China accuses US of ‘low political tricks’ over Uygur exhibit

The ‘Wall of the Disappeared’, which just opened in Geneva, displays photos of dozens of people who are missing or alleged to be held in camps in Xinjiang

The exhibit, which also features interviews with camp survivors about alleged forced sterilisation, received funding via a US grant

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Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uygur Congress, puts the final touches on a photo exhibit in front of the United Nations in Geneva on Friday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:38am, 17 Sep 2021Updated: 8:06pm, 17 Sep 2021

A US-backed Uygur photo exhibit of dozens of people who are missing or alleged to be held in camps in Xinjiang, China, opened in Switzerland on Thursday, prompting Beijing to issue a furious statement accusing Washington of “low political tricks”.

The “Wall of the Disappeared”, which also features interviews with camp survivors about alleged forced sterilisation, stands outside the United Nations in Geneva where a month-long session of the Human Rights Council opened this week.

“It was important for us to bring faces to represent the statistics,” said Zumretay Arkin, whose uncle is featured in the exhibit. “It’s easier to forget about numbers but if people see faces, we hope they will grasp the urgency of the situation.”

Rights groups estimate 1 million Uygurs and people from other ethnic minorities have been interned in camps that China describes as vocational training centres to combat religious extremism.

Zumretay Arkin, programme and advocacy manager at the World Uygur Congress, poses at a US-backed photo exhibit in front of the United Nations in Geneva on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

The United States gave a financial grant for the exhibit, which will later travel to Brussels and Berlin, the World Uygur Congress said. Earlier this week, the US mission in Geneva displayed it at a diplomatic reception, according to sources who attended.

“We are committed to placing human rights at the centre of our China policy, and we will continue to highlight the grave human rights abuses we see the PRC committing across China, in Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong and elsewhere,” a US mission spokesperson said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.