Uighurs ‘face fight for existence’ against China

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Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer said Monday her people face a fight for their very existence against Chinese repression as a conference in Japan threatened to drive a wedge between Tokyo and Beijing. Ethnic Uighurs and their supporters from around the world gathered in the Japanese capital for a meeting aimed at pressing their claim for freedom from what Kadeer called China’s intensifying crackdown. “Before, we were fighting for our rights, we were protesting against China’s oppression,” Kadeer told reporters after opening the five-day conference. “But now we face a fight for our existence.” “The situation is now worse than it was in 2009,” when Uighurs demonstrated and clashed with the Chinese authorities, she said. Many Uighurs complain that they are the victims of state-sanctioned persecution and marginalisation in their homeland in northwest China, aided by the migration of millions of Han Chinese into the territory.

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