Justice For All’s Save Uyghur Campaign Condemns Princeton University Press Director’s Participation in Chinese Propaganda Tour of Occupied East Turkistan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, D.C  – July 3, 2025

Justice For All’s Save Uyghur Campaign strongly condemns the participation of Princeton University Press (PUP) Director Christie Henry in a recent state-sponsored propaganda tour of Chinese-occupied East Turkistan.

Clips of Henry’s remarks were featured prominently in a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) media package published by state-run platforms such as Xinjiang Daily, and widely circulated on social media channels affiliated with the Chinese government. In the edited footage, Henry is shown praising Kashgar as “a magical place” where “cultures can peacefully co-exist in harmony,” expressing hope to help “tell this story to the rest of the world.”

This message, paired with carefully staged footage of dancing Uyghurs in colorful costumes, parrots standard CCP propaganda that aims to whitewash ongoing atrocities in East Turkistan. It feeds a false narrative that everything in “Xinjiang” is peaceful, diverse, and harmonious, while millions of Uyghurs remain in prisons or re-education camps, and countless others endure surveillance, forced labor, family separation, and cultural erasure.

“We are deeply disappointed that a respected institution like Princeton University has allowed itself to be used to legitimize the Chinese government’s repression of Uyghurs,” said Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, President of Justice For All. “This is not cultural exchange. This is propaganda. And it helps the Chinese state normalize what the U.S. government has rightly labeled as genocide.”

The delegation from PUP was invited as part of a “Special Book Award of China” cultural tour, sponsored by the China National Publications Import and Export Group (CNPIEC). According to PUP’s own public statement, the entire trip was accompanied by state and regional media. That footage was then edited into messaging designed to discredit international reporting on the Uyghur crisis and suggest that Uyghurs are content and free. In reality, the CCP continues to imprison intellectuals, suppress the Uyghur language, and silence dissent.

“We’ve seen this Potemkin show before,” said Arslan Hidayat, Team Lead of the Save Uyghur Campaign. “The government flies in foreigners, shows them renovated tourist sites, and surrounds them with state-approved performers. Then they film the visitors saying how beautiful everything is, and use it to deny the very real suffering of the Uyghur people. What makes this worse is that it’s coming from a press that once published The War on the Uyghurs. This isn’t just disappointing, it’s betrayal.”

The Save Uyghur Campaign acknowledges PUP’s statement expressing regret that tour footage was “repurposed and mis-contextualized.” However, this admission does not undo the damage caused by lending credibility to a regime engaged in systemic crimes against humanity.

We call on:

• Princeton University Press to issue a full clarification and public apology for participating in a state propaganda tour.
• U.S. academic institutions and publishers to adopt clear ethical guidelines when engaging with Chinese state entities, especially regarding visits to occupied regions.
• Scholars and readers to continue demanding transparency and accountability from publishers that collaborate with authoritarian regimes.

Justice For All’s Save Uyghur Campaign remains committed to exposing the truth about the Chinese government’s ongoing occupation of East Turkistan and its repression of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples.

Contact Information: Hena Zuberi, Director Of Advocacy
Email: hena@justiceforall.org.  Phone: 202-908-JUST
Website: https://www.justiceforall.org/save-uighur/