There is extensive documentation of what is called transnational repression, ways that vulnerable groups are harassed, intimidated, and persecuted even after they have left their country of origin for what they thought was a safe haven.  This includes the thousands of Uyghurs who are here in the United States who face ongoing harassment from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

 A Uyghur friend said to me, “I came to be free – but I am not free.”  Another Uyghur said, “I was feared.”  She didn’t say, “I was frightened.”  She said she was “feared,” expressing that someone had acted against her in a very hostile way. 

Image by Malcolm Brown| CC BY-SA 2.0| License: https://tinyurl.com/w52p56ed

Recently, the FBI arrested 5 Chinese nationals on charges of stalking, harassing, and spying on people in the US on behalf of China’s secret police.  Their goal was to silence people who criticize China’s human rights abuses against the Uyghurs, the Tibetans, and in Hong Kong. In one of these plots, the conspirators planned to interfere with U.S. federal elections by undermining the U.S. congressional candidacy of a U.S. military veteran who had led the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing.  

Most of the attacks are against ordinary people who are threatened with harm to their families, either here or back in China. 

Sometimes the intimidation is against people who aren’t Uyghurs – but who are Uyghur advocates and defenders. 

Boston Celtics basketball star Enes Kanter Freedom is an outspoken critic of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs.  In response, the CCP stopped streaming Celtics games in China, a huge financial loss for the team and the NBA. The Celtics traded Kanter Freedom to Houston- who then dropped Freedom.  

Last year one of the staff at World Without Genocide was invited to speak at a U.S. law school about the crisis of the Uyghurs.  Partway through his remarks, CCP supporters at the event began harassing him, interrupting and disrupting the event. 

We have instituted strict controls at our events since that experience.   

We have also been outspoken about the violence against Muslims in India and about anti-LGBTQ policies in Poland.  We receive hate mail and hate email as a result. 

 We are the fortunate ones.  We have been attacked only with words.  Human rights defenders around the world are subjected to far more. Some have even been killed for telling the truth.