Jewher Ilham on how policymakers can stand up to the Chinese government’s mistreatment of Uyghurs

JUST WEEKS after the ninth anniversary of my father receiving a life sentence, I married the love of my life. We held our wedding ceremony at the local mosque, knowing that my father, Ilham Tohti, a Uyghur scholar, could not be by my side. He has not even met my new husband.

I look to my father for guidance every day, even though it has been years since we were last permitted to speak. I feel his presence as I carry the torch of his advocacy for marginalised people in China and around the world. In my homeland, the Uyghur Region (which the Chinese government calls Xinjiang), Uyghurs like me and other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples are being subjected to an ethnic-cleansing campaign that includes mass detention, abuse and systematic state-sponsored forced labour.

My father dedicated his life to speaking up for justice, advocating for a world in which all people can express their beliefs, be free to follow the traditions of their own culture and be respected as equals. He was arrested by the Chinese government in January 2014 on charges of inciting separatism. Eight months later, without a fair trial, he was sentenced to life in prison and put in solitary confinement. All for standing against the very oppression that Uyghurs are experiencing today.

In September I heard that Rahile Dawut, a renowned Uyghur anthropologist, had also been sentenced to life in prison. I am deeply saddened that her daughter, Akida Pulat, had to find out about her mother’s sentencing on the news, just as I did over nine years ago. The kind of draconian treatment that my father received is still being meted out to intellectuals or anyone who thinks differently, behaves differently or has a different culture and ethnic identity from the Han Chinese.

My hope is that governments will take action to address the human-rights crisis facing the Uyghur people. There have been some positive signs: in 2021 President Joe Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act (UFLPA), which prohibits goods made in whole or in part in the Uyghur Region from entering America. The UFLPA is the strongest piece of legislation globally to address corporate complicity in Uyghur forced labour. Since the law’s enforcement began, more than 5,000 shipments, with a value of $1.8bn, have been detained. More than half of these have been denied entry to America.

Since the UFLPA came into force, China has grown much less cotton in the Uyghur Region. China is the world’s biggest grower and the key processor of the crop—accounting for over 20% of global production by volume—but its output looks set to fall by more than 10% this year. The Uyghur Region’s share of the global market for polysilicon, a key component in solar panels, has also fallen, from 45% to 35% in just a couple of years.

However, this law is not enough. Companies need to ensure that no part of their supply chain is linked directly or indirectly to Uyghur forced labour. Governments should address gaps in corporate accountability by adopting legally binding measures that require human-rights due diligence to identify, prevent and remedy abuses in their supply chains and hold companies legally accountable for complicity. Governments should also impose sanctions on individuals and entities that are responsible for, or benefit from, forced labour. They should adopt laws similar to the UFLPA to ensure their markets are not dumping grounds for goods forcibly made by Uyghurs. No Uyghur in the diaspora should be left wondering like me: did my imprisoned father or cousin or uncle make this shirt?

In the years since my father’s arrest, I have visited prisons and read, watched and listened to whatever I could to try to understand the experience of those locked up. I wonder: what is my father doing in one of those dark cells? Does he have enough to eat? Is there even a toilet in his cell? Is he allowed to read? Is he forced to work day and night making garments or packaging red dates? And the question that scares me the most: is he even alive? I still don’t have any answers. The Chinese government has denied my father family visits since 2017.

Despite the positive impact of the UFLPA, many Uyghurs are still suffering, their freedoms restricted. The Chinese government falsely labels its campaign against them, including forced relocation and mass internment, as “poverty alleviation” and an effort to stamp out “separatism, terrorism and extremism”. For my father, as an economist, teacher and author, poverty alleviation was an academic bedrock. He believes that economic growth requires equal access to decent education and jobs, and that growth must not come at the expense of freedom—of culture, worship or expression.

His main point was simple: if the Chinese government would follow its own laws, which guarantee extensive autonomy to regions where the majority of the population was historically not Han Chinese, the Uyghurs would have the opportunity to share in growth—to the ultimate benefit of the entire country. Unfortunately, the Chinese government is not abiding by its own laws. Instead, it decided my father’s work was a threat to the regime. Dr Dawut’s life sentence in September for “endangering state security” is a reminder that although the plight of Uyghurs may have faded from headlines, China’s oppression of my people continues unrelentingly.

What will it take for governments, corporations, investors and individuals to decide that our suffering has gone on long enough, and that the wrongful imprisonment must end? As the daughter of Ilham Tohti, I live in fear at all times. I fear that many more innocent Uyghurs will, like my father, be left forgotten in dark cells. I fear that one day no one will remember Ilham Tohti. ■

Jewher Ilham is the Forced Labour Project Co-ordinator at the Worker Rights Consortium and a spokesperson for the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region.