--- description: The Uighur journalists believe their family members are being punished because of their work at RFA, a U.S. government-funded news service title: U.S. Journalists Say China Has Detained Their Relatives image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbab0e58402f9a23a/6989293bdb29875e4c25eed9/gettyimages-647035506.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [China](/tag/china/) ## China Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # China Has Detained the Relatives of Four U.S. Journalists, Report Says by [Laignee Barron](/author/laignee-barron/) ## Laignee Barron Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 1, 2018 5:37 AM CUT  This photo taken on Feb. 27, 2017 shows Chinese military police attending an anti-terrorist oath-taking rally in Hetian, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. This photo taken on Feb. 27, 2017 shows Chinese military police attending an anti-terrorist oath-taking rally in Hetian, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.STR/AFP/Getty Images by [Laignee Barron](/author/laignee-barron/) ## Laignee Barron Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 1, 2018 5:37 AM CUT China has detained the relatives of [four U.S.-based journalists](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/china-detains-relatives-of-us-reporters-in-apparent-punishment-for-xinjiang-coverage/2018/02/27/4e8d84ae-1b8c-11e8-8a2c-1a6665f59e95%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.e52f3c0fe10c "undefined") in an apparent retaliatory crackdown that marks the latest in hostilities against members of the press who cover the restive Muslim-majority Xinjiang region, the Washington _Post_ reports. Four ethnic Uighur journalists with Radio Free Asia in Washington D.C. have reported their relatives disappeared or detained. Shohret Hoshur, Gulchehra Hoja, Mamatjan Juma, and Kurban Niyaz believe their family members, including elderly parents, are being punished because of their work at the U.S. government-funded news service, which offers among the only independent sources of information on the tightly repressed Xinjiang province. Three of the four journalists are U.S. citizens, while the third is a green card holder, according to the _Post_. Hoja, who has worked for RFA for 17 years, said she’s been told that around 20 of her family members have been in and out of detention because of her reporting. [In a statement](https://justpaste.it/1hgr4 "undefined") posted last week, Hoja said her brother, Kaisar Keyum, was taken into police custody in October. She lost contact with her elderly and sick parents in February. “My father is paralyzed on one side and needs a constant care. My mother has recently had a surgery on her feet and is very weak,” she wrote.”They have not committed any crime.” Hoshur’s three brothers are in prison, as is at least one of Juma’s brothers, while the other is missing, according to the _Post_ and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Niyaz’s brother was reportedly jailed on a charge of “holding ethnic hatred” in May 2017, [according](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/china-detains-relatives-of-us-reporters-in-apparent-punishment-for-xinjiang-coverage/2018/02/27/4e8d84ae-1b8c-11e8-8a2c-1a6665f59e95%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.4bd3db859324 "undefined") to the _Post_. CPJ said [in a statement](https://cpj.org/2018/02/china-detains-relatives-of-rfa-uighur-service-jour.php "undefined") that it was alarmed that at least nine relatives of the RFA journalists remain in detention or are missing. “Punishing family members of journalists beyond the reach of the Chinese government is a cruel, if not barbaric, tactic,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler. “The Chinese government should immediately account for these people’s health, whereabouts, and legal status and set them free.” China regards the heavily repressed northwest region as a hotbed of separatists and has detained thousands of ethnic Uighurs in an extra-judicial network of political re-education centers, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has [found](http://time.com/5176992/china-data-uighurs-repression-xinjiang/ "undefined"). According to a HRW report released Tuesday, authorities there have rolled out a [draconian policing program](https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/26/china-big-data-fuels-crackdown-minority-region "undefined") called the “Integrated Joint Operations Platform” that combines facial-recognition surveillance and a minutely detailed tracking system to predict a citizen’s political risk. **Read more:**[_China Is Using Big Data to Repress its Muslim Uighur Population, a Rights Group Says_](http://time.com/5176992/china-data-uighurs-repression-xinjiang/ "undefined") Since 2016, the _Minority Report_\-esque system has aggregated data about the 10 million Uighurs — down to the number of books in their possession — and flagged anyone it deems a potential security threat, HRW said. “Arbitrary mass surveillance and detention are Orwellian political tools; China should abandon use of them and release all those held in political education centers immediately,” said Maya Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch and the report’s author. She added that officials appear to be planning on deploying similar, cloud-based policing system in other parts of the country. In a statement to the _Post_, the U.S. State Department called on China to cease policies that restrict the right to freedom of religion, and urged the release of “all prisoners of conscience.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5180483/uighurs-journalists-crackdown-china/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5180483/uighurs-journalists-crackdown-china/"},"headline":"China Has Detained the Relatives of Four U.S. Journalists, Report Says","datePublished":"2018-03-01T05:37:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:28:53.686Z","description":"At least nine relatives of the RFA journalists are reportedly in detention or missing","url":"https://time.com/5180483/uighurs-journalists-crackdown-china/","keywords":["China","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbab0e58402f9a23a/6989293bdb29875e4c25eed9/gettyimages-647035506.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laignee Barron","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laignee-barron/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbab0e58402f9a23a/6989293bdb29875e4c25eed9/gettyimages-647035506.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"CHINA-SECURITY-RELIGION-UNREST-IS-UIGHUR","caption":"CHINA-SECURITY-RELIGION-UNREST-IS-UIGHUR","creditText":"STR/AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/china/","name":"China"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5180483/uighurs-journalists-crackdown-china/","name":"China Has Detained the Relatives of Four U.S. Journalists, Report Says"}}]}] ```