Rushan Abbas, the Founder and Executive Director of the Campaign for Uyghurs, exposed the ongoing atrocities perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against the Uyghur population in Xinjiang, characterising the situation as an “active and full-fledged genocide” in a discussion with The Epoch Times.
Abbas, a dedicated human rights advocate and the Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the World Uyghur Congress, outlined various abuses, including mass detentions, forced labour, sterilisation, and organ harvesting, all witnessed by a largely indifferent international community.
Abbas noted that her activism has incurred a significant personal toll. In 2018, soon after she publicly addressed the mass detention of Uyghurs in East Turkestan at the Hudson Institute, Chinese authorities detained her sister, which she believes was an act of retaliation. “I’ve been a U.S. citizen since 1995 and have lived in the United States since 1989,” she remarked. “But that didn’t make a difference. They abducted my sister to retaliate against me.”
This action, she explained, is part of what she referred to as “transnational repression,” a strategy employed by Beijing to target activists overseas by threatening or punishing their relatives still in China. She pointed to the existence of more than 100 secret Chinese police stations worldwide, including in the United States, which are said to monitor and intimidate diaspora communities, such as Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, and practitioners of Falun Gong.
On the current situation of Uyghurs in China, Abbas asserted that all aspects of Uyghur identity, including language, religion, and ethnicity, have been criminalised. The Chinese government, she claimed, believes that Uyghurs need to be “re-educated” to assimilate as Han Chinese. “In the eyes of this barbaric regime, we are not even viewed as normal human beings,” she stated, citing forced sterilisation of women, separation of children from their families, and the dismantling of Uyghur businesses and agricultural land.
She illustrated a systemic effort to eliminate Uyghur identity while profiting from their exploitation. Abbas reported that over 3 million Uyghurs were subjected to forced labor in the past year alone. Much of the cotton exported from China, she noted, is handpicked by Uyghur workers under duress. “From the garments you wear to the tomatoes in your pasta, they all might be stained by the blood, sweat, and tears of Uyghur slaves,” she cautioned.
Abbas recounted that crematoria were constructed near detention facilities, and in significant Uyghur cities like Kashgar, expedited airport lanes were established specifically for the transport of human organs. She connected this to state-sponsored DNA collection and mandatory health screenings that commenced years prior. “The Chinese government has transformed genocide into a lucrative enterprise,” she asserted, referencing reports of 13 tons of human hair from Uyghur prisoners arriving in the United States.
Abbas also condemned Western influencers and social media figures for taking part in Chinese state-sponsored trips to Xinjiang, which she described as staged propaganda tours designed to obscure genocide. “They are presented with a fabricated version of Uyghur life, featuring rehearsed locals and lavish meals,” she explained. “Meanwhile, anyone who dares to reveal the truth simply vanishes.”
She expressed profound frustration over the global indifference to these atrocities. “Tyranny persists due to silence. Silence is its fuel,” Abbas remarked. She urged the international community, particularly Western democracies, to hold China accountable and to stop normalising relations for the sake of economic gain.
With proposed laws such as the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act and the Falun Gong Protection Act advancing in the U.S. Congress, Abbas called for swift action from lawmakers. “If we don’t halt the CCP now, future generations will bear the consequences in a world devoid of freedom or rights,” she cautioned.
Abbas concluded with a message of unity and resilience for the Uyghur diaspora. “Hope is the only thing we have left, but it is a powerful force if we stand together.”