Jewher Ilham, 25, is the daughter of Chinese economics professor Ilham Tohti, who was sentenced to life in prison for defending the rights of the Uyghur minority.
She came to the U.S. alone in 2013 after her father was arrested at the airport. He taught at Minzu University in Beijing until early 2014 and was the last moderate activist of the Muslim Uighurs in China.
Since his arrest, Ilham has received several prizes for her father, most recently the Sakharov Prize of the European Parliament on Wednesday. The European Parliament has been awarding the Sakharov Prize since 1988 to people or organizations that stand up for human rights and fundamental freedoms. The award is named after the late Russian dissident and physicist Andrej Sakharov and is endowed with 50,000 euros.
SPIEGEL: Ms. Ilham, the Chinese government has set up a repressive police and surveillance state in the Xinjiang region, and hundreds of thousands of Uighurs are interned. The EU Parliament has now awarded her father the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Do you think the EU is doing enough for the Uighurs?
Ilham: It's at least a start. But there is still a lot of room for improvement. I hope for further measures.
SPIEGEL: What exactly do you expect?
Ilham: It helps to publicly condemn the Chinese government's actions. But it would be even better if the EU sanctioned Chinese authorities or western governments that directly support the concentration camps. One of the reasons for their existence is that the Chinese government benefits from them. If that stopped, it would probably change Beijing's perspective. Visa restrictions for Chinese officials associated with the camps would also help. But the EU shouldn't go too far either.
SPIEGEL: What do you mean?
Ilham: It would not be ideal to punish the entire Chinese government or limit all trade relations between the EU and China. We don't want to create a problem, we want to try to solve one. Therefore, the measures should target specific products, companies or officials related to the warehouses.
SPIEGEL: Some members of the EU Parliament are already calling for the import of products from the warehouses into the EU to be prohibited. But is there any way to reliably identify them?
Ilham: There are lists of companies that export products from the concentration camps. Most factories in the Xinjiang region are designed for labor camps anyway. The EU could also help victims directly. Those released from the camps no longer want to live in China and find a home elsewhere. And those who have already left China usually have one to ten family members locked up in camps. Many of them are severely traumatized and suffer from psychological problems. The EU could offer them much-needed help.
Frederick Florin / AFP
Ilham in the EU Parliament with a portrait of her father (with EU Parliament President David-Maria Sassoli)
SPIEGEL: The Chinese government calls the camps "re-education centers," and you call them concentration camps.
Ilham: I know that the term is reminiscent of the Holocaust and the death of millions of Jews. And I keep hearing that what is happening in China is nothing compared to what happened in Europe in the 1940s. But the Holocaust didn't happen in one day, it escalated over the years. And China is already experiencing cultural and ethnic genocide. A culture, a religion and a language are destroyed. And people are killed and tortured in the camps. Survivors report that their fingernails were ripped out, raped, and their children killed. I hope things don't end as tragically as they did in Europe during the Nazi era, but they're tragic enough.
SPIEGEL: In your speech to the EU Parliament, you said: "History repeats itself. It didn't end well before, and it won't end well now."
more on the subject
Ilham: I have used this to refer to every human rights violation in history, of which the European Holocaust is only one. In China, for example, people suffered massive human rights violations during the so-called Great Leap Forward. None of these events turned out well, they did not help anyone, but harmed people and governments. I really hope that the Chinese government learns from historical mistakes and changes its actions.
SPIEGEL: You say that the Chinese government hacked your phone, among other things. Have you taken any other action?
Ilham: Hacking cell phones and laptops is nothing new. Even before I came to the United States, there were massive interventions in our private lives. My father's phone and computer were often hacked. I could now simply say: I have nothing to hide, should I hack my cell phone because of me. But that's not the question - there should simply be no such violation of privacy. Fortunately, I have not yet been personally targeted. But I'm afraid for my family who is still in China. I'm the only one who made it out.