Jilil Kashgary

1 month ago | rfa.org | Jilil Kashgary

Thailand’s vice foreign minister acknowledged on Thursday that Bangkok had offers from other countries to resettle 40 detained Uyghurs before their deportation to China last week -- a reversal of previous comments by Thai officials. But those proposals were “unrealistic” and would have exposed Thailand to “retaliation from China that would impact the livelihoods of many Thais,” Vice Foreign Minister Russ Jalichandra said in a statement. Sending the group to China was the “best option,” Russ said.

Jan 14, 2025 | rfa.org | Jilil Kashgary

Chinese authorities in Xinjiang said they have launched a “Winter Operation” to beef up security in the restive western region in the run-up to the Lunar New Year. Though the campaign is part of a nationwide security operation introduced by China’s Ministry of Public Security in November 2024, Xinjiang is its primary focus, experts on the region say.

Oct 11, 2024 | rfa.org | Jilil Kashgary

Rights groups are condemning U.S. footwear and apparel company Skechers as it used the star power of martial arts actor Donnie Yen to open a new store in Xinjiang despite allegations that ethnic Uyghurs in China's far west are used for forced labor. In a video Yen posted to Instagram, crowds inside a glitzy shopping mall in the regional capital of Urumqi clamored to catch a glimpse of the Hong Kong actor, who is a Skechers brand ambassador — and is known to have pro-China sympathies.

Aug 25, 2024 | rfa.org | Jilil Kashgary

The discovery of the ruins of a long-lost city in northern Mongolia believed to be built by Uyghurs roughly 1,400 years ago enhances knowledge of Uyghur civilization amid the Chinese government’s efforts to rewrite the Muslim group’s history to fit into its own narrative, historians and other experts said. “This discovery fills a historical gap,” Saban Dogan, the project’s lead archaeologist from Izmir Katip Calabi University in Izmir, Turkey, told Radio Free Asia.

Jul 15, 2024 | rfa.org | Mihray Abdilim |Jilil Kashgary |Kurban Niyaz |Mamatjan Juma

A citizens’ tribunal has issued a symbolic arrest warrant for Chinese President Xi Jinping after issuing a nonbinding verdict that he committed crimes of aggression against Taiwan, crimes against humanity in Tibet, and genocide against Uyghurs in Xinjiang.