Beijing does not welcome any investigation presuming China is guilty of abusing ethnic Uyghurs.

Chinese student in Australia takes down Tiananmen Square protest posters

A Chinese woman studying in Brisbane, Australia, was filmed taking down posters about Tiananmen Square while denying the existence of Uyghur internment camps in Xinjiang.

Airbnb profited from hundreds of listings in Xinjiang and Tibet, research shows

According to research by Free Tibet, a London-based nonprofit, Olympic sponsor Airbnb maintains hundreds of listings in Tibet and Xinjiang, regions where China is accused of rights abuses such as forced labor, arbitrary detention and assimilation of the native ethnic populations.

Fraudsters nearly steal $16M from imprisoned Uyghur real estate magnate

Fraudsters unsuccessfully attempted to transfer $16 million from the Turkish bank account of a Uyghur real estate developer whom China in 2018 sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges that include "extremism."

Exiled Uyghur journalist talks about targeting of family

A Radio Free Asia journalist living in the U.S. told Insider that her family members in Xinjiang were targeted by the Chinese government because of her reporting on the region.

News in brief

A Uyghur who served as a torchbearer in the 2008 Beijing Olympics has since been imprisoned, raising questions about what will happen to the Uyghur athlete who lit the 2022 Olympic flame.

Quote of note

"With this book, I want the international community to see a glimpse of the brutal nature of the regime in Beijing that has been committing a genocide and crimes against humanity on the world's watch. I hope it compels policymakers to prove that we will not let the words 'never again' ring shallow whilst a vulnerable ethnic and religious group such as the Uyghurs are subjected to the most heinous state-sanctioned crimes in modern history,"

— Nury Turkel, Uyghur author and activist

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