Xinjiang Scholar, Rumored ‘Detained and Missing,’ Attends UN Human Rights Meeting to Refute Disinformation

By Global Times

Jun 23, 2021 06:45 PM

A scholar from Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, whose photo has been used by anti-China forces to weave lies of people being “missing and detained,” attended the 47th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council via video link to discuss human rights development in Xinjiang on Tuesday. 

Gulnar Ubul, vice-chairperson of the Xinjiang Association for Science and Technology, delivered a speech via video link to the UNHRC session on Tuesday. She said that there have been no violent attacks in Xinjiang for more than four years and the region has enjoyed better economic and social development. 

"As a Uygur scholar, I have witnessed the changes taking place in Xinjiang in recent years. The development of human rights in the region has been witnessed by the international community,” said Gulnar, “No anti-China force can undermine the stability of Xinjiang." 

The World Uyghur Congress, a US-backed network that seeks the “fall of China,” had used Gulnar’s photo in an exhibit inside a tent at the Broken Chair Square in Geneva in February 2020, claiming that Gulnar and others are “detained and missing.” 

But Gulnar debunked WUC’s lies and told the Global Times in an interview that “I hope to tell these overseas anti-China forces that they should not insult me or insult other ethnic scholars in Xinjiang. It is impossible for them to use our photos to slander China. I reserve the right to pursue legal action against this infamous organization!" 

Gulnar used to work in Kashi University in southern Xinjiang and later became the deputy director of the autonomous region’s agricultural machinery bureau. She is now the vice-chairperson of the Xinjiang Association for Science and Technology. She told the Global Times that her photo was taken when she attended a conference in Beijing, and the WUC may have searched and downloaded it from the internet.

She told the Global Times on Wednesday this was the first time for her to make a speech at the UN platform, and as she has worked in the social and cultural fields, she knows how the lives of ethnic groups in Xinjiang have changed.

“I just finished a field survey in Hotan prefecture [in southern Xinjiang]. What impressed me most was the changes of local women – I can feel their changes from the way they dress, the way they  behave, and their disposition,” Gulnar said.

In response to a joint statement made by Canada on Tuesday on behalf of a group of countries that demanded an investigation into China’s detaining “one million” people in Xinjiang, Gulnar said, “We all know that the claim of ‘one million’ Uygurs being detained does not fit the truth and it was fabricated by anti-China forces in the West to disturb the Xinjiang region and to contain China.”

There has been too much disinformation on Xinjiang in the past years, Gulnar said, noting that she herself is also a victim of disinformation. Except for political purposes, these Western countries do not really care about the rights of ethnic groups in Xinjiang. “Justice bears in people’s heart and the political purpose of anti-China politicians and fake scholars in the West are doomed to fail.”

Gulnar also mentioned Xinjiang’s poverty alleviation work in her Tuesday speech at the UNHRC, saying that the autonomous region has also attained victory in poverty relief, with 3.06 million people from rural villages getting rid of absolute poverty, and 3,666 villages and 35 counties have overcome poverty.

“Our people’s lives have greatly improved. Each year, the regional government uses 70 percent of its annual budget on people’s welfare and public utilities. People of all ethnic groups are now enjoying a happy life,” she said.