Rushan Abbas

Abbas introduced and led the "One Voice One Step" Uyghur Women's movement; an organized demonstration that took place on March 15, 2018, in 14 countries and 18 cities on the same day to protest China’s detention of millions of Uyghurs in concentration camps. The countries the One Voice One Step protests were held are the USA, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, France, Finland, and Japan. The demonstrations demanded that the international community take action and close the concentration camps where more than one million Uyghurs were detained at the time of the protests. Uyghurs in the diaspora have lost all contact with their family members and friends believed to have vanished into the camps. The One Voice One Step movement drew substantial attention from international media and emphasized the urgent situation the Uyghurs were facing.[11]

On September 5, 2018, Rushan Abbas participated on a panel discussion named "China's "War on Terrorism" and the Xinjiang Emergency".[12] Abbas talked about the fate of her in-laws and conditions of China’s camps.  Six days later, Abbas’s sister and aunt were both detained by the Chinese government as retaliation for her speech at Hudson Institute.[13]

Abbas believes that her sister is being held as hostage as retaliation for her activism in the United States.[14][15] She quit her regular job and became a full-time activist on the one year anniversary date of her sister’s abduction.[16] Abbas has been advocating for Uyghur people's rights, regularly appearing on media outlets and giving public speeches in universities and forums, traveling around the world, speaking publicly to raise awareness and draw attention to the Uyghur cause.[17]

Senator Marco Rubio and Abbas in the reception hall before attending the SOTU speech by the president

Abbas was invited to attend the U.S. President’s State of the Union Speech as Senator Marco Rubio's guest on February 4, 2020. In a Press Release by Senator Rubio's office stated "I’m honored to host and welcome Rushan Abbas and Lt. Governor Jeanette Núñez as my guests for tomorrow’s State of the Union address, a great tradition of our nation’s democracy," Rubio said. "Rushan is a leading voice in the defense of Uyghurs’ human rights. As a result of her work, her sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, was believed to have been forcibly disappeared and detained in a camp in Xinjiang. As the Founder and Executive Director of Campaign for Uyghurs, Rushan has tirelessly raised awareness of the atrocities taking place in Xinjiang at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party".[14]

Articles published by the Global Times, a daily tabloid newspaper under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party's claims that Rushan Abbas is a member of an East Turkistan separatist group. With her supposed agenda of tainting the "CCP’s policy in the Xinjiang region," Abbas was condemned for stealing photos and information of Uyghurs and falsely claiming them to be her missing family members. This is referring to her demands on the CCP releasing her sister Dr. Gulshan Abbas,[16] who has been missing since the 11th of September, 2018. On December 25th, 2020, the family of Rushan Abbas heard from undisclosed sources that her sister Dr. Gulshan Abbas was sentenced to 20 years with a secret trial in March 2019. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) and Campaign For Uyghurs jointly hold a Press Conference on December 30 in the afternoon. Dr. Gulshan Abbas was later confirmed to have been sent to jail by China's foreign minister Wang Wenbin. Who said, "Gulshan Abbas has been sentenced according to the law by Chinese judicial organs for taking part in organized terrorism, aiding terrorist activities and seriously disrupting social order." No further details about her charges have been given.[18]

On June 4, at the commemoration of the Tiananmen incident, speaker Nancy Pelosi is listening to Abbas' personal story connecting to China's re-education camps

U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy on April 9, 019 ARIA in Action, Part 1: Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law | United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Rushan Abbas ends her written testimony by stating: "China should be held accountable for its actions. If we fail to challenge Communist China on this terrible atrocity with the determination to stop it, it would be the beginning of darkness for accountable democracies as authoritarian governments effectively utilize mass surveillance and repression to instill fear at home and abroad, depressing actions even within the free world that we enjoy today. If we do not act soon, China’s debt trap tactics, expansion of its BRI, and provision of 5G technology to the West will position China to treat the entire world’s population according to its vision for Xinjiang, utilizing the West’s technology for mass surveillance and individualized threats for far more than even ignoring the re-emergence of concentration camps. Just look at what the people of East Turkestan are facing right now and imagine the life and world that you are leaving behind for your children and grandchildren if you do not act to stop it now."

US House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (Committee on Oversight and Reform) Joint Hearing: "Ending Global Religious Persecution." On January 27, 2020 "Ending Global Religious Persecution." | Committee Repository | U.S. House of Representatives. Rushan Abbas gave a powerful testimony by saying: "Now, the Chinese regime decided to destroy Uyghurs as an ethnic race. In order to do that, they began by eradicating their religion completely. First, religious scholars and community leaders were forced into concentration camps and their works were destroyed. No matter how the Chinese government tried in the past, to eliminate Uyghur Muslims’ cultural and religious heritage, the Uyghur people never lost their ties with their religion and culture. On the contrary, their loyalty was strengthened even more. These strong ties have been the primary target of the communist regime, now. The Islamic faith, which holds society together, has been presented to the world as the danger of separatism and terrorism, by the Chinese government. With the government’s attack on religion and their so-called “De-extremism” regulations, the practice of Islam is totally outlawed. Group reading of the Quran, teaching Islam to children, Islamic names for children, speaking about Islam, having or reading Islamic literature, wearing religious clothing, watching religious videos, or advocating Islam in any sense is a crime that is punishable with harsh imprisonment or a long and painful, so-called ‘re-education’ in ‘The Vocational Training Centers’, in reality, concentration camps.

US Congressional-Executive Committee on China, Roundtable on "Global Supply Chains, Forced Labor, and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region" on March 11, 2020 Global Supply Chains, Forced Labor, and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region | Congressional-Executive Commission on China

US Ways and Means Committee and Trade Subcommittee (116th Congress) Hearing on "Enforcing the Ban on Imports Produced by Forced Labor in Xinjiang" on September 17, 2020.