Rushan Abbas doesn't hold back when it comes to speaking out about the inhumane repression of her people by the Chinese government.
The US-based activist founded Campaign for Uyghurs in 2017 to advocate and mobilise the international Uighur Muslim diaspora to act against the “relentless destruction of its culture and suppression of ethnic minorities in China.”
“The Chinese Community Party acts under the pretext that we are extremists, they have created a complete police state where as many as three million innocent people are in modern-day concentration camps,” she tells SBS News on a visit to Sydney.
The UN estimates at least one million people have been locked up in internment camps in Xinjiang. Other reports claim the number could be much higher.
The 51-year-old, who has been meeting with the Uighur community in Australia this week, as well as parliamentarians, says all Australians can help simply by spreading the word.
“It's really nice to see the support and I urge people to keep raising awareness of what's happening," she says.
"Talk to your colleagues and communities, talk to your churches.”
“Most importantly, contact your representatives and politicians to put pressure on the Chinese government.”
Personal pain
For Ms Abbas, her work is personal.
Her sister and aunt were both abducted six days after she spoke out about the struggle facing Uighurs in Xinjiang at an event in Washington in late 2018.
Her aunt was released several months later but Ms Abbas has been unable to communicate with her.
Dr Gulshan Abbas has been missing in Xinjiang, China, for 15 months. Source: SBS News
Ms Abbas still has no idea where her older sister, Dr Gulshan Abbas, is - or if she’s even alive.
“They live about 1,400 kilometres away from each other, but they both got picked up on the same day by authorities," she says.
“I can clearly say that was retaliation for my activism in the United States as an American citizen under my constitutional rights.
“The Chinese government is using our family members back home as hostages to silence advocacy work abroad, but I’ll keep doubling and tripling my efforts until her safe return and the end of this mass incarceration.
"It's been 15 months since she was abducted but the Chinese government cannot silence me."
China has previously said allegations made by Uighur activists about the mistreatment of minorities in Xinjiang are "baseless".
Ms Abbas wants Australia to toughen its stance on the Chinese government through trade. Source: SBS News
The Chinese embassy in the UK said last month's secret cables revealing China's mass detention camps were “pure fabrication and fake news”.
The statement also said religious freedom and the personal freedom of detainees was "fully respected" in Xinjiang.
Economic pressure
Labelling the detention of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities as a “mass atrocity,” Ms Abbas hit out at western countries including Australia for being "weak" in the face of ongoing human rights abuses by Beijing.
“There has been a lot of talk but what we really need to see is firm action."
“Australia is one of China’s biggest trading partners. Politicians here should use trade as leverage to bring up its human rights record, it's the only way.”
Ms Abbas called for Australia to push forward with its own version of the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 bipartisan US bill, initially aimed at punishing the Russian government officials responsible for the death of an accountant in a Moscow prison.
The law permits the US to impose travel bans on human rights offenders and freeze their assets.
Earlier this month, the Australian government announced a parliamentary inquiry into establishing comparable legislation.
Such legislation has already gained support from Labor senator Kimberley Kitching and Liberal senator James Paterson.
Mr Abbas has also set her sights on pushing for China to be stripped of hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics.
"It's supposed to be a celebration of unity and differences of people and culture, so how can a country holding up to three million people in incarceration because of their ethnicity and their religion and race qualify for such a privilege?"
