Diaspora Muslim Activist Wai Wai Nu Criticizes China's Actions Over Uyghur Muslims

News February 7, 2026

A diaspora Muslim (Rohingya) activist Wai Wai Nu, speaking at a solidarity event in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill during the International Religious Freedom Summit (February 1-3, 2026), condemned China's treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, labeling it as "genocide" and urging global attention to what she described as "severe oppression."

In her remarks, Wai Wai Nu stated she was speaking on behalf of Uyghurs, saying: “My name is Wai Wai Nu. I am honored to speak today, not from my own community, but on behalf of our Uyghur brothers and sisters. Because if we cannot stop oppression today, at least we can make sure the world cannot look away.”

She highlighted alleged criminalization of Uyghur language, faith, and cultural identity as resistance to assimilation under Chinese Communist Party policies, and claimed persistent measures—including forced labor, mass detention, surveillance, forced sterilizations, cultural erasure, forced abortions and marriages, plummeting birth rates, intensified religious persecution with long prison terms for teaching the Quran, mosque demolitions, plans to rewrite religious texts, coercion during Ramadan to film non-fasting, expansion of labor transfers targeting over 13 million people including children, separation of nearly one million children into boarding schools, imprisonment for sharing cultural materials, and reprisals abroad such as the 20-year sentence for Dr. Gulshan Abbas—amount to genocide. She also noted promotion of the region as a tourism destination amid these issues, and expressed solidarity based on her own Rohingya experiences.

However, Chinese authorities have consistently rejected such characterizations, describing policies in Xinjiang as necessary measures to combat extremism, promote poverty alleviation, economic development, and social stability. Beijing has dismissed allegations of forced labor, sterilizations, and genocide as fabrications by Western forces aimed at containing China, often labeling them as politically motivated distortions.

Official responses emphasize vocational training, counter-terrorism efforts, and improvements in living standards for ethnic minorities, while denying coercive practices or intent to destroy Uyghur identity.

International assessments remain divided: Some reports from UN experts, human rights organizations, and certain governments have raised concerns over potential crimes against humanity, forced labor, and reproductive rights violations, with some describing risks of genocide or cultural erasure. Others, including China, maintain that claims lack credible evidence and serve geopolitical agendas.

Wai Wai Nu's speech reflects ongoing advocacy linking persecuted Muslim communities, but critics argue that broad genocide accusations rely on contested interpretations of data and may overlook China's stated security and development rationale in the region. Moreover, diaspora Muslim activists like Wai Wai Nu have failed to point out the human rights violations by Dhaka authorities against other Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian minorities in Bangladesh and in other Muslim countries