The Inspiring and Heartbreaking Story of How One Muslim Woman Became a Leader for Her People
WASHINGTON — Rebiya Kadeer, a mother of 11 and one of the Chinese Communist Party’s top public enemies, waited for a cab in downtown D.C.
Rushing cars blew humid August air against Kadeer and her adviser, Omer Kanat, an exiled Uyghur researcher, as they discussed their talking points for the day.
“Busy, busy, busy,” Kadeer said, as she got in a cab that would take them to a meeting with the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. She had met with officials at the State Department the day before.
Kadeer is the most prominent dissident who speaks out for the Uyghurs, the central Asian people who are distant relatives of the Turks. They are a Muslim minority who live in northwestern China — a region that Uyghurs call East Turkestan and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) calls Xinjiang, which means the new frontier.
In 1949, the Chinese regime annexed and later colonized Xinjiang, a largely desert region in northwestern China that has mummies, snow-laden peaks, and cities buried in sand.
Xinjiang is four times the size of California; most important, it has an oil-rich region that is the size of France. Its land is also rich with minerals and natural gas.
China has invested billions in the region, and the natural resources of Xinjiang have played a large role in China’s economic growth.
But the Uyghurs are not seeing much of the money from their economic boom. And the general public in the West has not seen much of their woes either.
When compared to the Tibetans the Uyghurs are a relatively unfamiliar group, although they share a border and similar struggles with the Chinese regime.
The Chinese regime conducted more than 40 open-air nuclear bomb tests in Xinjiang between 1964 and 1996, according to Scientific America. Radiation experts estimate that at least 194,000 people have died from exposure.
From executions of political dissidents to the destruction of mosques to the decline of Uyghur language taught in Uyghur schools, the plight of Muslims in China had long gone unnoticed in the international sphere. That is, until Kadeer came along.
Kadeer, a woman whose signature look is two long, traditional braids that go past her hips, does not appear powerful.
At 68, Kadeer she is still somewhat girlish, with a slender frame and bright, probing black eyes.
From the surface, one can’t tell that she is a great-grandmother who survived two years of solitary confinement in China. Although she has been beaten and humiliated and nearly died of a gory stomach illness during her five years in prison, there is still a salt-of-the-earth quality left in her personality.
During a long car ride, she giggled when she realized that, while she was talking, her adviser had fallen asleep.
Even if she is running late for a meeting, she insists that all guests who visit her home must sit down and try one of her savory dishes such as the traditional Uyghur carrot and lamb fried rice.
But the Chinese Communist Party is afraid of her, and rightly so.
Find out why by reading the rest of the story on The Epoch Times.
