Journalist Shohret Hoshur left China 20 years ago, fearing for his safety after authorities branded him a separatist for his critical coverage of the plight of his fellow ethnic Uighurs.
Now based in Washington, Hoshur said Chinese authorities have adopted another tactic to get him off the airwaves — pressuring his family.
The US Department of State on Thursday voiced deep concern over reports that three of Hoshur’s brothers have been imprisoned in China in retribution for his journalism.
The 49-year-old reporter said it follows years of threats by authorities in the restive region of Xinjiang in China’s far west, where his broadcasts in the Uighur language offer a rare alternative to state-run media.
There has been no coverage of their cases in Chinese media, but his relatives in Xinjiang have been told by police that one brother was sentenced to five years at a mass trial in June, accused of endangering state security.
The other two were detained in August, apparently for “leaking state secrets” after speaking by telephone to Hoshur about the trial. They have not been seen by their family since.
“We urge Chinese authorities to cease harassment of his family and to treat them fairly and with dignity,” US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a news conference in Washington, urging respect for internationally recognized human rights, including freedom of expression.
Hoshur reports for US government-funded Radio Free Asia. He told reporters that authorities began harassing his family in Xinjiang’s Qorghas County after he reported a story about the death by torture of a Uighur in September 2009.
The pressure intensified last spring as authorities cracked down on perceived enemies among Uighurs amid a series of deadly attacks over recent months that Chinese authorities have blamed on radical separatists.
Hoshur said his brothers are farmers and merchants with little interest in politics or social issues, and dismisses the validity of any of the charges brought against them. He said he would not give into pressure to give up his journalism with Radio Free Asia, although his sister-in-law has been told by local government officials that is the only way to get his brothers released.
“In my personal experience, the Chinese authorities could intensify their pressure after you start obeying them,” said Hoshur, who has been honored at the New York Festivals radio program awards for his investigative coverage of Uighurs who have gone missing since deadly unrest in Xinjiang in 2009.
“If I leave from my job, this method can be used widely among Uighurs abroad as a successful tactic. I don’t want to be made an example of, obeying an authoritarian regime’s unacceptable demand,” he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in