
Xinjiang University President Tashpolat Tiyip Sentenced to Death in Secret Trial - baylearn
https://u.osu.edu/mclc/2019/01/25/death-sentence-for-a-life-of-service/
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songco
Is it related to
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2009_%C3%9Cr%C3%BCmqi_rio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2009_%C3%9Cr%C3%BCmqi_riots)
? Xinjiang is my hometown, the riots is terrible, many people died in the
event(most in the first 2 days), I was impressed becuase I know one man's two
twin girls killed in the riots, and the angry man orginized many workers in
the next day's riots(revenge...)

It's a complex thing, as I know, there's too many media misleading, in both
side.

~~~
inflatableDodo
>Is it related to
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2009_%C3%9Cr%C3%BCmqi_rio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2009_%C3%9Cr%C3%BCmqi_rio..).
?

Well, let us examine this possibility by reading the article.

That was in 2009 and according to the featured article, in 2010 he was
promoted to the President and Vice Secretary of the Communist Party of
Xinjiang University and he only recently disappeared in 2017.

So I am guessing it would be rather unlikely.

>It's a complex thing, as I know, there's too many media misleading, in both
side.

This is also something of a problem in the commentary, it would appear.

~~~
xwolfi
It's a lot like the HK riots which started as a movement against a law (the
very kind of law Tiyip has been taken by) but ended up as a metro station
burning game.

I'm in HK and a democrat, sure, but these angelic freedom fighting tales
abroad are as misleading as the diabolical black hand rhetoric of the mainland
media.

As most human movement, there's a gaussian distribution between two extremes,
and the two extremes makes the most noise (because extreme noise brings
shocked readers) while most ignore and live on.

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ncmncm
I'm guessing he refused to get involved in official corruption. Nothing is so
offensive as an honest man.

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robert_foss
What was he sentenced for?

~~~
dirtyid
Trial was secret. But 2017 arrest point to "Strike Hard" campaign targeting
violent terrorism. "Two-face" label was also something thrown around by state
officials at the time against those who preached separatism.

~~~
_iyig
>against those who preached separatism

Or who just promoted Uyghur language and culture, or didn’t cheer the Party on
loudly enough:

[https://thediplomat.com/2018/10/turn-in-the-two-faced-the-
pl...](https://thediplomat.com/2018/10/turn-in-the-two-faced-the-plight-of-
uyghur-intellectuals/)

EDIT: Do you think I’m exaggerating?

From the link:

“To be more precise, [two-faced] is a castigatory definition that Chinese
politicians are using to highlight the “failure” of Uyghur intellectuals to
manifest their unwavering and unambiguous allegiance to the CCP.”

“In this sense, Uyghur intellectuals are forced to remain in the black and
white world for their very survival; and in so doing, they are forced to
abandon and denounce their own deeply rich culture against their will.“

~~~
dirtyid
Sure, definitions malleable to the whims of the state. But that typically
leads to jail terms. Hundreds of Uyghur academics have been detained, some
died in custody, but as far as I'm aware only Tashpolat Tiyip and Halmurat
Ghopur have been formally sentenced to death. Both at around the same time in
late 2017 which suggest there might be firmer evidence behind the convictions.
Or out of the 13,000 arrests officially categorized as terrorists, these two
were arbitrarily being made examples of. It was a year after Chen Quanguo
(architect of the camps) became the Party Secretary of Xinjiang and escalated
the Strike Hard campaign (there's been no terrorists attacks since he took
over), and within weeks of him being promoted to the CPC central politburo.
Timing certainly is interesting.

E: I didn't claim you were exaggerating? It takes very loose definitions to
rationalize the levels of detainment happening in Xinjiang.

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boreas
Somehow the scariest part was the erasure.

 _Articles that praised Tiyip’s achievements are now being systematically
deleted from the internet. His name and legacy are being erased, even from the
list of presidents of Xinjiang University. Ironically, Sheng Shicai, the
Guomindang leader who ruled Xinjiang from 1933-1944, who was described as one
of the most evil traitors by the Communist Party, is still listed as a
president of the school from 1942-1944. Yet, there is now no trace of
Tashpolat Tiyip’s name._

Almost a caricature of an authoritarian approach to dealing with an
undesirable.

~~~
lone_haxx0r
And some people don't believe me when I tell them that 1984 is a reality in
some parts of the world.

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EdibleMatrix
The circumstances of this are very strange. What's alarming is that I don't
understand why the government would take such extreme action on someone who
doesn't appear to be active in any political capacity. At least not active
enough to come up in any search engine.

Upon further digging, I did find more information this notion of 'two-
faceness' from an article in 2017, around the time he was arrested:

\-------

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-xinjiang-
security/f...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-xinjiang-
security/fellow-uighurs-should-beware-of-two-faced-people-in-separatism-fight-
official-says-idUSKBN17C0HJ)

In a commentary published by the official Xinjiang Daily on Monday, Yasin
Sidik, a senior official from Kashgar city in Xinjiang, urged fellow ethnic
Uighur cadres to “bravely stand at the forefront against separatism”.

“We must stand out and reveal ‘two-faced’ people, thoroughly seize bad
elements out from the masses, clean them out,” he said.

\-------

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harshreality
So what's new? China sometimes murders people. What can be done? Boycott
Chinese products? There aren't enough people who will give up their favorite
electronics to make a difference, and most diplomatic currency is used on
trade deals, Taiwan, and various disputed islands.

What ultimately motivates Xi and the Party? What are their objectives?

Are they simply doing whatever they think will increase China's relative
power? And they think unity — suppression of multi-culturalism and dissent —
will serve that interest? Or have they gamed out a strategy for 50 or 100
years that's more subtle, and this totalitarian BS is just a phase they'll
outgrow?

~~~
Leary
According to the former PM of Australia, Kevin Rudd:

" 1\. The centrality of the party, keeping the party in power for the long
term, as well as Xi's power within the party;

2\. Consolidating the internal unity of the country;

3\. Maintaining sustainable economic growth to ensure a continued increase in
Chinese living standards, breaking though the "middle-income trap," while
balancing now against a parallel requirement for environmental protection now
demanded by China's urban elites;

4\. Keeping China's 14 bordering countries in a benign, and preferably supine
state;

5\. On China's maritime periphery, projecting its regional naval and air
power, politically fracturing U.S. alliances in Asia, and ultimately removing
the United States from the immediate region militarily;

6\. Leveraging its economic power across China's vast continental periphery,
causing Eurasia, and in time the Middle East and Africa to become
accommodating to China's economic, foreign policy, and security interests;

7\. and Reforming parts, but by no means all, of the post-war international
rules-based order over time to better suit its interests, and to better
reflect China's domestic values rather than those of the post-war consensus. "

~~~
riskneutral
So, in other words, World War III.

Good luck with that y’all, I have no dog in this clown show of a fight.

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trickstra
There is ArchiveBox (self-hosted web archive) for these cases when articles
are disappearing.

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baylearn
According to Amnesty International, after 2 year suspended death sentence, he
could be executed in September of this year:
[https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ASA1710062019ENGL...](https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ASA1710062019ENGLISH.pdf)

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Leary
I thought a million Uighurs disappeared into concentration camps, so hopefully
he's still alive in one of those camps

