Many people have a book that changes their life. For me and my wife, one book in particular changed our destinies for ever. We’ve been in love since we were teenagers, and today we are happily married – all because I accidentally discovered a forbidden novel. I wrote about it for @theguardian.com
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 21h agoA moment that changed me: I found a forbidden novel – it led to a dangerous, lasting love
“The targeting and arrests of booksellers in Hong Kong expose what the Chinese government fears most: free thinking. Beijing is trying to impose a world where people think only what the authorities permit." - @yalkun.bsky.social / @hrw.org New dispatch ⤵️
Hong Kong Authorities Target Booksellers
As the annual Hong Kong Book Fair opens this week, two of the city’s best-known independent bookstores, Elmbook and Luckwin, won’t be there.
hrw.org
Mandatory sinicization undermines ethnic identity, freedom of religion as well as the right to minority language education. We call on China to fulfill its national and international obligations to protect human rights and the rights of minorities.
Ambassador Patricia Flor@germanyinchina.bsky.social · last mo.With great concern, we note that the “Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity” came into effect today in China 🇨🇳. It reinforces existing restrictions of religious, linguistic and cultural rights. Uyghurs, Tibetans and Mongols, but also religious minorities incl. Christians, are affected.
The censorship of prominent social media accounts, foreign films, and events with LGBT themes around Pride month illustrates the deteriorating human rights situation for LGBT people in China, @hrw.org said. www.hrw.org/news/2026/06...
China: Social Media, Films Censored Around Pride Month
The censorship of prominent social media accounts, foreign films, and events with LGBT themes around Pride month illustrates the deteriorating rights situation for LGBT people in China.
hrw.org
Did you know that the Chinese government is intensifying efforts to erase the memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre while strengthening social control throughout the country? And that accountability is still key? #JusticeMatters! Read this article by @yalkun.bsky.social, China researcher @hrw.org⤵
China: No Justice for Tiananmen Massacre 37 Years On
The Chinese government is intensifying efforts to erase the memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre while strengthening social control throughout the country.
hrw.org
37 years on, the Chinese government is intensifying efforts to erase the memory of the Tiananmen Massacre while strengthening social control throughout the country. By burying the past, Beijing is also burying respect for fundamental rights in the future. www.hrw.org/news/2026/06...
China: No Justice for Tiananmen Massacre 37 Years On
The Chinese government is intensifying efforts to erase the memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre while strengthening social control throughout the country.
hrw.org
NEW PODCAST 🎙️ In this episode of Stop the World, @hrw.org's @yalkun.bsky.social joins David Wroe to discuss human rights and China, including forced labour and suppression of Uyghur minorities in Xinjiang, and how the Chinese government is trying to reshape its global image. 🎧: bit.ly/4dLU74y
NEW: Xinjiang has the highest detention capacity in the world, according to FT analysis - enough space for almost 1 in 40 people in the region - more than five years after the Chinese govt announced the camps had closed.
"As China promotes its own narrative and global attention fades, some may begin to believe that things in Xinjiang are returning to 'normal'. This is simply wrong." @yalkun.bsky.social www.abc.net.au/religion/yal...
Repression of Uyghurs persists as the world moves on - ABC Religion & Ethics
It is nearly ten years since the start of the mass arbitrary detention and China has not been held accountable for crimes against Uyghurs — but accountability is possible if other governments act to c...
abc.net.au
As global attention to the Xi Jinping regime's crimes against humanity in Xinjiang fades, some may begin to believe that things are returning to “normal”. This is simply wrong. @yalkun.bsky.social is often asked what real normality would look like. Read his answer here ⤵️
Repression of Uyghurs persists as the world moves on - ABC Religion & Ethics
It is nearly ten years since the start of the mass arbitrary detention and China has not been held accountable for crimes against Uyghurs — but accountability is possible if other governments act to c...
abc.net.au
The Chinese government has intensified ideological control, surveillance, restrictions on religious activities, and foreign ties of Catholic in China. The 2018 agreement with the Holy See has helped Beijing to escalate pressure on underground communities. www.hrw.org/news/2026/04...
China: Pressure on Catholics Escalates
Chinese authorities are increasing pressure on underground Catholic communities to join the state-controlled official church.
hrw.org
Kazakh authorities have blatantly sentenced citizens of Kazakhstan, Atajurt activists, for peacefully protesting Chinese government's crimes against humanity in Xinjiang. The following quote can be attributed to me. You can read more about the case here: www.hrw.org/news/2026/01...
Human Rights Watch is #hiring a senior China researcher. Come and join the dream team to work on human rights in China. Multiple locations are considered. Apply by May 2, 2026! job-boards.greenhouse.io/humanrightsw...
job-boards.greenhouse.io
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s unwillingness to condemn forced labor in China risks reducing pressure on the Chinese government to end its repression of Uyghurs. Latest with Jim Wormington, @hrw.org on Ottawa’s failure to tackle #UyghurForcedLabor. www.hrw.org/news/2026/04...
Canada Should Speak Out on Uyghur Forced Labor in China
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s unwillingness to condemn forced labor in China risks reducing pressure on the Chinese government to end its repression of ethnic Uyghurs.
hrw.org
European policies' focus on China's subsidies & industrial policy is missing a deeper point: that China's political economy is built on "a scaffolding of abuses that enable authorities to reshape economic sectors and to strong-arm communities with minimal resistance." www.lemonde.fr/idees/articl...
