{"id":1751,"date":"2025-07-03T19:44:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T19:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saveuighur.org\/?p=1751"},"modified":"2025-07-04T19:36:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T19:36:56","slug":"condemns-princeton-university-press-directors-participation-in-chinese-propaganda-tour-of-occupied-east-turkistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saveuighur.org\/ug\/condemns-princeton-university-press-directors-participation-in-chinese-propaganda-tour-of-occupied-east-turkistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice For All\u2019s Save Uyghur Campaign Condemns Princeton University Press Director\u2019s Participation in Chinese Propaganda Tour of Occupied East Turkistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Washington, D.C\u00a0 – July 3, 2025<\/span><\/p>\n

Justice For All<\/span><\/a>\u2019s <\/span>Save Uyghur<\/span><\/a> Campaign strongly condemns the participation of Princeton University Press (PUP) Director <\/span>Christie Henry<\/span><\/a> in a recent state-sponsored propaganda tour of Chinese-occupied East Turkistan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clips<\/span><\/a> of Henry\u2019s remarks were featured prominently in a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) media package published by state-run platforms such as Xinjiang Daily, and widely circulated on social media channels affiliated with the Chinese government. In the edited footage, Henry is shown praising Kashgar as \u201ca magical place\u201d where \u201ccultures can peacefully co-exist in harmony,\u201d expressing hope to help \u201ctell this story to the rest of the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This message, paired with carefully staged footage of dancing Uyghurs in colorful costumes, parrots standard CCP propaganda that aims to whitewash ongoing atrocities in East Turkistan. It feeds a false narrative that everything in \u201cXinjiang\u201d is peaceful, diverse, and harmonious, while millions of Uyghurs remain in prisons or re-education camps, and countless others endure surveillance, forced labor, family separation, and cultural erasure.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply disappointed that a respected institution like Princeton University has allowed itself to be used to legitimize the Chinese government\u2019s repression of Uyghurs,\u201d said Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, President of Justice For All. \u201cThis is not cultural exchange. This is propaganda. And it helps the Chinese state normalize what the U.S. government has rightly labeled as <\/span>genocide<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The delegation from PUP was invited as part of a \u201cSpecial Book Award of China\u201d cultural tour, sponsored by the China National Publications Import and Export Group (CNPIEC). According to PUP\u2019s own <\/span>public statement<\/span><\/a>, the entire trip was accompanied by state and regional media. That footage was then edited into messaging designed to discredit international reporting on the Uyghur crisis and suggest that Uyghurs are content and free. In reality, the CCP continues to imprison intellectuals, suppress the Uyghur language, and silence dissent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen this Potemkin show before,\u201d said Arslan Hidayat, Team Lead of the Save Uyghur Campaign. \u201cThe government flies in foreigners, shows them renovated tourist sites, and surrounds them with state-approved performers. Then they film the visitors saying how beautiful everything is, and use it to deny the very real suffering of the Uyghur people. What makes this worse is that it\u2019s coming from a press that once published <\/span>The War on the Uyghurs<\/span><\/a>. This isn\u2019t just disappointing, it\u2019s betrayal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Save Uyghur Campaign acknowledges PUP\u2019s statement expressing regret that tour footage was \u201crepurposed and mis-contextualized.\u201d However, this admission does not undo the damage caused by lending credibility to a regime engaged in systemic crimes against humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n

We call on:<\/span><\/p>\n