Uyghur linguist's presentation dropped at UNESCO summit, igniting fears of Beijing's sway
WASHINGTON — A United Nations-hosted language technology conference has come under scrutiny after organizers abruptly canceled a scheduled presentation by Abduweli Ayup, a prominent Uyghur linguist and human rights advocate.
The cancellation, communicated just hours before Ayup’s Feb. 25 talk, has prompted speculation about external pressures, with Ayup and others suggesting China’s influence may have been a factor.
Ayup was invited to deliver a 10-minute talk and serve as a panelist and chair/rapporteur at the conference, hosted by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at its headquarters in Paris.
“We are pleased to invite you to deliver a talk at the 2nd International Conference on Language Technologies for All (LT4ALL 2025),” the organizer stated in an email Ayup shared with VOA.
“I saw my participation [as] a rare chance on the Uyghur language’s plight — an issue I’ve fought to preserve against Beijing’s relentless suppression,” Ayup told VOA.
He said his talk was canceled under pressure from China.
“I see the reason as very simple. It’s because of my critique of China’s systematic erasure of Uyghur language and culture and questioning the Chinese representatives about the Uyghur language ban in education,” Ayup told VOA.
A linguistics graduate of the University of Kansas, Ayup returned to China in 2011 to launch Uyghur-language schools in defiance of Mandarin-only mandates. Arrested in 2013 on “illegal fundraising” charges, he said he endured 15 months of torture before fleeing to Turkey in 2015 and resettling in Norway by 2019.
There, he founded Uyghur Hjelp to document China’s cultural crackdown — a work recognized with the 2024 Language Rights Defenders Award. His siblings remain detained in Xinjiang.
Beijing’s “bilingual education” policy in the Uyghur region of Xinjiang in northwest China was enacted in the early 2000s and promised dual-language instruction but was later criticized as a tool of assimilation. By 2017, schools began to ban Uyghur language instruction at schools, a pattern researchers and advocates criticize as linguistic genocide.
Late on Feb. 24, Ayup received an email from the LT4ALL Organizing Committee stating, “We regret to inform you that we only received notice this evening that we were unable to secure approval to include your presentation in tomorrow’s program.”
The email sent by the summit organizers and later shared with VOA by Ayup continued, “Unfortunately, we were informed at the last minute, and this decision is beyond our control.” No further details were provided regarding who denied approval or why.
Speaking to Voice of America (VOA), Ayup suggested the cancellation was linked to his criticism of China’s language policies during the summit, which Ayup attended even though he could not deliver his presentation.
Earlier that day, he had directly questioned Chinese presenters — including a representative of iFlytek, a tech firm linked to Uyghur surveillance — about Beijing’s restrictions on minority languages.
The iFlytek representative who attended the summit did not respond to VOA’s inquiry regarding Ayup’s claim about why his presentation was canceled by the time of this report's publication.
iFlytek, a China-based company specializing in voice recognition, has supplied Xinjiang police with voiceprint systems since at least 2016 and partnered with security agencies to build a national database used in the region’s mass surveillance, according to Human Rights Watch.
The U.S. sanctioned iFlytek in 2019 for its role in "high-technology surveillance" aiding China’s repression of Uyghurs, which includes detaining over 1 million since 2017, per U.N. estimates.
Ayup told VOA he asked Chinese representatives why China banned Uyghur language from education — a policy enacted first in parts of Xinjiang about 2017 — but received no answer.
Following the session, Ayup recounted being confronted by a few Chinese delegates, who questioned why he spoke in English rather than Mandarin and asked about his family’s whereabouts. When he revealed that his brother and sister were detained in Chinese internment camps — possibly now in prisons — the delegates dismissed his claims, labeling his relatives "terrorists."
“I believe my encounters with the Chinese representatives have contributed to the exclusion of my presentation from the conference program,” Ayup said.
UNESCO’s response
UNESCO confirmed the cancellation, attributing it to “chaotic” planning.
In an email response to VOA, a UNESCO official stated that the cancellation only applied to a "scientific poster" presentation scheduled for a midday break on Feb. 25, not his broader participation in the event.
“UNESCO regrets that no space was available on Tuesday to accommodate Mr. Ayup’s scientific poster. However, this was possible the following day,” the UNESCO official wrote, adding, “[T]his logistical setback did not prevent him from participating in the Conference as such and from raising the issue of the Uyghur language.”
UNESCO noted that Ayup spoke freely during roundtables and was given the floor whenever he requested it. The organization attributed the issue to “chaotic” planning by academic co-organizers, who extended invitations without full coordination.
Ayup disputes that account, arguing that UNESCO, under pressure from China — a member of the U.N. Security Council — may have sought to limit his platform.
Other prominent human rights activists echoed those concerns on the social media platform X.
Former World Uyghur Congress President Dolkun Isa denounced the “last-minute cancellation of linguist Abduweli Ayup’s presentation on the Uyghur language without any explanation,” calling it “seemingly influenced by Chinese interests.
Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch, also weighed in, pointing to iFlytek’s presence at the conference. “UNESCO abruptly cancelled his presentation but allowed a Chinese voice recognition/surveillance company iFlytek + Hunan state TV to whitewash China's erasure of minority languages,” she wrote.
Ayup’s ordeal didn’t end with cancellation. He told VOA an unidentified Chinese man shadowed him, filming him during breaks — a claim backed by an attendee’s video, later shared with VOA.
Ayup told VOA he’s not the first to face restrictions at a U.N.-related event, stating, “There are precedents.”
He pointed to Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, an expert at the 2019 U.N. Forum on Minority Issues in Geneva, who claimed her speech on “linguistic and cultural genocide” naming Uyghurs and China was censored by organizers fearing state backlash.
