Washington DC [US], March 11 (ANI): The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) has strongly condemned what it described as racist and defamatory remarks made by Chinese media retailers in opposition to Japanese Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Arfiya Eri, calling the incident an instance of discrimination and transnational intimidation focusing on Uyghurs.
In a press launch, WUC said that the controversy started on February 27 when the Chinese media web site Sina.com printed remarks attacking Eri’s ethnic background. The report allegedly referred to the Japanese official as ‘frontier poison’ and ‘poisonous,’ language that the WUC stated amounted to racial abuse directed at her Uyghur heritage. The statements had been later circulated on the social media platform TikTok by the Chinese Communist Party-affiliated newspaper Global Times, additional amplifying the remarks and exposing Eri to widespread on-line hostility.
Eri, whose mother and father originate from East Turkistan, grew to become a Japanese citizen after her household obtained nationality in 1999. Before coming into politics, she labored as a tutorial and likewise served as an officer on the United Nations. In 2023, she was elected to Japan’s parliament as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, turning into the primary particular person of Uyghur origin to be elected to a nationwide parliament within the diaspora.
The WUC stated Eri has constantly labored to boost consciousness about alleged human rights violations in opposition to Uyghurs in East Turkistan and has advocated for larger worldwide consideration to the difficulty.
Responding to the remarks, the Japanese authorities lodged a proper diplomatic protest, or demarche, with China over what it described as an unprecedented insult directed at a democratically elected official.
WUC President Turgunjan Alawdun stated the incident mirrored broader discrimination confronted by Uyghurs. He said that the language utilized by Chinese media demonstrated the ‘dehumanisation’ skilled by Uyghurs below Chinese rule and linked the rhetoric to what he described as China’s wider coverage of transnational repression.
The World Uyghur Congress expressed solidarity with Eri and welcomed Tokyo’s diplomatic response. WUC additionally urged the Japanese authorities to demand a public apology from Chinese authorities and referred to as on governments worldwide to sentence racist rhetoric in worldwide discourse. (ANI)