Chinese students in Canada report Uygur activist’s talk to consulate
- Group at McMaster University in Ontario furious that woman they consider a separatist is given platform to speak
- Rukiye Turdush, who was filmed during presentation, says incident threatens academic freedom
The news of a talk by a Uygur activist spread quickly on campus, ricocheting across WeChat, the Chinese messaging app.
A group of Chinese students at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, learned that Rukiye Turdush a vocal critic of Beijing’s treatment of Uygurs, was set to deliver a presentation about the mass internment of Muslims in China’s far west.
They were furious that a woman they considered a separatist would be given a platform to speak. So they rallied in a chat group and reached out to a familiar source of guidance: the Chinese government.
As Turdush gave her presentation that afternoon, a student in the audience filmed her, later shouting at her before storming out.
Students wrote in a WeChat group that they contacted the embassy about the event and were told to watch if university officials were present. They later wrote that they sent photos to Chinese officials.
In the following days, Chinese student groups published a “bulletin report” about Turdush’s talk. The bulletin, which was co-signed by five McMaster student groups, including the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), noted contact with the Chinese consulate in Toronto.