To mark the tenth anniversary on Monday of his sentencing to life in prison, Marie Holzman writes at the online human-rights journal Diyin on Ilham Tohti’s case and its enduring significance. The essay, which is also available in Chinese and is reproduced here in full with the author’s permission, includes a selection of Ilham Tohti’s writings that starkly illustrates the gulf between his own words and the charges against him.

Ilham Tohti is the most renowned Uyghur public intellectual in the People’s Republic of China. For over two decades he has worked tirelessly to foster dialogue and understanding between Uyghurs and Chinese over the present-day repressive religious, cultural and political conditions of the Uyghurs, a Muslim Turkic people living mostly in modern China’s northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. As a result of his efforts he was sentenced in September 2014, to life in prison following a two-day show trial. He remains a voice of moderation and reconciliation in spite of what has been done to him.

In spite of the fact that Professor Ilham Tohti had been living in Beijing for over twenty years, had a “Beijing resident status”, has a wife and two young children living in the Chinese capital, he has been sent away to Xinjiang and admitted in jail in the Urumqi Number One Prison.

We fear, we know, that the fact Ilham Tohti is so far away from his family, that none of his lawyers has access to him, that his wife has only travelled to Xinjiang once, because of her two young children, makes the situation most worrying for his mental and physical health.

As Cao Yaxue, a very motivated activist fighting for Ilham Tohti’s liberation, has said often: “The news about Ilham Tohti is that we have no news.” In this extremely connected world, and especially in Xinjiang where you have cameras, guards, policemen everywhere on the streets, and even in the homes of the Uyghurs, it seems almost impossible not to know anything about Ilham Tohti’s well-being, health and state of mind. Yet it is so.

As a Human Rights defender for Chinese dissidents since 1978, I have had that sort of experience too often! For example, Wei Jingsheng was sent to jail in March 1979, but, until 1989, the outside world had absolutely no news from him. He could have died, no one outside of China would have known, even though he had been officially and publicly sentenced to jail for 15 years. In all, Wei Jingsheng spent 18 years in jail and, most of the time, we didn’t even know where he was kept within China!

The wife of a Chinese lawyer, Li Wenzu, has received international prizes for her courage in fighting for her husband’s freedom, Wang Quanzhang. He had disappeared for over a thousand days, after being arrested in 2015, and, at the time, no one knew of his whereabouts …

I am quoting these names so the readers understand how vital, how necessary it is to keep the names of these courageous Human Rights defenders alive when they sink into these pitch black holes of oblivion.

Why do we want to talk about Iham Tohti today? First, because Ilham Tohti has now “left us” for exactly ten years. Second, because the situation in Xinjiang has been getting worse and worse day by day, and it took a long time before democratic countries finally started to react and show interest for this part of the world. When Ilham Tohti got arrested, in 2014, things were not quite as bad as they are now.

When a hastily created support group for Ilham Tohti was created in 2015 to lobby for the Sakharov Prize, the Ilham Tohti Initiative, no member of the European Parliament had ever even heard of his name, because the so called Xinjiang Autonomous Region had not attracted much attention. Retrospectively, we understand better why the Chinese government chose to arrest THAT man at that time. The repression of the entire Uyghur population was just about to get started, and no one would have talked about it more vehemently, more precisely than Ilham Tohti …

In his short self portrait, published in April 2014, at a time when he knew he was at great risk of being arrested, Ilham Tohti explained why, in spite of having obtained good results as a businessman during his younger years, he started studying the political, economical, social situation in Xinjiang. From Ilham Tohti’s book, “We Uyghurs Have No Say,” translated and edited by Cao Yaxue [with translation by Matthew Robertson and CDT’s Cindy Carter]: 

Having witnessed a great number of cases of ethnic conflict and killing, political unrest, and failed social transformation during my extensive travels throughout Central Asia, Russia, and South Asia, my desire grew stronger and stronger to completely devote my energies to researching Xinjiang and Central Asian issues, so that tragedies happening abroad won’t take place in China.

To this end, I have personally funded and conducted large-scale social surveys. I simultaneously took time to study sociology, ethnology, and geopolitics by taking classes or self-instruction. Such endeavors have expanded my horizons beyond economics, and provided me with other perspectives and analytical tools. Aside from studying failed cases from the former Soviet Union as well as Eastern Europe, I have also looked at some successful cases to see how developed countries such as America as well as those in Europe have handled and resolved ethnic issues and social issues. My hope is that such examinations will provide abundant lessons for endeavors undertaken in China.

Ilham Tohti went on to explain what he had planned to do for Xinjiang:

I worry about my homeland and my country falling into turmoil and division. I hope that China, having endured many misfortunes, will become a great nation of harmonious interethnic coexistence and develop a splendid civilization. I will devote myself to Xinjiang’s social, economic and cultural development, to the interethnic understanding, and to finding the way to achieve harmonious ethnic coexistence amidst the social transformation today. These are my ideals and personal objectives, and the choices I have made have their roots in my family’s history; my upbringing; my mother’s teachings; and my education as well as personal experiences.

In 2005, Ilham Tohti created the “Uyghur Online” website:

As a result, I founded the “Uighur Online”website at the end of 2005, to provide Uighurs and Hans with a platform for discussion and exchange. Of course, I knew that there would be an intense clash of opinions, but I believe that confronting differences is not frightening. What is truly frightening are silenced suspicions and hatred.

