The Silk Road Peace Project is a movement of prayer, racial reconciliation, and advocacy, seeking peaceful resolution to an unprecedented human rights crisis unfolding in NW China. It was established as a non-profit by a small group of concerned individuals with many years of experience in the region, as well as proficiency in the languages and cultures involved. It is our conviction that the majority and minority cultures and laguages of this region each possess a unique glory which deserve the same respect and protection. See "Never again is happening again" below for additional essential background.
“Xinjiang operates the world’s largest contemporary system of state-imposed forced labor, with up to 2.5 million Uyghurs and members of other ethnic groups at risk of coerced work"
Uyghur farmers are being kicked off their own land
A very in-depth research article has just been published by Dr. Adrian Zenz and I-Lin Lin of Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation on yet another aspect of the ongoing repression of Uyghurs in Northwest China. Their research highlights a rampant practice whereby agri-business giants, as part of Chinese government policy, are effectively forcing Uyghur farmers off their own land to create large-scale industrial farms. These conglomerates also take advantage of Uyghur forced labor which keeps prices artificially low as they flood international markets with their products. According to the report, these same companies "also actively help the government to surveil Uyghur households and enforce state policies linked to cultural assimilation and forced labor." The report names Chinese and international companies who are complicit in this widespread abusive practice with products such as tomatoes, chili peppers, marigolds and many others, being implicated. (Dec. 20, 2024)
A taste of good news on Thanksgiving Day
Good news connected to the Uyghur situatoin is extremely rare, so when it happens it's worth highlighting. On Thanksgiving Day, but unreported at the time, the Chinese government quietly released three Uyghurs to be reunited with loved ones in the U.S. The Uyghurs' sudden exit came as part of a broader deal where three Americans detained in China were exchanged for three Chinese detained in the U.S. For one of three Uyghurs, Ayshem Mamut, this was especially remarkable given that her son, Nury Turkel, is a well known lawyer-activist who served from 2020-2024 as a Congressional-appointed Commissioner of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Nury, who was actually born in a re-education camp in 1970, during China's Cultural Revolution, had not seen his mother for twenty years! The identity of the other two Uyghurs has not yet been made public. May this outcome be multimplied many times over. Here is another link to a similar article which has no paywall. (Dec. 2, 2024)
A historic hearing
On March 23, 2023 something quite out of the ordinary took place within the US House of Representatives. At a special hearing of the newly formed Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, there was an unprecedented outpouring of genuine alarm and concern regarding the ongoing tragedy of the Uyghur genocide. Instead of the political theater so commonly on display these days, this was a breathtaking moment of bipartisan moral clarity. The hearing also serves as a refresher course for anyone needing to get updated on the latest developments. You can view the entire hearing from this link, starting at about the 8 minute mark.
Peering into the black hole
A landmark webpage goes liveIn May, 2022, a huge trove of leaked police files from the Uyghur homeland (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonmous Region - XUAR) was made public for the first time. Not made public at the time was a much larger and more detailed data set that was included with the original leak. Over the next several months, researchers analyzed and organized this larger data set and have now made it public for the first time. It consists of details from arrests of more then 700,000 individuals from two counties in the XUAR all connected with the massive government campaign there. A search engine has also been provided to allow individuals outside China to search for their loved ones and friends who have disappeared into this horrific "black hole."
Why is this such a signicant finding? Starting three years ago, it has been widely reported that a minimum of 1 million (sometimes the figure 1.8 million has also been used) Uyghurs (and other Turkic peoples) have been incarcerated in the horrific “re-education” camp system. This figure has often been attacked by skeptics. However, with yesterday’s release of more than 700,000 authenticated individual police records from only 2 out of 62 counties, it is very clear that the original estimate of 1 million will prove to be a vast underestimate.
Facing the facts video
We recently completed this special multi-media presentation to help connect the broader human rights tragedy with the individuals being affected. All images used in this presentaton are in the public domain, freely downloadable at xinjiangpolicefiles.org Though inspired by the BBC article below, we created the original video montage ourselves. Feel free to share or post the link anywhere. It is our sincere hope it will serve to remind everyone of the individual human cost involved. Remember: Genocide is not politics. Genocide is the mass destruction of individual human beings.
