An anonymous letter from a Uyghur in China
In June 2022, SupChina published an anonymous letter from a young Uyghur man living in Xinjiang. Despite great personal risk in writing and distributing this letter, the author passed the note to a non-Chinese citizen living in Eastern China. The letter was ultimately given to SupChina columnist Dr. Darren Byler who subsequently worked to translate the letter from Chinese to English, per the author’s request. This letter outlines what life is like for Uyghurs living in Xinjiang and the deterioration of their religious freedoms and rights post-2009 Urumqi riots. The author offers a deeply personal tale as he explains the pain of watching family and friends get arrested and sentenced to re-education facilities. He explains the consistent state of surveillance throughout Xinjiang, as well as wider China, and the dangers of attaching personal information, like ethnic identity, to government-issued ID cards. The author concludes by condemning the creation and proliferation of re-education camps and the mass internment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. He calls on government groups to advocate on behalf of Uyghurs and for the global community to remain committed to the protection of human rights in China.
This letter provides a rare glimpse into the Uyghur perspective of this human rights crisis and provides insight into an otherwise closed-off region.