A photographic exhibition on concentration camps and the history of Xinjiang, also known as East Turkestan, is to open tomorrow at Taipei’s 228 Memorial Museum.
Named “A Prison Without Walls — East Turkestan Today,” the exhibition features photographs of re-education camps, the everyday lives of Uighurs and the July 2009 Urumqi riots to shed light on the human rights crisis in Xinjiang, as well as the region’s unique history, the Taiwan East Turkestan Association (TETA), which is cohosting the event with Taiwan Friends of Tibet (TFOT), said on Monday.
The exhibition — originally organized by the Uyghur American Association (UAA) and the One Voice, One Step initiative — was launched at the beginning of the year and has been presented in 33 cities in 15 countries, TETA president Frank C.T. Ho (何朝棟) said.
While protests in Hong Kong have been the center of media attention for months, the human rights violations in East Turkestan are no better, he said.
It is estimated that at least 1 million — or one in six — Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in the region have been sent to camps, he said.
Of those not detained, many are forcibly housed with Han people under what appears to be just another form of surveillance, Ho said.
“They deserve our attention not only from the standpoint of human rights and freedom, but also from the standpoint of protecting our sovereignty and democracy,” he said.
The exhibition has great significance because reports from East Turkestan are few, Taipei City Councilor Lin Ying-meng (林穎孟) said.
“It is a fact that the Chinese communist government has been oppressing the Uighurs,” she said.
Calling China’s policy in the region a form of ethnic cleansing, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) said that many Taiwanese experienced similar oppression under the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.
“Many Taiwanese aged 60 and older would remember being forced to wear a dog collar in school as punishment for speaking Hoklo [commonly known as Taiwanese] when they were younger,” she said.
While such practices no longer exist in Taiwan, it is the responsibility of all free nations to stand up against China’s crackdown on human rights, she said.
The exhibition, which is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 5pm, runs until Nov. 17.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS