Jun 7, 2022International academic signatories of the open letter regarding UH High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s statement and visit to the Xinjiang Uyghur RegionThe following are the signatories of the open letter written by an international community of scholars of the Uyghur region, its peoples, and related issues in China studies, regarding Michelle Bachelet’s visit to Xinjiang and her statement that followed it. The text of the letter is published in French here…Xinjiang5 min readXinjiang5 min read
Apr 18, 2022Xinjiang Syllabus: Key readings and resources on the repression of Uyghurs and other non-Han indigenous peoplesHere is an intentionally short list of key readings, evidence and resources regarding the crisis in Xinjiang / East Turkestan. See the link to the UHRP bibliography at the end for a more complete list of news and academic references. SHORT OVERVIEW, FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT: Raffi Kachidourian, “Surviving the Crackdown…Xinjiang3 min readXinjiang3 min read
Mar 15, 2021How to Protest the Beijing Olympics — a Response to Mitt RomneyIn a New York Times op-ed, Mitt Romney has proposed a kind of boycott lite of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. This is in response to the PRC party-state’s repression which, Romney writes, “is exacting genocide against Uighurs and other ethnic minorities.” Romney is concerned about depriving American athletes of an…Uyghur5 min readUyghur5 min read
Nov 18, 2020Following Zoom’s repeated interference in academic freedom, the following resolution is going before the Georgetown Executive faculty:Resolution regarding the use of Zoom (Nov. 20, 2020) We propose that the Executive Faculty adopt and promulgate the following resolution (resolution text in plain text; explanatory material in footnotes): In light of repeated cases of the Zoom Corporation violating freedom of speech and academic freedom by unilaterally shutting down…Zoom3 min readZoom3 min read
Oct 8, 2020We need a new approach to teaching modern Chinese history: we have lazily repeated false narratives for too long.A review of Klaus Mühlhahn, Making China Modern: From the Great Qing to Xi Jinping. Harvard University Press, 736 pp, £31.95, January 2019, ISBN 9780674737358. Note: I was commissioned to write this review for a well-known general audience book review publication, who then spiked it (after paying me a kill…Modern China21 min readModern China21 min read
Sep 27, 2020Notes on Xi Jinping’s speech to the 3rd Xinjiang Central Work Forum, 25–26 September 2020James Millward These are my quick notes on reading General Secretary / Chairman Xi’s most recent speech about XUAR. Comments and corrections encouraged (here or on Twitter: @J …Xinjiang27 min readXinjiang27 min read
Aug 4, 2020Wear your Mask Under your Hood: An Eyewitness Account of Arbitrary Detention in Xinjiang during the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic.By Merdan Ghappar (Mai-er-dan A-ba 麦尔丹∙ 阿巴) Translated by James Millward. Reporting from BBC and Toronto Globe and Mail. The text translated below was provided to the BBC and Toronto Globe and Mail as a series of overlapping screenshots taken from a single long text message (I’ve included the original…Xinjiang13 min readXinjiang13 min read
Jun 16, 2020Open letter to US (and other) universities in light of Zoom’s revelations about collaborating with the Chinese Communist PartyJames Millward, 15 June 2020 Dear colleagues, Back in late March and April as we were all getting used to Zoom, some privacy concerns emerged that I wrote to some of you about. Zoom’s CEO, Eric Yuan, addressed them surprisingly quickly and transparently, and our concerns were somewhat relieved. Since…Zoom6 min readZoom6 min read
Jul 1, 2019被再教育的新疆穆斯林This is a translation of an article on Chinese re-education camps originally published in the New York Review of Books February 19, 2019, and permanently available (no paywal …23 min read23 min read
Jun 27, 2019Making Concentration Camps Great AgainJames A. Millward Osaka, June 26, 2019 Here’s an ice-breaker for Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping when they meet at the G-20 in Osaka: “Don’t you just hate it,” one might ask the other, “when people call your internment centers ‘concentration camps’?” It is a surreal moment when…China4 min readChina4 min read
