Chinese Economist Missing, Apparently Detained

A Uighur economist in Beijing is missing after a website he ran was blamed for “inciting violence” leading to the Urumqi riots. From AP:

A friend said Thursday that Ilham Tohti called him early Wednesday and told him he received formal notice that he would be detained. The friend, Huang Zhangjin, said efforts to reach Tohti since have failed.

Tohti’s disappearance comes just days after Xinjiang’s Beijing-installed governor accused a Web site founded by the 39-year-old professor of stirring up hostilities that led to the bloody riot Sunday in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital.

[…] In a televised speech Monday, Xinjiang Governor Nur Bekri said an exiled Uighur activist in the United States had called people in China to stir up the violence that erupted Sunday and that Uighurbiz and another popular Web site, Diyarim.com, “were used to orchestrate the incitement and spread propaganda.” All have denied the allegation.

Widely considered a moderate voice, Tohti had praised China’s policies for Xinjiang. His Web site, http://www.uighurbiz.net, became a lively forum for many controversial issues about Chinese rule in Xinjiang.

Dru Gladney, an expert on Uighurs at the Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College in California, said he never met Tohti, but based on his online essays and press interviews he appears to be “very well educated, very articulate, very thoughtful, certainly not inspired by radical Islam.”

CDT EBOOKS

Subscribe to CDT

SUPPORT CDT

Browsers Unbounded by Lantern

Now, you can combat internet censorship in a new way: by toggling the switch below while browsing China Digital Times, you can provide a secure "bridge" for people who want to freely access information. This open-source project is powered by Lantern, know more about this project.

Google Ads 1

Giving Assistant

Google Ads 2

Anti-censorship Tools

Life Without Walls

Click on the image to download Firefly for circumvention

Open popup
X

Welcome back!

CDT is a non-profit media site, and we need your support. Your contribution will help us provide more translations, breaking news, and other content you love.