Police record of a college president’s death, Mandarin contracts in Kashgar, Thai groups press on two Uyghur men
Közet’s daily roundup of news on Uyghurs, their homeland, and the world around them. Monday, November 2, 2026. This edition covers Saturday, October 31, through Monday morning.
TOP LINE
Urumqi police briefing records death of college president who led “two-faced people” campaign. A Közet investigation published Monday reconstructs the record of Weli Tursun, president of Xinjiang Light Industry Vocational Technical College in Urumqi. College publications show him announcing a campaign against what officials called “two-faced people,” meaning staff suspected of disloyalty, at a flag-raising ceremony on March 5, 2018. An Urumqi Public Security Bureau briefing dated July 3, 2018, which Közet has read, says he died on June 13, 2018, at 53, and attributes the death to pressure over his family and work; it says his younger sister had been detained in his home area. The briefing comes from the Urumqi police database reported by The Intercept in 2021 and was identified and supplied by the Xinjiang Victims Database, whose founder sits on the board of Uyghur Monitor Inc., Közet’s publisher. Közet has not independently confirmed the death or authenticated the briefing. The college, the regional education department, the Urumqi police and the Chinese Embassy in Washington had not answered written questions by publication. (Közet, November 2)
HOMELAND
Kashgar awards 788,600 yuan Mandarin promotion contract. A notice posted Monday on the Finance Ministry’s China Government Procurement Network records the Kashgar city party committee’s organization department awarding 788,600 yuan to Guangzhou Xibao Education Technology Co. (广州习宝教育科技有限公司) to plan and run a “Bazaar Challenge” promoting what the notice calls the “national common language,” meaning Mandarin. The contract sits under a project the notice titles “integrated ideological and political education.” It is the project’s second tender round; services run from contract signing to the end of November. (China Government Procurement Network, November 2)
Regional broadcaster to train 500 rural women in Mandarin. An award notice posted Friday evening names Xinjiang Radio and Television, the regional government broadcaster, as supplier for an 880,000 yuan project of the regional Women’s Federation, a party-led mass organization. The notice describes in-person training in what it calls the “national common spoken and written language” for 500 rural women aged 18 to 45 in Bayingholin (Bayingol), Qizilsu (Kizilsu), Kashgar and Hotan (Hetian), including village Women’s Federation chairs, committee members and women the notice calls “leaders in getting rich.” The service period is one year from contract signing. (China Government Procurement Network, October 31)
Yarkent seeks 3.61 million yuan in equipment for “civilization practice” stations. The Yarkent (Shache) county party propaganda department issued a second-round open tender Saturday for a project its title describes as “Shanghai-assisted” and devoted to “Chinese cultural symbols and the image of the Chinese nation.” The tender document, which Közet has read, sets a budget and price ceiling of 3,606,334 yuan and lists virtual-reality “science rooms,” projection systems for “Chinese classical studies rooms,” electronic reading machines and two artificial-intelligence chess robots for “new era civilization practice” stations in three townships, with delivery within 45 days of contract. Bids close November 24 at 11 a.m. Beijing time. (China Government Procurement Network, October 31; tender document, pages 4 and 40 to 44)
Mining rights for Bay zircon deposit to be sold. Zhu Yilin, chief engineer of the regional Department of Natural Resources, said the department would “soon organize” a public transfer of mining rights to the Yuhai (宇海) zircon deposit in Bay (Baicheng), Aksu prefecture, Beijing Daily, the Beijing party committee’s newspaper, reported Saturday. The Ministry of Natural Resources said a September expert review put the reserves at the equivalent of “more than 40 large zircon deposits,” CCTV Finance, the state broadcaster’s business channel, reported. The deposit is not new: the regional department listed it among its 2025 geological prospecting awards in a notice posted January 4. (Beijing Daily, October 31; CCTV Finance via China News Service, a state news agency, October 31; Xinjiang Department of Natural Resources, January 4)
