Justice For All’s Save Uyghur Campaign Condemns China’s Arbitrary Imprisonment of Uyghurs Amounting to 4.4 Million Years

Washington, D.C. — August 22, 2023

For Immediate Release

Contact: Hena Zuberi

hena@justiceforall.org

(202) 922-5878

Justice For All’s Save Uyghur Campaign issues a stern condemnation of China’s unprecedented repression of Uyghurs and other Turkic ethnic groups in Chinese-occupied East Turkistan. A new analysis from Yale University reveals the staggering human cost of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) relentless campaign against these communities, with Chinese courts having arbitrarily sentenced East Turkistan residents to an astonishing cumulative total of 4.4 million years in prison.

Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, President of Justice For All, criticized the CCP, declaring, “This latest report from Yale University highlights the sheer malevolence of the Chinese Communist Party’s strategy to decimate Uyghur identity through insidious legal facades. The international community must recognize and act against these egregious human rights abuses. We cannot stand by while Beijing carries out what is effectively genocide.”

Additionally, the report reveals the duplicitous nature of China’s crackdown, which has shifted from overt mass detentions to a supposed legal framework designed to justify their ongoing atrocities. The study, led by human rights lawyer Rayhan Asat, utilized data from the Xinjiang Victims Database, uncovering that the average sentence across 13,000 specific cases was 8.8 years. When extrapolated to the 540,000 individuals prosecuted between 2017 and 2021, this results in the unprecedented 4.4 million years of collective imprisonment.

Arslan Hidayat, Team Lead of the Save Uyghur Campaign, strongly condemned the CCP’s actions, stating, “The data clearly elucidate the CCP’s vile attempt to cloak genocide in a mask of legality. This deceitful strategy is a grievous violation of human rights and a flagrant attempt to erode Uyghur culture and existence. The global community needs to ramp up pressure on Beijing to cease these barbaric practices and uphold justice for Uyghurs.”

In the late 2010s, Beijing’s oppression of Uyghurs—including mass detentions, and the desecration of cultural and religious sites—gained international attention, culminating in the U.S. State Department’s 2021 designation of these acts as genocide. Despite this, Beijing has sought to reshape international perception by turning the region’s shattered heritage into tourist attractions while pressing on with its crackdown under the guise of law.

The Yale report emphasizes that these alarming figures reflect just the tip of the iceberg. The reality is likely far more sinister, with almost 90 percent of criminal records in East Turkistan remaining undisclosed. Yet, the revelation of 4.4 million years in total sentences lays bare the CCP’s attempt to systematically incapacitate the Uyghur ethnic group.

Justice For All’s Save Uyghur Campaign urges governments, human rights groups, and conscientious citizens worldwide to condemn these atrocities unequivocally, demand immediate cessation of the CCP’s genocidal actions, and vociferously champion justice for the victims.