Campaign For Uyghurs

10/14/2026

The U.S. has an opportunity to use its diplomatic relationships with Central Asian governments to protect Uyghurs facing pressure from Beijing.

A new article by examines how American engagement in the region could help counter the CCP’s influence and provide greater protection for Uyghur communities vulnerable to intimidation and forced returns to China.

Washington must use its diplomatic influence to secure concrete commitments from Central Asian governments to protect Uyghur refugees, resist Beijing’s attempts to intimidate and silence Uyghur communities, and prevent their forced return to China, where they risk imprisonment and persecution.

Read here:

By pressing Central Asian governments to protect Uyghurs and resist Beijing’s coercion, Secretary Rubio can demonstrate that America’s moral leadership still matters.

10/14/2026

The EU is beginning to take a stronger stand against the CCP’s persecution of Uyghurs and other communities, including its efforts to erase their identities through the new Ethnic Unity and Progress Law. This is the kind of pressure Beijing needs to face from more governments around the world.

As highlights in his article, the law threatens Uyghur language, religion, and cultural identity while extending Beijing’s repression beyond China’s borders.

But the EU's vote for condemnation must lead to consequences. The EU needs to follow through with stronger sanctions, enforcement against Uyghur forced labor, and concrete measures to hold those responsible accountable.

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MEPs adopted by a large majority a recommendation denouncing Beijing’s assimilation law, its support for Moscow’s war, and its pressure on Taiwan.

10/13/2026

A new article highlights poet and Uyghur advocate ’s efforts to document how the CCP is stripping Uyghur children of their language and cultural identity.

Across the Uyghur region, children are being separated from their families and placed in state-run boarding schools, where restrictions on speaking Uyghur will leave an entire generation disconnected from its roots.

By separating Uyghur children from their families and denying them their mother tongue, the CCP is systematically erasing Uyghur culture and identity, and severing future generations from their own heritage.

The deliberate cultural erasure must end, and Uyghur children must be free to grow up with their language, traditions, and identity.

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The situation remains dire for Uyghurs… and difficult to document

10/13/2026

As more reporting exposes the links between the Uyghur region’s expanding seafood industry and forced labor, a detailed investigation by highlights how these products continue to reach American consumers despite U.S. import restrictions.

The investigation traces seafood from the region to supply chains serving major U.S. retailers, public schools, military bases, and even congressional cafeterias. It also examines how international sustainability certifications are being used to reassure consumers despite the lack of independent oversight in the region.

The continued presence of these products in global markets demands stronger U.S. enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), greater transparency and accountability from seafood importers, and similar legislation in other countries to ensure that products linked to Uyghur forced labor have no place in international supply chains and prevent American businesses and institutions from unknowingly consuming products from the CCP’s exploitation of Uyghurs.

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Fish farming in Xinjiang is sold as proof that technology can overcome geography. The reality is a desert seafood boom built on political control and forced labor.

10/12/2026

New reporting from details how Canadian intelligence officials warned in 2022 that Hikvision, a Chinese surveillance technology company directly involved in building and operating the systems used by the CCP to monitor and repress Uyghurs, had established a presence in Canada despite the serious national security risks associated with its technology.

Despite these warnings, Hikvision equipment remained in Canadian government facilities even after Ottawa ordered the company to cease operations in 2025.

This is yet another example of how the technology enabling the CCP's mass surveillance and repression of Uyghurs can extend far beyond China's borders, threatening the security and freedoms of people elsewhere. Stories like this continue to emerge because governments have failed to adequately scrutinize these companies and act on repeated warnings. Canada must uphold its ban on Hikvision, and other governments must take stronger action to prevent technologies linked to human rights abuses from entering their institutions and markets.

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The Hikvision case raises serious questions about how the federal bureaucracy guards itself against technology it considers harmful.

10/09/2026

This Week in Advocacy:

CIVICUS Interview: CFU Executive Director Rushan Abbas discussed her sister Dr. Gulshan Abbas’s eight-year imprisonment, the CCP’s transnational repression, and the need for stronger international action to secure the release of Uyghur political prisoners.

Starbucks Expansion: Starbucks faces growing criticism from U.S. lawmakers and human rights organizations over opening two stores in Urumqi, with critics warning that its expansion risks normalizing the CCP’s repression of Uyghurs.

George W. Bush’s Upcoming Book: CFU Executive Director Rushan Abbas will be featured in former President George W. Bush’s The Call of Freedom, highlighting her advocacy and bringing attention to her sister’s imprisonment and the persecution of Uyghurs.

TIME Seafood Investigation: A TIME investigation revealed that China has established at least 1,000 fish farms in the Uyghur region and promoted them through state-backed publicity campaigns, while seafood from the region has entered U.S. supply chains despite UFLPA restrictions.

10/09/2026

A new piece by and reveals how the CCP is promoting seafood farming in the Uyghur region as a symbol of prosperity and technological progress while using state media and foreign influencers to divert attention from its ongoing human rights abuses.

With at least 1,000 fish farms established in the region, the investigation found that seafood from Xinjiang has entered U.S. supply chains, including military bases, public schools, and congressional cafeterias, despite restrictions under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.

U.S. authorities must trace these seafood supply chains, investigate companies importing products from the Uyghur region, and enforce the UFLPA against shipments that fail to meet its requirements. Beijing's efforts to promote an image of prosperity cannot distract from the forced labor concerns and human rights abuses behind these products.

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But a new investigation reveals a struggle over fraud, trust, and the political remaking of a heavily scrutinized region.

10/08/2026

A new investigation reported by reveals that University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers spent years collaborating with Chinese institutions tied to the CCP’s military and surveillance apparatus, including on projects in the Uyghur region. Some of this research even received U.S. federal funding.

It is unacceptable that research conducted at American universities could end up strengthening the CCP’s surveillance and repression of Uyghurs. UW–Madison must disclose these partnerships, end collaborations with Chinese military and surveillance-linked institutions, and account for all federal funding involved.

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Researchers from the University of Wisconsin worked for nearly a decade with partners in China on sensitive technology projects that likely helped China build its notorious domestic surveillance apparatus, including in Xinjiang province, where the Chinese are accused of brutal repression of the ethn...

10/08/2026

A new POLITICO Europe report highlights growing support across the European Parliament for a tougher approach to China, with lawmakers condemning Beijing’s persecution of Uyghurs and calling for human rights to return to the center of EU-China relations.

As EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic travels to Beijing for talks with Chinese officials, CFU urges him to place Uyghur human rights firmly on the agenda. The EU must turn its renewed attention into concrete action against forced labor, mass imprisonment, and the systematic destruction of Uyghur identity. Economic cooperation with China cannot come at the expense of accountability for crimes against humanity.

See here:

10/06/2026

In a new interview with , CFU Executive Director details the devastating personal cost of speaking out against the CCP’s persecution of Uyghurs.

She shares how her sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, has spent eight years unjustly imprisoned, while Rushan herself has faced threats, harassment, cyberattacks, and other forms of transnational repression for continuing her advocacy.

Her story shows how Beijing uses fear and family separation to try to silence Uyghur voices beyond China’s borders, and why those voices must continue to be heard.

Read the interview here:

CIVICUS discusses the persecution of Uyghurs and activism in exile with Rushan Abbas, an Uyghur American activist, founder and executive director of Campaign for Uyghurs and chair of the Executive Committee of the World Uyghur Congress.