CHINA PANEL DISCUSSIONS – Sunday 7th July

ZZIIN Stadspaleis, Javastraat 26, 2585 AN Den Haag

Three panel discussions were held on the 7th of July in The Hague, on the topics of Panel 1 Hong Kong Dissidents and Breach of Sino British Joint Declaration, Panel 2 Uyghur Persecution and whether the Uyghurs have an historic and cultural right to their own state, and Panel 3 Chinese persecution of minority separatist groups including Tibet and Southern Mongolia.

Panel 1: Hong Kong Dissidents and Breach of Sino British Joint Declaration

  • Senator Lars Göran Lindblad

    President of the Platform for European Memory & Conscience. Council of Europe rapporteur on crimes of totalitarian communist regimes.

  • Simon Chang

    Dissident and Hong Kong activist who was detained and tortured by the Chinese authorities following the umbrella movement protests in Hong Kong. He was granted asylum in the UK in 2020.

  • Patrick Poon

    China Campaigner and China Researcher for Amnesty International. Board member of Amnesty International Hong Kong and then executive secretary and board member of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre. Consultant of the Hong Kong–based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, which was disbanded under the pressure of the Hong Kong National Security Law

  • Gordon Mathews

    Expert on Hong Kong and professor of anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Mathews has written about Hong Kong's identity and the city's struggle for democracy and autonomy.

Panel 2: Uyghur Persecution and whether the Uyghurs have an historic and cultural right to their own state

  • Peter Irwin

    Associate Director for Research and Advocacy at the Uyghur Human Rights Project, Programmes Manager for the World Uyghur Congress

  • Salih Hudayar

    Foreign Minister of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile; Founder and President of the East Turkistan National Movement

  • Dr Alicia Hennig

    Expert Witness on Business Responsibility & Forced Labour in Supply Chains and China expertise in Business Ethics

  • Rushan Abbas

    Uyghur American activist and advocate from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. She is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Campaign for Uyghurs

Panel 3: Chinese persecution of minority separatist groups including Tibet and Southern Mongolia

  • Kelsang D Aukatsang

    Tibetan politician who has held senior leadership positions in the Central Tibetan Administration including Washington DC representative for the Dalai Lama and Special Advisor to the President (Sikyong) of the Central Tibetan Administration.

  • Enghebatu Togochog

    Expert and human rights activist who has created the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC). Currently he works as the Director of SMHRIC. He has spoken before the UN Forum on Minority Issues, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and US Congressional Commissions on China on human rights conditions of Southern Mongolia

  • Sheng Xue

    Chinese Canadian Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator. She has been exiled from China since her participation in the Tiannamen Square protests. Vice-‘President of the Federation for a Democractic China, a member of PEN Canada’s Writers in Exile Committee and co-founder of the China Rights Network.

  • Amy Yee

    Award winning journalist and former staff reporter and foreign correspondent for the Financial Times in New York and India. Author of “Far from the rooftop of the world, travels among tibetan refugees on four continents