The East Asia Program
of the National Endowment for Democracy
invites you to a panel discussion on
            
Ethnicity with Chinese Characteristics?
The Chinese State and Tibetan, Uyghur, and Mongol Identities
 
 
Featuring

Alim Seytoff, Director, Uyghur Human Rights Project
Rinchen Tashi, Deputy Director for Chinese Outreach, International Campaign for Tibet
Enhebatu Togochog, President, Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center
David (Dahai) Yu, Publisher, Beijing Spring

Moderated by
Dr. June Teufel Dreyer, Professor of Political Science, University of Miami
 
Friday, December 5, 2008 – 2:00 - 4:00 PM
NED Main Conference Room
1025 F St NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20004
 
Please RSVP with name, affiliation, and e-mail address to amandaw@ned.org or call (202) 378-9685 by Wednesday, December 3.
The 2008 Olympic Games brought a burst of international media attention to rising ethnic tensions in China, focusing on the wave of Tibetan protests and subsequent crackdown, and Chinese security forces' violent clashes with alleged Uyghur terrorists. The dialogues between Beijing authorities and the representatives of the Dalai Lama seem to have reached a dead end. In this context, how should we understand the basic, long-term strategy behind China’s overall minority policies and their impact in practice? Economic marginalization, coercive cultural assimilation, and political repression add up to a discouraging environment for Tibetans, Uyghurs and Mongols in China. Concentrating on the question of identity from a generational perspective, our panelists will help us understand what it may mean to be Tibetan, Mongol or Uyghur in the future, if current policies continue, by addressing relevant questions such as: How do the restrictions, regulations, and policies on ethnic minorities enacted in the previous year relate to policies of the past? What is the impact of these policies and practices on minorities’ well-being? On their distinct identities? What options do ethnic minorities have in striving to create a political, social and cultural environment free of coercive restrictions?
 
About the speakers:
 
Alim Seytoff is General Secretary of the Uyghur American Association (UAA) and Director of its Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP).  Mr. Seytoff has been campaigning for the human rights and religious freedom of the Uyghur people since he came to the United States in 1996.  He has written many articles on the political situation in East Turkestan (also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), has testified numerous times before the U.S. Congress and briefed State Department officials.  Mr. Seytoff holds a B.A. in Chinese Studies from Xinjiang University, and another B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from Southern Adventist University.  He holds an M.A. in Political Science from the Robertson School of Government at Regent University and a J.D. from Regent University School of Law.
 
Rinchen Tashi joined the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) in 2001 and currently serves as the Deputy Director for Chinese Outreach.  Born and educated in Tibet, Mr. Tashi continued his studies in China and in the United States.  He is the editor of Liaowang Xizang, a leading journal in Chinese focusing on the Tibet issue, and also helps to staff ICT's website, including creating and managing the Chinese-language section. 
 
Enhebatu Togochog is the founder and president of Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC), a New York-based human rights organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the rights of Mongolian people in China.  He was born and educated in Southern Mongolia (also known as Inner Mongolia) and holds a B.A. in Mongolian Linguistics & Literature from Inner Mongolia University.  He arrived in the United States in 1998 and was granted political asylum in 1999.  He also received a B.S. and M.A. in computer science from the City University of New York.
 
David (Dahai) Yu grew up in Tianjin and graduated from Beijing University.  As a college student, he took part in the competitive local elections of 1980.  He co-founded the Chinese Economists Society (USA) and served as its first president (1985-86). He earned a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University and taught at several U.S. colleges. He has been affiliated with Beijing Spring and its predecessor China Spring since 1989.  He visited the Tibetan community in Dharamsala, India, in 1999.
 
June Teufel Dreyer is a professor of political science at the University of Miami and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.  She received a Master’s in East Asian Studies, and a joint Ph.D. in Government and East Asian studies, from Harvard University.  Professor Dreyer has done field research in China, Taiwan, and Japan, and has served as Chief Far East Specialist for the Library of Congress and as Asia Advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations.  She has published numerous books and articles on topics such as ethnic minorities in China, the Chinese military, and Asia-Pacific security.  She is the author of China’s Political System: Modernization and Tradition, now in its sixth edition; China’s Forty Millions: Minority Nationalities and National Integration in the People’s Republic of China and the co-editor of Contemporary Tibet: Politics, Development, and Society in a Disputed Region. She is now preparing a book on Sino-Japanese relations.

Uyghur Friends --

On October 31, the firms working on behalf of the Uyghur prisoners at Guantanamo filed our brief in the Court of Appeals. In addition, a "friend of the court" brief was filed on behalf of the UAA presenting a powerful story of the treatment of the Uighurs by China.

