Alim Seytoff

Featured in:

linkedin.com Favicon

aljazeera.com Favicon

sagepub.com Favicon

rfa.org

radiofree.org Favicon

journals.sagepub.com

Articles

Volkswagen sells Xinjiang plant linked to Uyghur force labor

Nov 27, 2024 | rfa.org | Alim Seytoff |Roseanne Gerin

German automaker Volkswagen said Wednesday that it has sold its operations in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, where Beijing has been accused of widespread human rights abuses against Uyghurs. Activists and experts have accused VW of allowing the use of Uyghur slave labor at the its joint-venture plant with Chinese state-owned company SAIC Motor Corp. in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital.
15 countries call on China to release Uyghur and Tibetan prisoners

Oct 23, 2024 | rfa.org | Alim Seytoff |Tashi Wangchuk

Fifteen Western countries have signed a public statement calling for China to release all “arbitrarily detained” Tibetans and Uyghurs and allow human rights observers to visit the regions in which they live. The statement was delivered in a speech on Tuesday to the U.N. Humans Rights Committee by Australia’s ambassador there, James Larsen, who drew a strong rebuke from his Chinese counterpart.
15 countries call on China to release Uyghur and Tibetan prisoners

Oct 23, 2024 | rfa.org | Tashi Wangchuk |Alim Seytoff

Fifteen Western countries have signed a public statement calling for China to release all “arbitrarily detained” Tibetans and Uyghurs and allow human rights observers to visit the regions in which they live. The statement was delivered in a speech on Tuesday to the U.N. Humans Rights Committee by Australia’s ambassador there, James Larsen, who drew a strong rebuke from his Chinese counterpart.
US, EU demand China respond to human rights abuses in Xinjiang

Sep 25, 2024 | rfa.org | Alim Seytoff |Roseanne Gerin

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council called on China on Tuesday to implement recommendations made by the U.N.’s human rights office in a two-year-old report issued and to release Uyghurs and others unjustly detained in Xinjiang. American diplomat Michèle Taylor also demanded that China clarify the fate and whereabouts of missing family members and facilitate safe contact and reunion during a speech at the current Human Rights Council session in Geneva, which runs from Sept.
Leaked audit of VW’s Xinjiang plant contains flaws: expert

Sep 23, 2024 | rfa.org | Alim Seytoff |Roseanne Gerin

Volkswagen’s audit of its joint venture plant in Xinjiang — where human rights groups accuse it of using Uyghur forced labor — contains flaws that make it unreliable, said an expert who obtained a leaked confidential copy of the audit. The German automaker had declared in December that the audit of the factory, a joint venture with Chinese state-owned SAIC Motor Corp., showed no signs of human rights violations.
In Xinjiang, China's security chief calls for normalization of counterterrorism steps

May 30, 2024 | rfa.org | Alim Seytoff

In a visit to the far-western region of Xinjiang, China’s security chief Chen Wenqing called for the normalization of counterterrorism policies, which experts said could signal renewed efforts to suppress the more than 11 million Uyghurs who live there.
INTERVIEW: Lawyer debunks China’s historical narrative of control over Xinjiang

May 8, 2024 | rfa.org | Alim Seytoff

China’s far-western region of Xinjiang — called East Turkistan by Uyghurs — is a essentially a colony that China has occupied for the past 70 years, but before that there has not been any continuous Chinese rule there going back 2,000 years – despite Chinese claims, according to Michael van Walt, an international lawyer who has studied the region extensively.
European parliament passes law banning forced labor products

Apr 23, 2024 | rfa.org | Alim Seytoff |Roseanne Gerin

The European Parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a new law that prevents the import and distribution of goods made with forced labor, a move that Uyghur advocates said would help clamp down on China’s use of forced labor in far western Xinjiang. The Forced Labour Regulation, which places the burden of proof on the EU rather than on companies, was approved in a 555-6 vote, with 45 abstentions.
INTERVIEW: ‘There's exposure across Wall Street’

Apr 22, 2024 | rfa.org | Alim Seytoff

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party last week released a report detailing investments by two American financial institutions for Chinese companies “red-flagged or blacklisted” by the United States for advancing China’s military or for rights abuses. The report says two fund providers, in particular, are responsible for funneling billions of dollars invested by regular Americans in their index and retirement funds into the companies – even if it’s all legal.
INTERVIEW: ‘We have zero tolerance for the importation of products made with forced labor’

Mar 19, 2024 | rfa.org | Alim Seytoff

Robert Silvers has served as undersecretary for strategy, policy and plans at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, since 2021. In early March, he met with members of the Uyghur diaspora community in northern Virginia to discuss the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and the Chinese government’s transnational repression of Uyghurs abroad. In an interview with RFA Uyghur Service Director Alim Seytoff, Silvers discussed how the DHS is enforcing the act, signed into law in December 2021.