It feels redundant, silly almost, to continually post these pieces referencing the lack of basic rights in China. Breaking earlier this week, we found out that Gheyret Niyaz was sentenced to 15 years for “endangering state security.” The actual act in which he committed is still in question. It is confirmed that he gave an interview to a Hong Kong news agency, as well as having an affiliation with the website Uighurbiz.cn. Regardless, none of these would entitle the Chinese government to take a decade and a half from a man who holds moderate political views and is in by no means endangering the state.
The Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalist has said, “Gheyret Niyaz is being tried for his work as a journalist — that is the only threat he has made to China’s state security. We call on the authorities to drop these trumped-up charges and to free Niyaz immediately.” On Friday, Associated Press writer Alexa Olesen noted that Niyaz had been forced into semi-retirement before he was jailed because of a paper her wrote that was critical of Wang Lequan. Alexa went on to quote Mr. Niyaz, “In Xinjiang, especially, stability is the priority above all else. You are either being praised or promoted for contributing to it or being arrested for harming it. It’s love or hate and there’s no room for uncertainty, no third road.”
I already have too many facebook groups, who is up for starting the Free Gheyret Niyaz page?
Thanks for posting on this! I just created a “Free Uyghur journalists and bloggers” page on Facebook! It’s open to everyone who is interested.
-Amy Reger