Uyghur woman who complained about land grab arrested by authorities in East Turkistan

A Uyghur woman was arrested last month after she posted a video on social media complaining that authorities had seized her land in East Turkistan (Xinjiang), leaving her without means to eke out a living, the security director of her village said.

The woman, identified only as Belikiz, 35, from Astana village in Kumul, called Hami in Chinese, said authorities confiscated her land at the end of 2023 to implement a policy of “concentrating lands in the hands of authorities.”

She expressed despair over the Chinese government’s unwillingness to resolve the issue in the video on Douyin, a Chinese video-sharing platform.

“Even if the land was allocated to us by the government, we’ve invested 3-4 years cultivating it,” she says in the video. “Why won’t the government advocate for us farmers? If you doubt my words, just look at those machines tearing up our farmlands.”

“How are we supposed to sustain our livelihoods and send our children to school?” she asked. “Isn’t there a country that can support us? Is there no organization we can turn to for help?”

For years, authorities in East Turkistan (Xinjiang) have seized land and property from Uyghurs to make way for development projects run by Han Chinese migrants. Those who lose land often have little or no recourse for adequate compensation or justice because of high levels of collusion between local officials and developers.

Uyghurs complain that the migrants have displaced them from their traditional homeland and deprived them of financial opportunities under harsh Beijing rule.

Police quickly deleted the video from Douyin not long after it was uploaded and arrested Belikiz on April 15, said Astana village’s security director, who declined to be named out of fear of retribution.