WASHINGTON- U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Chris Coons (D-Del.), co-chair of the Senate Human Rights Caucus, today released the statement below on the 9th anniversary of the Chinese government’s arbitrary detention of Ekpar Asat, a Uyghur entrepreneur.
“Nine years ago, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) detained Uyghur entrepreneur Ekpar Asat. Since then, Ekpar has endured multiple years in solitary confinement and is now imprisoned in Aksu prison camp, far from his family members and those who love him. This abuse has severely impacted his health. We condemn in the strongest terms Ekpar’s arbitrary detention and call for his immediate, unconditional release.
"The CCP continues to commit genocide and other gross violations of human rights against Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang. The Chinese government in Xinjiang has detained more than one million Uyghurs since 2017 and subjects many more to an Orwellian censorship and surveillance regime, forced labor, severe restrictions on religious freedom, forced sterilizations, and forced abortions. We call for an end to China’s gross violations of human rights and for the release of political prisoners, including Ekpar."
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