The case will be argued before the court of appeals on November 24. The hearing will be public and our Uyghur American friends are encouraged to attend. It will begin at 9:30 a.m. and should last no more than an hour. The E. Barrett Prettyman court house is located at Third Street and Constitution Avenue, one block west of the Capitol. The building faces Constitution Avenue where Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues merge.
We very much hope to see you at the hearing.

Best regards,
Sabin Willett
Elizabeth Gilson

Washingtondiki Uyghur Qerindashlirimizgha Jiddiy Uhturush

Hormetlik Qerindashlar,

Keler Dushenbe kuni, yeni 24-Noyabir kuni ettigini saet 9:30 da Guantanamodiki Uyghurlar mesilisi ustide yene sot echilidu. Shu seweptin men Washington we uning etrapida yashaydighab Uyghur qerindashlirimizning otkenki qetimgha ohshashla chirayliq Uyghurche kiyinip aktipliq bilen waqtida kelip qatniship berishinglarni soraymen. Siler choqum 9:15 otkiche sotqa kirip bolushinglar kerek. Sotning nami E. Barrett Prettyman Court House bolup, u 3-kocha bilen Constitution Avenue ning kesishken yeride. Heritisi towendikiche:

Dear ICT Supporter,

The negotiations between the Dalai Lama's representatives and the Chinese government have reached an unfortunate stalemate, which China is blaming on the Dalai Lama. Now is the time to challenge Hu Jintao and reaffirm the commitment of the American people to the cause of Tibet.

This weekend, Tibetans and supporters will converge in Washington, D.C., as Chinese President Hu Jintao makes his first visit to the U.S. since the uprising in March and China's brutal crackdown in Tibet. Hu Jintao will be attending the G20 Summit on the global economic crisis.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14
5:00pm-7:00pm
White House
Protest in Lafayette Park

Hu Jintao is expected to attend a G20 Reception and Dinner at the White House on Friday evening.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15
7:30am-3:00pm
National Building Museum

Meeting Spot: South Sidewalk of F St. NW, between 4th and 5th St. NW
Hu Jintao is expected to attend the G20 economic conference at the National Building Museum on Saturday morning.

Please join us for these important events. Let's send a message to Hu Jintao that Tibet is not an issue of the Bush Administration, it is an issue of the American people. As President-Elect Barack Obama prepares to take office, Tibetans and supporters are ready to continue the fight for human rights and democratic freedoms in Tibet.

For more information about the protests, contact:
smaron@studentsforafreetibet.org

http://support.savetibet.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=4861.0&dlv_id=9741

On Thursday, June 26, 2007, from 2 pm to 4 pm, members of the Uyghur American Association (UAA), the local Uyghur community and supporters of human rights for Uyghurs and human rights in China will gather in the park in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., to raise awareness about human rights abuses being committed against the Uyghur people in East Turkistan (also known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China) and other human rights abuses taking place in the People’s Republic of China.

Participants will first gather at the park in Dupont Circle at 1 pm, and will then walk north up Connecticut Avenue towards the Chinese Embassy. The demonstration will feature speeches by Alim Seytoff, UAA General Secretary; T. Kumar, Advocacy Director for Asia & Pacific for Amnesty International USA; Lucie Morillon, Washington Director at Reporters Without Borders; Yang Jianli, Chair, Foundation for China in the 21st Century; and Miranda Yen, Project Director of the Laogai Research Foundation.

Members of the public and the media are welcome to attend.

The demonstration will coincide with demonstrations being held by Uyghur groups on the same day in other cities around the world to raise awareness about Uyghur human rights issues. Beijing Olympic organizers recently moved the East Turkistan portion of the domestic torch relay forward one week- the torch was originally scheduled to arrive in East Turkistan on June 25, but passed through East Turkistan from June 17-19.

While the Olympic torch has traditionally been viewed as a symbol of international peace and freedom, its passage through East Turkistan took place in a climate of fear, heavy security, and the exclusion of all but a few hand-picked Uyghurs. In both the regional capitol of Urumchi and the traditionally-Uyghur southern city of Kashgar, areas surrounding the torch’s route were placed under virtual lockdown. Reports indicate that Uyghur residents of these cities were subjected to harassment and particularly harsh security measures, and that thousands of Uyghurs were detained throughout East Turkistan in the period leading up to the torch’s arrival.

The Uyghur people of East Turkistan face a multi-tiered campaign to suppress their identity and culture, as the Chinese government sponsors the mass in-migration of ethnic Han Chinese people; the transfer of young Uyghur women to work in eastern China and of Uyghur high school students to study in special schools in coastal cities; the removal of Uyghur as a language of instruction in schools; and the arrest and detention of Uyghurs who transmit peaceful religious and cultural messages that are at odds with official policy.