Xinjiang University hosts symposium on “red culture.” More than 100 scholars, teachers and graduate students attended a symposium at Xinjiang University on Saturday under the theme “continuing the red lineage,” China News Service reported. Sessions covered revolutionary sites, what organizers call “forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation” and the traditions of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC). Participants recommended “literary works, short videos and cultural products” and “red culture tourism” brands to spread the material, Xinjiang Daily, the regional party committee’s newspaper, reported. (China News Service, October 31; Xinjiang Daily via Aksu News, the prefectural news site, October 31)
DIASPORA
World Uyghur Congress presses EU after U.S. lists three BGI companies. The World Uyghur Congress, an advocacy group, said Friday that the European Union should “follow the example set by the United States” after the Department of Homeland Security added BGI Genomics Co., MGI Tech Co. and Shenzhen BGI Technology Co., also known as BGI Group, to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List in a notice filed October 28 and published in the Federal Register on October 29. The notice, which Közet has read, says the government has “reasonable cause to believe” the two BGI companies conduct genetic testing in the region “alongside the XUAR government” and that MGI Tech “has provisioned genetic testing capacity” to it. MGI Tech said the allegations were inconsistent with the facts and that it has “zero tolerance for forced labor in any form,” Reuters reported; China’s Ministry of Commerce said Thursday the United States was “placing Chinese biomedical technology enterprises on a sanctions list” over China’s objections. WUC president Turgunjan Alawdun called the listing “a very positive step by the United States.” The group also criticized the European Parliament’s trade committee delegation, which visited Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai on October 27 to 29, saying its press release “made no mention of Uyghur forced labour”; the parliament’s October 29 release, which Közet has read, lists market access, subsidies, supply chains, critical raw materials and industrial overcapacity as the topics discussed. (World Uyghur Congress, October 30; Federal Register, October 29; Reuters, October 28; Ministry of Commerce, October 29; European Parliament, October 29)
Advocacy groups urge Canada to pair import ban with due-diligence law. Anti-Slavery International, a British advocacy group, and the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, a Canadian advocacy group, published a policy brief dated October urging Canada to combine an import prohibition with mandatory human-rights due diligence, confidential complaints and remedies for workers, using the Uyghur region and electric-vehicle supply chains as its case study. The brief, which Közet has read, recommends shifting the evidentiary burden after a forced-labour finding and publishing enforcement decisions. It addresses Bill C-35, the Ban on Importing Goods Made with Forced Labour Act, which the Minister of Foreign Affairs introduced June 12 and which awaits second reading in the House of Commons. (Anti-Slavery International and URAP, October 2026; LEGISinfo, Parliament of Canada)
INTERNATIONAL
Thai rights networks urge government not to return two Uyghur men to China. Three Thai refugee and migrant rights networks, the Coalition for the Rights of Refugees and Stateless Persons, the Migrant Working Group and the Thailand Migration Reform Consortium, said in a joint statement that two Uyghur men held at Bangkok’s Suan Phlu immigration detention center had told their lawyers they did not consent to return to China, Közet reported Saturday. The men were among more than 300 Uyghurs detained in southern Thailand in March 2014, served more than six years for a 2020 escape and were moved to immigration custody after a royal pardon; they were transferred on October 21, and the networks say their lawyers have not been allowed to see them since. Kannavee Suebsang, a former member of parliament, wrote on Facebook that China approached the Foreign Ministry in late August seeking the return of five Uyghur men then held in Klong Prem prison and that the issue “may be among” items at a coming National Security Council meeting. The Office of the National Security Council acknowledged Közet’s written questions and gave no answer. (Közet, October 31)
MEDIA WATCH
