Rushan Abbas is one of the most prominent international advocates for the rights of ethnic Uyghurs. Her memoir, “Unbroken: One Uyghur’s Fight for Freedom,” will be published on June 10.
The book explores her personal journey from her pro-democracy activism as a student in China in the 1980s, to her move to the United States in 1989, and her efforts to draw attention to the plight of Uyghurs in the face of mass internments and other grave abuses that the U.S. government says constitute genocide.
Among those she’s spoken up for are her sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, who was imprisoned by China in 2018. Her father, Abbas Borhan, a prominent Uyghur scholar, was forced out of his job as chairman of the Science and Technology Council of Xinjiang because of his daughter’s activism.
Rushan Abbas currently serves as executive director of a human rights group, the U.S.-based Campaign for Uyghurs. She says her book, published by Optimum Publishing International, is intended both as a personal testimony and a political call to action for governments and citizens worldwide. She spoke to RFA Uyghur journalist Shahrezad Ghayrat. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
RFA: Your book is titled ‘Unbroken.’ What does unbroken personally mean to you after all you’ve experienced and witnessed?
Rushan Abbas: The unbroken means that despite everything that my people and my family have been through — the separation, the suffering, the oppression, and the mass detention — our spirit and our dignity and our hope have not been broken. It’s a testament to resilience and to the idea that even under the most difficult conditions, Uyghur people will not be defeated, we will fight. We will fight onward with an unbroken will and courage.
RFA: You share parts of your late father’s unpublished memoir. How has his story influenced your fight for Uyghur freedom today?
Rushan Abbas My father’s story, what he has been through during the Great Cultural Revolution, is at the heart of my own fight for Uyghur freedom. And his memoir was written in the brief period of time that he was in the United States. So he lived through unimaginable oppression, and he and my mother and my grandparents and my grandpa, during the Cultural Revolution but held on to hope for future generations. He always had hope for the future generations and paved the way for the next generation to advocate for human rights. So I’m here today because of him. I am the way I am from a very young age. I have put my people and my dedication to the cause because of him. So this is not just a political story that I wrote with this book, and it’s not just my own story or not only my family’s story, but it is a story for all Uyghur people back home.
RFA: You describe Unbroken as both a personal story and a political call to action. Who do you hope hears this call the loudest: the policymakers, the public, or both?
Rushan Abbas: Both actually - the policymakers and the public. I want the public to understand the human cost of what’s happening and to stand with us. And I want policymakers to feel the urgency to act. And understand the cost of what will happen to the world if we don’t hold the authoritarian Chinese government accountable. And governments must act by applying pressure and holding the Chinese government accountable because we are talking about the future of the free world, not just what’s happening to the Uyghurs or what China is doing within their borders.
RFA: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, (prominent scholar on persecution of Uyghurs) Dr. Adrian Zenz, and others have endorsed your book. How important is international solidarity, including voices from different communities, in countering China’s repression?
Rushan Abbas: International solidarity is essential. It’s very important. China’s repression is a global human rights issue and it affects the future world ... (It’s) not just a Uyghur issue. So we are not talking about something is that is just happening to Uyghurs, but (about) how China is going to impact the world if we don’t speak out, if we don’t hold China accountable. Because our future generations will (face) the consequences of an illiberal world if we don’t stop the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) right now. So when voices from different communities like Tibetans, Hong Kongers, Chinese democracy activists, Muslim communities, scholars, and the lawmakers come together, it shows the world that injustice anywhere demands action everywhere.
RFA: Your book covers painful topics like detention camps, forced sterilization, and surveillance. What was the most difficult chapter for you to write and why?
Rushan Abbas: As you mentioned, all these atrocities, detention camps, forced sterilizations, forced marriages, surveillance, child abduction - all these are very difficult to reflect (on). But the last chapter was especially difficult to write. The last chapter is titled “Light of Hope” and it reflects some of the achievements we made over the past few years as an organization or as an activist. Writing about accomplishment was particularly challenging and difficult knowing that even today the reality on the ground for the Uyghur people remains unchanged. The genocide is still ongoing. I continued to speak with Uyghurs in (the) diaspora daily about the horrific experience that our people are experiencing back home. So it was difficult to write about the accomplishment achievements and to try to give hope for people while the situation is so, you know, it’s so horrible still.
RFA: You’ve been a fierce advocate on the global stage. How do you see the role of diaspora communities - not just the Uyghurs, but others in defending human rights worldwide?
Rushan Abbas: The diaspora communities have a crucial role. We carry the stories that oppressive regimes try to silence by speaking out, organizing, and building alliances. We help keep the human rights abuses on the global stage, in the global conversation, and push for accountability and freedom for all people under the brutal rule of CCP. So it’s extremely important.
RFA: With the publication of Unbroken, what specific action do you hope the international community, especially governments, will take next?
Rushan Abbas: I hope governments will move beyond just the empty words and the statements. I hope that they will start to take action by imposing sanctions on the companies who are making a profit from forced labor, and that they impose sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for these atrocities, banning products made with Uyghur slave labor; and prioritizing human rights in their foreign policy with China, whenever there’s a conversation with trade or with any kind of diplomatic engagements with China the Uyghur issue should be in the front and the center. The Uyghur people deserve to live in freedom and with full respect for their human dignity.
RFA: Transnational repression is a major theme you highlight. How have you personally experienced China’s attempts to silence you beyond its borders?
Rushan Abbas: I have faced constant harassment, attacks, death threats, and libel through online threats ... attempts to intimidate me. But the most devastating example of transnational repression is my sister’s case. Dr. Gulshan Abbas, a retired medical doctor. And she is unjustly imprisoned by the Chinese government in retaliation for my advocacy as an American citizen and exercising my freedom of speech in the United States, even though, you know, I have been living outside of China for 36 years. They still continue ... to target my sister to try to silence me by keeping her in jail. So that is the hardest example of transnational repression that I’m experiencing under China’s attempt to silence me. But they are making such a huge mistake, continuously holding my sister as a hostage, not only giving me the full strength to fight harder, but also it has been the reason for international stages, forums, and the summits and all these platforms inviting me to speak because I am a sister of the direct victim who’s in jail with fabricated false charges. So, that attempt of the Chinese government is backfiring on them. It’s not working, but it’s actually giving me more opportunities to speak.
RFA: Looking back on your decades of advocacy, what gives you the most hope today for the future of the Uyghur people?
Rushan Abbas: What gives me the most hope is the resilience of the Uyghur people and the growing global awareness and understanding that CCP is a threat to all humanity, freedom and democracy. Despite everything, our culture, our identity and our spirit endure today, and more people around the world are standing with us as more people began to recognize and understand the Chinese Communist Party’s intent to export its oppressive and authoritarian model globally.
RFA: If you could deliver one message directly to young Uyghurs who feel scared or silenced, what would it be?
Rushan Abbas: You are not alone, your voice matters. Our history, our identity, and our future lives through you. And no matter how hard the CCP tries, they cannot erase who we are. Let’s fight together with an unbroken inner strength and the spirit against the totalitarian system with all we have. Justice will prevail. We need to speak out. Unless if we speak today, then the only words left will be one of regret.
Edited by Mat Pennington.