Ilham Tohti, and the promotion of honest dialogue:

Uighur Online is managed to prevent any pro-independence, separatist, or irresponsible inflammatory postings, and it does not post subversive materials. However, it does not forbid posts that expose social ills in Xinjiang or elsewhere, so long as they show good intentions and the content is authentic.

As expected, nationalistic Hans and Uighurs have had heated arguments on the forum. Yet, I have always maintained that one should not fear differences of opinion and opposition, but rather, fear only not having opportunities for exchange. As long as there is exchange, there will be consensus. In reality, although some Han netizens have criticized my comments as drastic or unjust, I have also earned the respect of many of them: I don’t agree with your views, but I understand that you are well-meaning.

Ilham Tohti has explained clearly his approach to teaching, and noticed how his way of interacting with students remained quite exceptional in China:

As a university professor, I have the strong desire to share my views, hopes, and methodology with my students. Unlike a lot of teachers, I diligently prepare handouts and lesson plans for each class, and for a long time I have offered open and voluntary classes on Xinjiang issues on Saturdays.

I encouraged more Uighur students to pursue studies in sociology, law, economics, political science, anthropology, and other fields so that in making career choices they will be able to combine their personal goals with the progress of their ethnic group as well as their country. These subjects provide a systematic methodology, and can transform emotional energy and visceral enthusiasm for ethnic issues into a rational and scientific approach. The cultivation of such an approach is certainly rare among the Uighurs, and therefore precious; but even in China as a whole, there is far from enough of it.

The situation in China has clearly deteriorated since the 1980s, explains Ilham Tohti:

As a Uighur intellectual, I strongly sense that the great rift of distrust between the Uighur and Han societies is getting worse each day, especially within the younger generation. Unemployment and discrimination along ethnic lines have caused widespread animosity. The discord did not explode and dissipate along with the July 5 incident of 2009, and during subsequent social interactions. Instead, it has started to build up once again.

The situation is getting gradually worse. Yet, fewer and fewer people dare to speak out. Since 1997, the primary government objective in the region has been to combat the “three evil forces” [terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism]. Its indirect effect is that Uighur cadres and intellectuals feel strongly distrusted and the political atmosphere is oppressive.

Ilham Tohti believes in a multi-ethnic society:

As a Uighur intellectual, I naturally have deep feelings for my ethnic group, and I feel uneasy about its impoverishment and its many sufferings attributable to historical and circumstantial factors. I have equally deep feelings for my country, and, having traveled to dozens of other countries, I have come to the conclusion that national pride runs deep within my veins. The pain and pride experienced by both my ethnic group and also my countrymen are my own pain and my own pride.

Historically, both the Han and Uighur ethnicities are products of multiethnic mingling. However, I do oppose a false and calculated ethnic harmony. Use of administrative means to keep ethnic groups together is, in essence, a use of force that breeds division, whereas tolerance as a means to encourage diversity will lead to mutual harmony and unity.

Although I would have liked to end this article with words of hope, I feel it my duty to introduce you to one of the most convincing observers of China’s political and social situation, Mr Xu Youyu, who lives now in the U.S.A., and has given an excellent interview where he has said:

I don’t think that the fascist forces and tendencies in China have reached their extreme yet. The worst is yet to come. Under such circumstances, hoping for any kind of rapid change is impractical. As someone who loves thought and theorizing, the mission I gave myself is to tell the world just how this tragedy came to pass. There are no obstacles to the rise of fascism in China. I want to explain how it happened and why it happened and is still happening. These are the questions I’m observing and thinking over at present.

In other words, let us not give up the fight now. Ilham Tohti and all the oppressed people in China need our help more than ever.

– Marie Holzman

Member of Ilham Tohti Intiative, München, Germany
President of Solidarité Chine, Paris, France

The incongruity between Ilham Tohti’s moderate words and the severity of his treatment has disturbed observers ever since his initial detention. In a collection of interviews on the case by Ian Johnson at The New York Review of Books ten years ago, Chinese intellectual Wang Lixiong argued that “the only conclusion is dark”:

Why was he arrested?

Wang: It is really strange. It’s something I can’t understand. Whenever police asked me, I’d tell them that Ilham is a very important person. In the future, if there’s to be a solution, he’s important. The government might not be able to control the situation and what they’d need are civil society actors who can play a role. I think that Ilham is that kind of a person. In fact, he’s the only Uighur who as a public intellectual can stand up and speak out. At least as far as I know, he’s the only one who can express himself so clearly, and someone who doesn’t want independence, who wants to live in China and say he’s a Zhongguoren [Chinese person] but wants Xinjiang to have more autonomy. By contrast, the Uighurs abroad, basically all of them want independence.

[…] His criticism of China’s Uighur policies did not get him arrested in the past.

[…] Wang: We all thought he wouldn’t be in trouble. But the only conclusion is dark: it’s that they don’t want moderate Uighurs. Because if you have moderate Uighurs, then why aren’t you talking to them? So they wanted to get rid of him and then you can say to the West that there are no moderates and we’re fighting terrorists. [Source]