Government Boarding Schools as a Tool of Genocide in the 21st Century
On July 26, 2022, the Silk Road Peace Project was honored to participate on the panel of a special webinar hosted by multiple organizations. This event focused on the familiar pattern of forced assimilation through government boarding schools. Destruction of ethnic identity, the family unit, culture, and language is always the intended (and abhorent) result. This has taken place in recent history (for example in the US and Canada) as well as the present day (in China). The event was well attended in real time and was also recorded. The recording can be viewed by clicking on the image above. It was particularly gratifying to see the hundreds of views that took place following the live event.
Newsflash: Time to "Face" the Facts
On May 23, 2022, a huge trove of leaked internal Chinese police files was unveiled to the outside world for the first time. The files are connected to the vast, secretive detention of more than a million Uyghurs (and other Turkic ethnic groups) in NW China (the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region — XUAR). The leaked data set is so extensive and detailed that an entire website has been dedicated to hosting it. (And, it is so well laid out that non-experts can easily navigate and explore its contents — highly recommended!)Not that the world needed further confirmation. The essential facts of this human rights tragedy have been known and verified for a long time through a wide variety of channels (previous leaks, publicly available documents, victim testimony, satellite imagery, etc.).
At the same time, this latest leak contains many new details such as thousands (2,800+) of photos of individual detainees, some 300,000 personal records, as well as quotes from secret speeches by top officials showing their direct involvement.
But it's the faces that tell the real story here. A story of countless ordinary citizens caught up in a ruthless storm of paranoia. Teenagers, elderly, housewives, and breadwinners — all branded as "criminals," not for what they have done, but simply for who they are — Uyghurs.
Never again is happening again
Reliable sources indicate that up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities (Kazakh and Kyrghiz) have been held in "re-education camps" in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The entire province is under a high-tech form of martial law with a dense network of facial recognition cameras and police check-points. This unique combination of concentration camps plus high tech surveillance has created an Orwellian nightmare unprecedented in human history.
Eye-witness accounts indicate that brain-washing techniques, psychiatric drugs, torture, sexual abuse, malnutrition, and unsanitary conditions are rampant in the camps. A severe religious persecution is also underway, targeting both the large Muslim population as well as Christians and other smaller groups. In addition, extreme cultural repression is taking place province-wide including a ban on minority languages, ethnic dress, customs, and even decor.
In March, 2021 the first comprehensive legal analysis was completed to addresses the question of whether the crisis officially qualifies as "genocide" under the 1948 Genocide Convention. Their jarring conclusion: Five out of the five conditions set forth in the Convention have been met — a Uyghur genocide is clearly taking place.
Why is it happening?
The XUAR (in NW China), has a long history of racial and political tension. However, in early 2017, the Chinese government has abruptly changed course - from a policy of relative tolerance to one of extreme repression. While the new policy is being carried out under a pretext of "anti-extremism," the severity is completely out of proportion to any credible threat to national security. Thousands of families have been split apart as fathers and mothers have been incarcerated leaving children behind in government-run orphanages (many of which are just scaled down versions of the re-education camps). These families (all citizens of China) are not suffering because they broke the law. They are suffering because of their ethnic background.
Why is Silk Road Peace Project needed?
There are many well-respected organizations around the world focused on human rights. Likewise, there are a number of faith-based organizations who focus on the spiritual dimension of regions in crisis. However, there are not many groups that take a wholeistic approach — who reconginze the need to engage both dimensions at the same time. In addition, the XUAR is remote and complex, requiring a deep understanding of the history and cultures involved.
That's where the Silk Road Peace Project comes in. We have decades of experience in the region and we recognize the need to engage both the human rights and the moral / spiritual dimensions for maximum effectiveness.
Best TV news clippings
During the past 5 years, some excellent TV news coverage on the Uyghur crisis has been produced. However, this material quickly becomes lost due to the 24 hour news cycle. We thought it would be helpful to start a curated list of the best coverage here. Check back periodically as we add to this list.
- CBS - China's new propaganda tours
- CNN - Uyghurs using new search engine for news of lost loved ones
- CNN - Drone footage of Uyghur prisoner transfer
- Fox - Victim testimony
- BBC - Victim recorded video footage from inside a re-education camp