Beijing organizes a week of coordinated reporting from the region. The Central Propaganda Department, with the Central United Front Work Department and the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, launched a reporting campaign in Urumqi on Sunday that runs through November 7, Xinhua, the state news agency, reported. Teams from central, industry, “aid-Xinjiang” provincial and local media will travel three routes with stops Xinhua lists in Ili (Yili), Turpan (Tulufan) and Kashgar, visiting communities, villages, orchards, enterprises and schools. Xinhua states the purpose as to “tell well the story of the Chinese national community.” (Xinhua, November 1)
Hong Kong newspaper profiles coal-mine worker in Kucha. Hong Kong Commercial Daily, a newspaper controlled by the state-owned Shenzhen Press Group and Beijing’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong, published a profile Monday of a woman from the region who attended high school in Zhengzhou and now works in the dispatch room of the Yushuquan coal mine in Kucha (Kuqa), operated by China Pingmei Shenma Group. The article credits her managers with mentoring, company housing and road improvements and quotes her saying “ethnic unity” is “not a slogan” but daily work. (Hong Kong Commercial Daily, November 2)
ON THE RADAR
November 2 to 9: Yarkent tender documents available on the Zhengcaiyun platform; bids close November 24 at 11 a.m. Beijing time. (China Government Procurement Network)
Through November 7: Coverage from the Central Propaganda Department’s organized reporting tour of the region. (Xinhua)
November 12, Berlin, 4 to 6 p.m.: Roundtable “Uyghur Rights Beyond China’s Borders: Transnational Repression in the Shadow of the Ethnic Unity Law” at the Taipei Representative Office, which the Coalition Against Transnational Repression in Germany says the World Uyghur Congress will host. (Berlin Freedom Week; Coalition Against Transnational Repression in Germany, October 27)
Radar is compiled by Közet’s editors from Közet’s own reporting, public documents and other outlets’ work, attributed in each item. Where Közet has read the underlying record, the item says so; where it could not verify a claim, the item says that too. Statements by governments and companies are reported as statements, not facts. Uyghur place names appear first, with the official Chinese name in parentheses. Published weekdays at 12:00 p.m. Eastern. Editorial standards and corrections: kozet.org/editorial-standards.
Sources
https://kozet.org/he-led-the-hunt-for-two-faced-people-one-hundred-days-later-he-was-dead/
https://www.ccgp.gov.cn/cggg/dfgg/zbgg/202611/t20261102_27599018.htm
https://www.ccgp.gov.cn/cggg/dfgg/zbgg/202610/t20261031_27598300.htm
https://www.ccgp.gov.cn/cggg/dfgg/gkzb/202610/t20261031_27598034.htm
https://news.bjd.com.cn/2026/10/31/12013466.shtml
https://www.chinanews.com/cj/2026/10-31/10723803.shtml
https://zrzyt.xinjiang.gov.cn/xjgtzy/tzgg/202601/69e2e9233e394989bbd1abd0a4bff96d.shtml
https://www.chinanews.com/txy/2026/10-31/10724103.shtml
https://www.aksxw.com/sy/rdxw/xj/202610/t20261031_37027148.html
https://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/press-release-wuc-welcomes-us-import-bans-on-three-chinese-companies-involved-in-uyghur-forced-labour/
https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-22094.pdf
https://www.ajot.com/news/us-bans-imports-from-bgi-genomics-mgi-tech-citing-ties-to-forced-labor-in-xinjiang
https://cna.com.tw/news/acn/202610290147.aspx
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20261019IPR48294/meps-push-for-continued-engagement-and-concrete-results-on-trade-with-china
https://www.antislavery.org/reports/strengthening-canadas-response-to-forced-labour/
https://www.antislavery.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Strengthening-Canadas-Response-to-forced-labour-Oct-2026.pdf
https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/45-1/C-35
https://kozet.org/thai-rights-groups-uyghur-men-return-china/
https://www1.xinhuanet.com/politics/20261101/301d62e1e8004111b1d5e58ff8d93d35/c.html
https://www.hkcd.com.hk/hkcdweb/content_p/2026/11/02/content_204295.html
https://berlin-freedom-week.com/en/event/uyghur-rights-beyond-chinas-borders-transnational-repression-shadow-ethnic-unity-law
https://stop-transnational-repression.de/2026/10/27/the-world-uyghur-congress-a-member-of-the-coalition-against-transnational-repression-in-germany-will-host-in-cooperation-with-partner-organizations-a-roundtable-discussion-entitled-uyghur/