« Les pays européens devraient intégrer les droits humains à leurs politiques économiques et étrangères »
TRIBUNE. Alors que le modèle économique chinois repose sur un système répressif – interdiction des syndicats, exploitation des migrants, travail forcé… –, l’Union européenne devrait renforcer la loi s...
lemonde.fr
"J’ai choisi de plaider la cause de mon père et d’autres et ce choix m’a coûté une séparation, peut-être définitive, avec ceux que j’aime" Cela fait dix ans que @yalkun.bsky.social s’est rendu pour la dernière fois danss sa ville natale dans la région autonome ouïghoure du Xinjiang.
"I chose to speak out for my father and others and that choice cost me a disconnection, maybe forever, from those I love back home." It’s been a decade since HRW's @yalkun.bsky.social last visited Kumul, his hometown in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China.
"This Ramadan, as I sit down with a hot bowl of lentil soup and freshly made Uyghur noodles to break my day-long fast, I try very hard not to think about my father, thousands of miles away, in a prison, and what he does not get to eat, and if he even knows it is his favorite time of the year."
Yalkun Uluyol@yalkun.bsky.social · 5mo agoThis #Eid marks a decade since my last visit to my homeland where Beijing has committed atrocity crimes against Uyghurs. I chose to speak out for my father and others and that choice cost me a disconnection, maybe forever, from those I love back home. www.hrw.org/news/2026/03...
“The draft cybercrime law reflects President Xi Jinping’s broad efforts to restrict digital and physical spaces by allowing state security to expand and tighten social controls, including beyond borders." - @yalkun.bsky.social, China researcher @hrw.org Read more⤵️
China: Cybercrime Bill Entrenches Censorship, Surveillance
The Chinese government’s proposed law to combat cybercrime extends far beyond addressing legitimate legal concerns and contains sweeping provisions that pose a significant threat to human rights.
hrw.org
This #Eid marks a decade since my last visit to my homeland where Beijing has committed atrocity crimes against Uyghurs. I chose to speak out for my father and others and that choice cost me a disconnection, maybe forever, from those I love back home. www.hrw.org/news/2026/03...
China’s Repression Still Haunts Uyghur Exiles
This Ramadan, as I sit down with a hot bowl of lentil soup and freshly made Uyghur noodles to break my day-long fast, I try very hard not to think about my father, thousands of miles away, in a prison...
hrw.org
La repression transnationale des Ouighours en France par la Chine : l’analyse de #hrw et @yalkun.bsky.social www.hrw.org/news/2026/02...
China: Officials Pressuring Uyghurs in France
Chinese authorities have attempted to pressure two ethnic Uyghur activists living in Paris, including by asking one to spy on France’s Uyghur diaspora.
hrw.org
Beijing now stages a “Disneyland-like” Xinjiang through curated tours and rebuilt “heritage,” then “borrows mouths to speak” by boosting influencers and select visitors as validators while blocking real scrutiny. www.uyghurrightsmonitor.org/2026/02/02/d...
“Disneyland Xinjiang”: Curated Tourism, Borrowed Voices, and the Whitewashing of Genocide - Uyghur Rights Monitor
By Ablet Turdi For years, the Chinese government tightly restricted travel and independent access to the Uyghur Region while carrying out a well-documented genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic pe...
uyghurrightsmonitor.org
Prioritizing economic engagement over human rights concerns leaves the UK vulnerable to pressure that undermines its own interests; Starmer should reject this failed paradigm and promote human rights in his China visit. @hrw.org commentary w/ @yasmineahmed.bsky.social www.hrw.org/news/2026/01...
Starmer Should Promote Rights in China Visit
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer plans to visit China in late January, the first China trip by a British prime minister since 2018.
hrw.org
The national security trial against the Hong Kong Alliance is yet another attempt by Beijing to rewrite the truth about the #TiananmenMassacre. Chinese officials responsible for the killing of unarmed protesters should be put on trial — not those seeking accountability for these crimes.
Kazakh activists face 10 year sentence, prosecuted in Kazakhstan, at Chinese government’s request, for their peaceful protest against crimes against humanity in Xinjiang. Kazakh government should drop charges. Beijing should halt targeting critics abroad. www.hrw.org/news/2026/01...
Kazakhstan/China: Drop Charges against Activists for Xinjiang Protests
(London, January 15, 2026) – Kazakh authorities should drop charges against 18 Kazakh activists who peacefully protested against Chinese government abuses in Xinjiang, Human Rights Watch said today. T...
hrw.org
Chinese govt has detained the leader + key members of underground Protestant church, the Early Rain Covenant Church. There's been a string of arrests of members of prominent “house churches” in China in past year. They should be freed, faith isn't a crime: www.hrw.org/news/2026/01...
China: New Arrests at Underground Protestant Churches
hrw.org
In 2022, Chinese authorities released most White Paper protesters but sentenced Kamile to 3 years over a video she posted online, because she is Uyghur. She has now been released. She shouldn’t have been arrested in the first place, like all the other unjustly imprisoned Uyghurs.
"Buitenlandse overheden moeten reageren door te pleiten voor het seponeren van de zaak en zijn onmiddellijke vrijlating. De overheden van China en Hongkong moeten een prijs betalen voor hun onverminderde acties die de pers in Hongkong muilkorven." - @elainepearson.bsky.social / @hrw.org
RTL Nieuws@rtl.nl · 8mo agoActivist Jimmy Lai veroordeeld in Hongkong: ‘Gerechtelijke farce’ #nieuws
“Foreign governments should respond to the travesty of Jimmy Lai’s trial by pressing the Hong Kong authorities to quash the case and release him immediately." - @elainepearson.bsky.social / @hrw.org Read more ⤵️ www.hrw.org/news/2025/12...
