SEPTEMBER 15, 2014
Late 2005
Living in Beijing and teaching at Beijing’s Minzu University of China, Ilham Tohti establishes “Uighur Online,” a website published in Chinese and Uighur “to provide Uighurs and Hans with a platform for discussion and exchange.” The website serves as a platform for Uighur social and cultural issues, as well as Chinese policies in Xinjiang. Authorities periodically shut the website down.
2008
May 15
Uighur Online is permanently shut down by the government.
2009
March 06
In his interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA), Tohti criticizes Chinese policies in Xinjiang. He questions the central government’s policy of encouraging Han people to move to Xinjiang where the unemployment rate among Uighurs remained high. Tohti also refers to the then-governor of Xinjiang as “unqualified.”
March 26
Tohti is interrogated by the police, who tell him not to speak to the media again.
July 07
Tohti goes missing after the July 5th violence in Urumqi. Tohti is later found to have been detained by Chinese authorities for posting materials on his website that they allege “stirred up” the ethnic clashes.
2010
July 25
Manager of Uighur Online, Gheyrat Niyaz, was sentenced to 15 years for “endangering state security”.
2011
January 17
Ilham Tohti publishes an article, “My Ideals and the Career Path I Have Chosen”《我的理想和事业选择之路》, explaining that his reason for launching the website was to promote “mutual understanding as well as dialogue among ethnic communities.” Tohti writes that the website contained no “pro-independence, separatist, or irresponsible inflammatory postings” nor “anything subversive.”
September
Beijing’s Minzu University of China cancels Tohti’s class on economic development, immigration, and discrimination in Xinjiang.
2012
August
Tohti is interrogated for 10 hours after speaking to journalists and publishing an article on Uighur Online about Chinese armed forces monitoring Uighurs during Ramadan.
October-November
Tohti is held under house arrest ahead of the Chinese leadership change during the 18th Party Congress.