Uyghur scholar demands action against China’s ‘genocide’ and slave labour

Oslo: Sayragul Sauytbay, Vice President of the East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE), has once again highlighted the “ongoing genocide” and “crimes against humanity” being committed by China against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples.

Speaking at the Ethical Trade Conference in Norway, Sauytbay – an ethnic Kazakh from Xinjiang – also urged Oslo to reconsider ties with Beijing.

“The Norwegian government and Norwegian businesses must urgently and unequivocally reassess their ties with China, to prevent themselves from becoming complicit in the genocide, crimes against humanity, and mass enslavement of millions in East Turkistan through forced labour,” she said while delivering the opening remarks on Wednesday at Norway’s most prominent platform for ethical and sustainable trade.

Organised by Ethical Trade Norway and held at Dansens Hus in Oslo under the theme ‘Make Sustainability Great Again!’, the event marked the organisation’s 25th anniversary and brought together over 300 participants from business, labour, government, and civil society.

Narrating her own experience as an educator who was forced to work in Chinese concentration camps, Sauytbay detailed the widespread internment, torture, forced labour, and indoctrination in the country.

“She highlighted that nearly one million Uyghur, Kazakh, and other Turkic children have been forcibly separated from their families and placed into Chinese state-run boarding schools and orphanages, where they are subjected to political indoctrination aimed at erasing their ethnic and religious identities,” read a statement issued by the ETGE.

Emphasising that China’s atrocities in ‘Occupied East Turkistan’ are part of a broader imperial strategy, Sauytbay stated that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a central instrument of China’s campaign to achieve global domination, allowing the Chinese Communist Party to expand its authoritarian influence under the guise of development and trade.

“She warned that without full transparency and ethical due diligence, continued political and economic relations with China risk making Norway’s government and Norwegian companies morally and legally complicit in the Chinese state’s atrocities,” the ETGE stated.

Acknowledging the efforts of Ethical Trade Norway and several Norwegian companies to strengthen corporate accountability under the Transparency Act, she stressed that far more needs to be done to eliminate complicity in systems built on genocide and forced labour.

“The East Turkistan Government in Exile renews its call for Norway and the international community to recognise and condemn the genocide and mass enslavement of the East Turkistani people perpetrated by the Chinese state, impose targeted sanctions on those responsible, and support the East Turkistani people’s fundamental right to freedom, dignity, and national self-determination,” the East Turkistan Government in Exile urged in a media release.

IANS