Demonstration details:

Park in front of the Chinese Embassy
2300 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20008

June 26, 2008
2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

(Interested participants will first gather at the park in Dupont Circle at 1 pm and then walk up Connecticut Avenue toward the Chinese Embassy).

April 25, 2008

Georgetown history professor James Millward will give a talk entitled “Eurasian Crossroads: History and the Present in Chinese Central Asia” on Wednesday, April 30 at 4:30 p.m. in Leighton Hall, room 304. Millward’s presentation is free and open to the public.

In his research, Millward focuses on the geographic areas of China and Inner Asia, the area that is shaped by its position at a figurative cross-road of the European and Asian continents, and is loosely constituted by several former Soviet republics, Afghanistan, Mongolia, and the Chinese provinces of Xinjiang and Tibet. His work spans the fields of politics, religion, education, and economics in this region.

During his talk, Millward will address the long-term history of China’s relations with Central Asia, a topic related to his recently published book “Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang” (Columbia University Press, 2007), which speaks to the implications of the area’s geographic context as well as its multiethnic character and role as a hub for trade and the dissemination of religious thought. As Carleton history professor Adeeb Khalid points out, the Xinjiang province in particular “is a place of considerable political fermentation [as] a non-Han region of China where the government of the People’s Republic of China fears separatist movements.”

Millward has a PhD from Stanford University. He is also the editor of New Qing Imperial History: The Making of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde (RoutledgeCurzon, 2004) and Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity and Empire in Qing Xinjiang (Stanford University Press, 1998), in which he examines the realities of specific geographic locales within the context of the Qing dynasty, which was in power in China from 1644 to 1911. Beyond Central Asia, his interests extend to chordophone and guitar history.

This appearance is sponsored by the Department of History. For more information, call (507) 222-4217.

Human Rights Without Frontiers Int'l
 

Asbl - National Registration Number: 473809960
Associated member of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights

Avenue Winston Churchill 11/33, 1180 Brussels, Belgium
Office Phone: + 32 2 3456145 - Fax: + 32 2 3437491

Invitation to a conference on human rights in China

on Tuesday 18 December (2:00 - 7:30 pm)

at the European Parliament in Brussels

See details of the programme below (list of sponsors still to be completed and confirmed).

Please use the Registration Form and send it back to the email address that is mentioned

Editor-in-chief: Willy Fautré

Email: info@hrwf.org
Website: http://www.hrwf.net

_______________________________________

Human Rights in China

No Olympic Medal

14h00: Opening remarks

• Istvan Szent-Ivanyi MEP, 1st Vice-Chair of the EP Delegation for Relations with the Korean Peninsula
• Edward McMillan-Scott MEP, Vice-President of the EP
• Sakharov Prize laureates

14h50 – 19h30: Panel discussion chaired by Istvan Szent-Ivanyi MEP,

Edward McMillan-Scott MEP, Ana Gomez MEP,

Thomas Mann MEP, Jules Maaten MEP

Olympic Games and Human Rights Violations

Freedom of Expression and Internet Censorship

Death Penalty, Torture, Detention Conditions

Human Rights Defenders

Labor Rights

North Korean Refugees in China

Freedom of Religion, Tibet Issues, Uighur Issues, Falun Gong

19h30: Cocktail offered by Edward McMillan-Scott MEP, Vice-President of the EP

The Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies

presents

The Eighteenth Annual Nava’i Lecture in Central Asian Studies

Abandoned in a Geopolitical Quagmire:  The Uyghurs of Central Asia in the Post-9/11 Era

with
Dr. Sean Roberts,
Post-Doctoral Fellow in Central Asian Studies

6:00 PM
November 29, 2007

Riggs Library
Georgetown University

Reception will follow the lecture
Click Here to RSVP

The lecture focuses on the fate of the stateless Uyghur nation of Central Asia, both in former Soviet states and in China, following the tragic events of September 11, 2001.  Since the terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center's twin towers, the Uyghurs have virtually lost all international support for their tenuous position as a minority under siege in the Xinjiang region of the People's Republic of China.  While the Uyghurs' situation in China is much like that of the Tibetans, the Chinese state's assertions that the Uyghurs' independence movement is a radical Islamic terrorist threat has meant in the present global context that the international community has more or less abandoned the Uyghurs, whose homeland is part of China bordering on the post-Soviet Central Asian states.  The talk explores this abandonment in the context of the Uyghurs' difficult historical engagement with geopolitics and their position in the post-9/11 world order.  The lecture's conclusions provide insights into the emergent geopolitical context facilitated by America's "Global War on Terror" as well as reflections on the persistent relevance of the nation-state in an increasingly globalizing world.

-------------------------------------------- 
Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies
Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
Georgetown University
Box 571031,ICC 111
Washington, DC 20057-1031
Ph. 202.687.6080
Fax. 202.687.5829
ceres.georgetown.edu