Dissident Spotlight: Ilham Tohti
Ilham Tohti supported co-existence between Uyghurs and Han-Chinese. The Chinese government accused him of separatism and sentenced him to life in prison.

Central Asia and eastern China used to be the center of the world. From about 800 to 1200, Central Asia underwent an Enlightenment that laid the groundwork for Europe’s Enlightenment in the 1700s. Since the Central Asian Enlightenment, the Uyghurs have been in the area of rich cultural and intellectual exchange between Central Asia and China.
Today, the Uyghurs are in a province of western China, Xinjiang and the Enlightenment has long since ended. Xi Jinping views the Uyghurs as an obstacle to a unified China instead of a people with a rich history over 1,000 years old.
In 2014, Jinping detained Ilham Tohti, an economist and writer who the Chinese government had harassed for almost a decade. He founded Uyghurbiz.org, a site dedicated to intellectual exchanges between Uyghurs and Han Chinese. Tohti hoped it could be a platform for resolving misunderstandings and ethnic tensions. Instead, it put a target on his back from one of the world’s most dangerous and effective authoritarians.
Clashes Between Uyghurs and Han Chinese
Deng Xiaoping briefly tried to liberalize China in the 1980s. His economic reforms outlived him and made China the economic superpower it is today. However, the respite from severe harassment that Xioping’s reforms offered for minorities in China did not last.
From the 1990s to the 2010s, Xinjiang was an area torn by ethnic conflict. It came to a head in 2009 when deadly riots broke out after Uyghur men were falsely accused of raping a Han Chinese woman. The riots would go on to target Han Chinese.
Even after the riots, Tohti was alarmed at worsening relations between Uyghurs and Han Chinese. He wrote:
“As a Uighur intellectual, I strongly sense that the great rift of distrust between the Uighur and Han societies is getting worse each day, especially within the younger generation. Unemployment and discrimination along ethnic lines have caused widespread animosity. The discord did not explode and dissipate along with the July 5 incident and during subsequent social interactions. Instead, it has started to build up once again.”
“The situation is getting gradually worse. Yet, fewer and fewer people dare to speak out. Since 1997, the primary government objective in the region has been to combat the “three evil forces”[terrorism, separatism and religious extremism]. Its indirect effect is that Uighur cadres and intellectuals feel strongly distrusted and the political atmosphere is oppressive.”
Uyghur Genocide and Tohti’s Imprisonment
Crackdowns against supposed separatists and terrorists were nothing new in Xinjiang. During the 1990s, a Uyghur terrorist movement was active, but many Uyghur organizations rejected terrorism. The Chinese government saw no difference between Uyghurs who supported and rejected terrorism, so the police targeted the whole community.
Under Jinping, the repression became genocidal. He is responsible for rounding up Uyghurs in “reeducation” camps where Chinese police:
Tortured them
Sterilized them
Committed them to forced labor
Indoctrinated them with pro-China and pro-Jinping thought
Led mass rape campaigns
Jinping has one idea for who is Chinese, and it does not include the Uyghurs. He uses facial recognition technology to track Uyghurs who aren’t imprisoned and monitors the movements of dissidents who threaten his hold on power.
If multiple cultures are allowed to flourish in China, then Jinping’s worldview isn’t the only one that could be correct. By eliminating the Uyghurs altogether, Jinping is securing his hold on power by making him and his perspective the only one that can direct China’s future.
Tohti’s Arrest and Imprisonment
Tohti is part of PEN America’s writers at risk database. According to PEN America:
“After being prevented from leaving the country in 2013, his formal detention came in February 2014, and Tohti was charged with separatism and held incommunicado under inhumane treatment for months before he could meet his lawyer. On September 23, 2014, he was found guilty of “separatism,” and is currently serving a life sentence. He has been incarcerated incommunicado since 2017, with no access to his family or his lawyers.”
Tohti remained a peaceful man who was dedicated to overcoming ethnic divisions through dialogue rather than force. It was the same attitude that allowed Enlightenment writers to thrive during the Central Asian and European Enlightenments.
Tohti remains imprisoned to this day, an ordinary man dedicated to living peacefully alongside his neighbors. His determination to bridge ethnic divides represents the tolerance embraced by Enlightenment figures like Voltaire and al-Farabi.
In contrast, Jinping’s repression is the cowardice of tyrants who can’t imagine a world that doesn’t need them.