Send us a text

In this episode of Dictators v Democrats: Why We Fight, we speak with Mamatjan Juma, a veteran Uyghur journalist and one of the most important voices documenting China’s repression in Xinjiang.

For nearly two decades, Juma reported for Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service, helping to expose the reality of mass internment, forced labour, family separation and the systematic erasure of Uyghur identity. His reporting was among the first to bring credible, source-based evidence of the camps to the outside world — long before governments were willing to name them for what they were.

That work came at a devastating personal cost. Like many Uyghur journalists, Juma has seen members of his own family targeted by the Chinese state, a reminder that authoritarian power does not stop at borders and does not distinguish between professional reporting and collective punishment.

We discuss how independent Uyghur journalism has survived under extraordinary pressure, how Beijing wages transnational repression against exiled journalists, and why the closure of trusted outlets makes new initiatives like the Uyghur News Network more vital than ever.

This conversation is not only about Xinjiang. It is about truth under dictatorship, the fragility of press freedom, and what democracies lose when crimes against humanity are allowed to fade into the background noise of global politics.

Episode bullet points

• Who Mamatjan Juma is and why his journalism matters
• How early Uyghur-language reporting exposed the internment camps
• The personal cost of reporting on Xinjiang from exile
• China’s use of intimidation, surveillance and family punishment
• Transnational repression beyond China’s borders
• The collapse of legacy platforms and the rise of new Uyghur media
• How journalists verify information under total state control
• What democracies risk by looking away from Xinjiang

Support the show