Salih Hudayar on Harvard, Ivy League Complicity, and Training of Chinese Officials

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): A Further Inquiry

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/10/24

Salih Hudayar is the Foreign Minister of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile and the founder of the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement. Born in Artux, East Turkistan, in 1993, he emigrated to the United States as a political refugee. He earned degrees in international studies and political science from the University of Oklahoma and a master’s in national security studies from American Military University. Elected Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile in 2019, Hudayar has led international advocacy efforts, including filing a genocide complaint at the International Criminal Court, and is fluent in Uyghur, English, and Turkish.

In this wide-ranging interview with Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Salih Hudayar discusses the complicity of Harvard and other elite universities in training Chinese Communist Party officials, including those linked to the Uyghur genocide and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC). Hudayar highlights how these institutions, while publicly opposing colonialism and human rights abuses, have accepted funding and provided programs that directly benefit perpetrators of atrocities. Drawing parallels with Nazi Germany, he argues such training constitutes complicity. Hudayar calls for universities to uphold moral accountability and for governments worldwide to cut funding to institutions that provide support or education to genocidal regimes.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Thank you very much for joining me again today, Salih. Salih Hudayar is the Foreign Minister of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile and a leader within the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement. He was born in Artux, East Turkistan, in 1989, emigrated to the United States as a political refugee, and earned degrees in international studies and political science from the University of Oklahoma, along with a master’s in national security studies from American Military University. He founded the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement. Hudayar was elected Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile in 2019 and has spearheaded international advocacy, including filing a genocide complaint at the ICC. He is fluent in Uyghur, English, and Turkish.

This is a somewhat complex issue, so I hope we have enough time to cover at least some of the details regarding legal and civil rights in higher education in light of the Trump administration’s actions against Harvard. The Trump administration launched a civil rights investigation into Harvard University over allegations of anti-Semitism. This raised the possibility of cutting off the university’s access to federal funding. I know there have been new developments on this front. What are your first thoughts on the Trump administration’s dispute with Harvard University regarding civil rights, anti-Semitism, and federal funding?

Salih Hudayar: One of the key points raised was that Harvard University had been providing training programs for senior CCP officials, including individuals directly involved in the ongoing Uyghur genocide or in administering what China calls the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. From that perspective, we view this as a positive step. As for the broader civil rights issue, that is a separate matter relating to the dispute between Harvard and the federal government. But the fact that it aligns with our concerns—specifically, Harvard providing professional training that Chinese officials then use to commit acts of genocide and whitewash their crimes against our people—is significant. From this perspective, what the United States is doing is good. We believe that the U.S. government should not provide funding to any institution that supports racism, discrimination, or individuals who are complicit in, or actively engaged in, genocide or in defending genocide.

Jacobsen: As a side note, I recall that Xi Jinping’s daughter studied at Harvard. Is that correct?

Hudayar: Yes, that is correct. Xi Jinping’s daughter attended Harvard University. Additionally, some of the Chinese Communist Party’s senior administrators in the Uyghur Region, such as Erkin Tuniyaz, have reportedly participated in training sessions at Harvard. These are individuals directly overseeing China’s campaign of colonization, genocide, and occupation in East Turkistan. Moreover, officials from the XPCC—the paramilitary Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps—were also provided training by Harvard.

And the XPCC had been sanctioned by the United States roughly four or five days after we filed our ICC complaint on July 6, 2020. We specifically mentioned the XPCC and its officials in the complaint. We had long been calling on the State Department to sanction the XPCC and its officials, and they did so on July 10—about four days after we filed. The fact that Harvard continued to provide training even after this entity had been sanctioned is especially problematic, because the XPCC has been found complicit in genocide and crimes against humanity.

Jacobsen: Some other members of the CCP who are higher ranking and who have taken part in Harvard training include Li Yuanchao, Liu He, Li Hongzhong, Xi Mingzhe, Bo Guagua, Huang Lixian, and Qiu He. Are there ways in which this could be mishandled in a way that suppresses legitimate political activism, versus narrowly ensuring that institutions are not supporting complicity in crimes against humanity? In other words, is there a way to thread that needle appropriately?

Hudayar: Yes, I think there is a clear way to thread this needle. The fact that China is engaged in these crimes is widely recognized. The U.S. government has formally recognized it as genocide. The XPCC has been sanctioned. Training CCP officials who are part of entities engaged in genocide should be stopped outright—not just those directly involved in East Turkistan. To give an example, Erkin Tuniyaz studied at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2012. This was before he became the governor, but even then he was a senior official. The genocidal policies that China was enacting passed through the Xinjiang People’s Congress and similar rubber-stamp legislative bodies, where Tuniyaz was already a member. So I don’t think we should allow any government engaged in repression to send their officials to study at American universities—Harvard or otherwise.

