A recent meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping drew attention around the world, yet the official statements that followed from both Washington and Beijing left out one glaring subject entirely: human rights. In particular, neither side made any mention of the alleged persecution of the Uyghur community in China, and that silence is now raising sharp questions.
The omission comes at a time when Trump has noticeably softened his tone toward Xi Jinping, recently going so far as to call him a "friend" and a "good person."
A Sister, Eight Years in Detention, and Fading Hope
Uyghur activist Rushan Abbas had hoped that Trump's trip to Beijing last month would mark a major step toward freeing her sister, Gulshan Abbas, who has been imprisoned in China for nearly eight years.
Just days before Trump left for Beijing, the US Senate and House of Representatives passed resolutions urging the president to press for the release of six people detained by China's Communist Party. Gulshan Abbas was among those named.
On May 14, Rushan Abbas wrote, "I am asking the most powerful democratic leader in the world to look a dictator in the eye and demand my sister back."
No Breakthrough From the Talks
Trump's discussions with Xi Jinping produced no immediate movement on the long-running Uyghur issue. Neither Washington nor Beijing indicated whether human rights even came up during the conversation.
Many Uyghurs now have far less confidence that efforts within the United States will bring any meaningful change. They are beginning to look for other ways to help family members and friends who have been detained or kept under surveillance in the Xinjiang region.
'End the Genocide First, Then Talk'
Salih Hudayar, a 33-year-old activist, voiced his anger: "The fact that Trump met Xi Jinping despite an ongoing genocide is the biggest blow for us. The condition should have been, 'First you end this genocide, and only then sit down and talk with us.'"
A Campaign Running Since 2017
Since 2017, the Chinese government has allegedly detained more than a million people from Turkic ethnic groups, most of them Uyghurs. The Uyghurs are a largely Muslim community living in Xinjiang, in China's northwest.
