Munich [Germany], May 10 : The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) has issued its latest weekly brief, warning that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is intensifying its campaign of repression in Xinjiang while much of the democratic world remains either complicit or silent. One of the most alarming disclosures in the brief involves Harvard University's TH Chan School of Public Health, which hosted executive training programs in 2023 and 2024 for members of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC). According to the brief, the XPCC--commonly referred to as the "Bingtuan"--is a US-sanctioned paramilitary and economic entity that has played a central role in Beijing's policies of forced assimilation, mass surveillance, internment camps, and state-orchestrated forced labour targeting the Uyghur population.
The WUC argued that Harvard's engagement with XPCC officials effectively legitimises a group at the heart of a system the U.S. government has formally designated as engaging in genocide. According to the brief, Uyghur human rights advocates described the university's cooperation as "academic complicity in crimes against humanity."
The brief also highlighted a major setback for Uyghur media and freedom of information: the shutdown of Radio Free Asia's Uyghur service, which was attributed to a Trump-era funding freeze. The WUC stated that nearly 90 per cent of RFA staff had been laid off, severely limiting independent reporting on Chinese state repression in the region. "We've gone completely dark," said Mamatjan Juma, former director of RFA's Uyghur service, as quoted in the brief. He warned that the information vacuum is rapidly being filled by Chinese state propaganda and disinformation campaigns.
Despite these challenges, the WUC noted positive developments on the international front. The organisation welcomed the election of Friedrich Merz as Germany's new Chancellor, expressing hope that Berlin would demonstrate renewed leadership on global human rights. The brief also reported that US Representative Chris Smith hosted a press conference in support of HR 1503, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act. The proposed legislation targets what Smith and others described as the CCP's "industrial-scale organ harvesting" from Uyghurs, Falun Gong practitioners, and other prisoners of conscience. In a final appeal, the WUC called on newly elected Pope Leo XIV to take a moral stand and publicly condemn the Chinese government's atrocities.