The George Floyd case has aroused my envy and admiration. Congratulations to Americans!
The trial concluded last month in the case of Floyd, which had captivated the world. What interested me was not only the court’s verdict, but also the process of the trial, as it took eight weeks to try the defendant in the case.
Today, in my homeland of East Turkestan, the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, more than 1 million people have been jailed without trial on charges of separatism and terrorism.
More than 1 million people are held in camps indefinitely simply because their beliefs and customs differ from those of the Han Chinese. Almost none of them were prosecuted. They were summarily sent in handcuffs to prisons, with black bags over their heads.
In the trial for the murder of Floyd, more than 30 witnesses, including white people, testified that he had been unjustly killed, and professional witnesses who were white could not hold back their tears as they testified.
I felt that, in these testimonies and judgements, white and black Americans united as one. By contrast, when more than 3 million Uighurs were taken to camps with black bags over their heads, their families shattered, I did not hear that their Han Chinese neighbors were upset, and, when their children were taken to orphanages in tears, I did not hear a Han Chinese teacher or police officer say: “My heart aches.”
Let us concede that there is no freedom of speech in China, so the Han Chinese people are helpless, but I have not heard a strong call to stop the Uighur genocide, even from overseas Chinese who live in the democratic world.
Some overseas Chinese organizations in the Netherlands even issued a joint statement against Uighurs by condemning the Dutch parliament’s recognition of the Uighur genocide.
I know that Americans are not angels and that there are racists among them, but when someone acts in a racist way, the majority says “stop,” and when racists act violently, the law punishes them.
The US has an elected government that exposes and resolves its shortcomings rather than hiding them.
So, I am passionate about justice in the Floyd case, and I offer my congratulations to all Americans.
I wish the US justice system were more perfect, but, for the above reasons, I will not hide that I am jealous of this justice, because the more than 3 million Uighurs in camps and prisons have not received even one-1,000th of this justice.
I do not believe that the Chinese government will learn from such an example of justice, but I urge Chinese, especially those living abroad, to closely monitor the progress of this case and make a fair comparison to the Uighur situation.
Rabiye Qadeer is leader of the Uyghur National Movement.
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