Uyghur Editors’ Family Members Charge Chinese Documentary Misrepresents Them

Family members of former Uyghur textbook editors accused of incorporating ethnically charged and separatist views into classroom literature say a recent documentary on the topic produced and broadcast by a pro-Beijing media company grossly misrepresents them.

Last month, the state-run China Global Television Network aired a 10-minute documentary, Challenges of Fighting Terrorism in Xinjiang: The Textbooks, accusing former Uyghur publishing officials and senior editors such as Yalqun Rozi, editor of the Xinjiang Education Press, of incorporating extremist “separatist thoughts” into children's educational materials as early as 2003. “I learned those textbooks as a kid,” said Kamalturk Yalqun, the son of the now-imprisoned Yalqun, who described last month's broadcast as more evidence of Beijing’s efforts to mask its brutal campaign against the mostly Muslim Uyghurs as a response to a burgeoning domestic terror threat. “Reading them was purely a happy literary adventure for me and there was nothing to incite hatred or radicalism,” said Yalqun, who came to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies in 2014.