“Freedom of speech denied at the U.N.!” she wrote, later sharing her original text online after it was altered. Ayup sees this as part of a pattern limiting discussion of Uyghur repression at U.N. forums.
The cancellation, communicated just hours before Ayup’s Feb. 25 talk, has prompted speculation about external pressures, with Ayup and others suggesting China’s influence may have been a factor.
Ayup was invited to deliver a 10-minute talk and serve as a panelist and chair/rapporteur at the conference, hosted by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at its headquarters in Paris.
“We are pleased to invite you to deliver a talk at the 2nd International Conference on Language Technologies for All (LT4ALL 2025),” the organizer stated in an email Ayup shared with VOA.
“I saw my participation [as] a rare chance on the Uyghur language’s plight — an issue I’ve fought to preserve against Beijing’s relentless suppression,” Ayup told VOA.
He said his talk was canceled under pressure from China.
“I see the reason as very simple. It’s because of my critique of China’s systematic erasure of Uyghur language and culture and questioning the Chinese representatives about the Uyghur language ban in education,” Ayup told VOA.
A linguistics graduate of the University of Kansas, Ayup returned to China in 2011 to launch Uyghur-language schools in defiance of Mandarin-only mandates. Arrested in 2013 on “illegal fundraising” charges, he said he endured 15 months of torture before fleeing to Turkey in 2015 and resettling in Norway by 2019.
There, he founded Uyghur Hjelp to document China’s cultural crackdown — a work recognized with the 2024 Language Rights Defenders Award. His siblings remain detained in Xinjiang.
Beijing’s “bilingual education” policy in the Uyghur region of Xinjiang in northwest China was enacted in the early 2000s and promised dual-language instruction but was later criticized as a tool of assimilation. By 2017, schools began to ban Uyghur language instruction at schools, a pattern researchers and advocates criticize as linguistic genocide.
Late on Feb. 24, Ayup received an email from the LT4ALL Organizing Committee stating, “We regret to inform you that we only received notice this evening that we were unable to secure approval to include your presentation in tomorrow’s program.”
The email sent by the summit organizers and later shared with VOA by Ayup continued, “Unfortunately, we were informed at the last minute, and this decision is beyond our control.” No further details were provided regarding who denied approval or why.
Speaking to Voice of America (VOA), Ayup suggested the cancellation was linked to his criticism of China’s language policies during the summit, which Ayup attended even though he could not deliver his presentation.
Earlier that day, he had directly questioned Chinese presenters — including a representative of iFlytek, a tech firm linked to Uyghur surveillance — about Beijing’s restrictions on minority languages.
The iFlytek representative who attended the summit did not respond to VOA’s inquiry regarding Ayup’s claim about why his presentation was canceled by the time of this report's publication.
iFlytek, a China-based company specializing in voice recognition, has supplied Xinjiang police with voiceprint systems since at least 2016 and partnered with security agencies to build a national database used in the region’s mass surveillance, according to Human Rights Watch.
The U.S. sanctioned iFlytek in 2019 for its role in "high-technology surveillance" aiding China’s repression of Uyghurs, which includes detaining over 1 million since 2017, per U.N. estimates.
Ayup told VOA he asked Chinese representatives why China banned Uyghur language from education — a policy enacted first in parts of Xinjiang about 2017 — but received no answer.
Following the session, Ayup recounted being confronted by a few Chinese delegates, who questioned why he spoke in English rather than Mandarin and asked about his family’s whereabouts. When he revealed that his brother and sister were detained in Chinese internment camps — possibly now in prisons — the delegates dismissed his claims, labeling his relatives "terrorists."
“I believe my encounters with the Chinese representatives have contributed to the exclusion of my presentation from the conference program,” Ayup said.
UNESCO’s response
UNESCO confirmed the cancellation, attributing it to “chaotic” planning.
In an email response to VOA, a UNESCO official stated that the cancellation only applied to a "scientific poster" presentation scheduled for a midday break on Feb. 25, not his broader participation in the event.
“UNESCO regrets that no space was available on Tuesday to accommodate Mr. Ayup’s scientific poster. However, this was possible the following day,” the UNESCO official wrote, adding, “[T]his logistical setback did not prevent him from participating in the Conference as such and from raising the issue of the Uyghur language.”
UNESCO noted that Ayup spoke freely during roundtables and was given the floor whenever he requested it. The organization attributed the issue to “chaotic” planning by academic co-organizers, who extended invitations without full coordination.
Ayup disputes that account, arguing that UNESCO, under pressure from China — a member of the U.N. Security Council — may have sought to limit his platform.
Other prominent human rights activists echoed those concerns on the social media platform X.
Former World Uyghur Congress President Dolkun Isa denounced the “last-minute cancellation of linguist Abduweli Ayup’s presentation on the Uyghur language without any explanation,” calling it “seemingly influenced by Chinese interests.
Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch, also weighed in, pointing to iFlytek’s presence at the conference. “UNESCO abruptly cancelled his presentation but allowed a Chinese voice recognition/surveillance company iFlytek + Hunan state TV to whitewash China's erasure of minority languages,” she wrote.
Ayup’s ordeal didn’t end with cancellation. He told VOA an unidentified Chinese man shadowed him, filming him during breaks — a claim backed by an attendee’s video, later shared with VOA.
Ayup told VOA he’s not the first to face restrictions at a U.N.-related event, stating, “There are precedents.”
He pointed to Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, an expert at the 2019 U.N. Forum on Minority Issues in Geneva, who claimed her speech on “linguistic and cultural genocide” naming Uyghurs and China was censored by organizers fearing state backlash.
“Freedom of speech denied at the U.N.!” she wrote, later sharing her original text online after it was altered. Ayup sees this as part of a pattern limiting discussion of Uyghur repression at U.N. forums.