Jacobsen: On top of the Erkin Tuniyaz case, I mentioned Yao Ning. Someone I wasn’t familiar with before. He became Party Secretary of Bachu County in Kashgar. He has not been formally sanctioned, but his county-level leadership placed him over an area with documented camps. Senior Xinjiang officials who have been sanctioned by the U.S., EU, UK, and Canada—but who do not have publicly documented Harvard ties—include Chen Quanguo, Yizhu Hailun, Wang Mingshan, Wang Junzheng, and Chen Mingguo.

Hudayar: Yes, these are top-level officials directly responsible for overseeing the concentration camps and the genocidal policies—from Chen Quanguo to Yizhu Hailun. Yizhu Hailun, for example, was the head of the XPCC.

Jacobsen: What about other Ivy League institutions—or even elite institutions outside the Ivy League—that have hosted individuals who later had direct involvement at high levels in crimes against humanity?

Hudayar: Yes, I think it was Princeton. Princeton University Press, just a couple of months ago, sent one of their chiefs to East Turkistan. They essentially went on a propaganda tour whitewashing China’s crimes. You also have other Ivy League universities in the U.S. providing education and training to Chinese officials, fully aware that what those officials are doing in East Turkistan amounts, at the very least, to what the UN calls crimes against humanity. At a minimum, they know these individuals are serving an authoritarian, brutal regime engaged in mass human rights atrocities and violations. These institutions have essentially abandoned their morals. Why are they doing this? Because China is providing them with large sums of money. They are educating individuals who then become elites overseeing colonization, genocide, and occupation. On paper, these Ivy League universities claim to oppose colonization, occupation, human rights atrocities, and genocide. Yet in practice, they are training the very people responsible for these crimes. That is the shamelessness of it. I believe there should be a complete ban on federal funding for institutions engaged in this. Even as a taxpayer, if a single cent of my tax dollars goes toward training genocidal Chinese officials seeking to wipe out my people, that is unacceptable.

Jacobsen: In terms of how the United States government has acknowledged this issue—though they take a wider approach to funding concerns—what about other countries with elite institutions, by international standards, that have ties of this kind? For example, UC Berkeley has hosted many PRC cadres, though not specifically tied to Xinjiang engineering. Cambridge Judge Business School and other leadership programs have hosted CCP cadres, with some Xinjiang regional officials reportedly passing through short-term programs. Who else comes to mind?

Hudayar: Yes, this is not just limited to the U.S. Germany has similar cases with its universities. In Japan, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, many Chinese officials were accepted as students. So yes, all of these countries—whether it is the U.S., the UK, Germany, or Japan—claim publicly to be against colonialism, occupation, genocide, and human rights violations, yet their actions tell a different story. Academic institutions, in particular, are guilty of this. Many academics will say, “We’re against genocide, we’re against colonialism,” yet they refuse to call China’s actions by their proper name—colonialism and genocide. They dismiss it as “different.” How is it different? What China is doing in East Turkistan is textbook colonialism, and it meets every definition of genocide. Part of the problem is funding. These universities and governments receive significant financial support, directly or indirectly, from the CCP. The CCP also works through captured elites, organizations like the Committee of 100, or influential individuals who promote closer ties with China and make donations on its behalf. Then there are academics who justify this behavior by saying it allows them access to conduct research in China, which they fear losing if they call out Beijing. These are the strings attached—loopholes China uses to get its way. But at the end of the day, what these institutions are doing is supporting, engaging with, and becoming complicit in training officials of a genocidal regime.

You can’t say, for example—hypothetically—that Harvard provided training for Nazi leaders during the Holocaust, and then later claim ignorance. By 1936, the Nazis had already enacted anti-Jewish laws, and by 1939, mass incarceration in concentration camps had begun. If in 1941 Harvard were to train Nazi officials, it could not turn around in 1945, after the Holocaust was widely known, and say, “We didn’t know.” That would be complicity. You are part of the crime. You are facilitating it through training and complicity. What are these Chinese officials doing? They are going back with the education and knowledge they acquire from these elite institutions and then using loopholes to create propaganda and develop methods to whitewash their crimes. For example, at Cambridge some officials attended judicial training programs. They were learning how international law works and what loopholes exist—what they could get away with and what they could not. They then base their genocidal strategies on those loopholes to hide their crimes. What does China claim it is doing? They say they are not committing genocide. Instead, they claim they are countering terrorism, providing vocational training, and creating job opportunities. But in reality, those claims are used to mask the mass enslavement and internment of our people.

Jacobsen: Any final thoughts based on the conversation today?

Hudayar: The last thing I want to emphasize is that institutions—regardless of whether they are under government pressure—should have moral accountability and a conscience. They should know better than to provide training to entities like the Chinese Communist Party, which has a long history of human rights atrocities, genocide, and colonization. These institutions need to uphold the highest moral standards. I also believe governments beyond the United States should cut funding to institutions in their own countries that are providing training and support to Chinese officials.

Jacobsen: Our last meeting was almost five years ago, so it was good to see you again.

Hudayar: Thank you so much.

Jacobsen: Excellent. Have a lovely day. Thank you.

Hudayar: You as well. Thank you.

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