A symbolically important building in Xinjiang’s capital that played an important role in the rise of Uyghur entrepreneurs and businessmen in the 1990s has been demolished, Radio Free Asia has learned.
Zumret Dawut, a Uyghur re-education camp survivor now in the United States, said authorities destroyed the Kadeer Rebiya Kadeer in Urumqi on November 29, citing sources in China’s westernmost region of Xinjiang. Kader Trading Center. The building has been closed for 15 years.
Other sources in Xinjiang, including police and a tourism worker, confirmed the demolition, with satellite photos showing the building that once stood in a corner of Urumqi’s city center near the Grand Bazaar now in ruins.
Built in 1990, the Kadeer Kadeer Trade Center has seven floors, including the adjacent Aqida Trade Center, covering an area of 30,000 square meters (323,000 square feet) and housing more than 600 shops, conference rooms, wedding halls, classrooms and hotel rooms.
In addition to promoting the development of Uyghur entrepreneurs, the center has also become a gathering place for intellectuals, a training ground for young researchers and a starting point for philanthropists.
The building is named after Kadeer, a 78-year-old Uighur entrepreneur, businesswoman and political activist who has lived in the United States since 2005. Become a millionaire in Xinjiang by holding real estate and multinational companies.
For Uyghur activists abroad, the center is both a symbol of Uyghur architecture and traditional trade skills, and a political space for affirming Uyghur identity in a volatile region, especially after Kadeer Kadeer was imprisoned in 1999.
Kadeer told RFA that she was unable to contact relatives in Xinjiang to learn why the building was demolished or whether authorities would compensate her.
Destruction mode
In recent years, Chinese authorities have razed thousands of mosques, traditional Uyghur neighborhoods and buildings in cities such as Kashgar, while turning others into tourist attractions, as part of a campaign to eliminate physical symbols of Uyghur and Islamic identity in Xinjiang.
Kadeer’s trading center is the latest building to be razed.
Dawut’s sources told her the building had imploded. She also said she closely followed Chinese state media and social media platforms, including the Chinese version of TikTok, for more information or videos, but found nothing.
Dawuti learned from sources that strict security measures were implemented on the day the building was demolished, and the road where the trade center is located and surrounding streets were monitored.
Before authorities destroyed the trade center, they distributed notices closing nearby shops and buildings and restricting access to tourist attractions.
“I was informed that store owners were instructed to close their stores on the day of demolition and no one would be allowed in the area,” she said.
When Radio Free Asia contacted Urumqi police and other officials about the building’s fate, most warned that the topic was sensitive and declined to answer questions when Kadeer’s name was mentioned.
“sensitive topic”
A police officer from the Garibiat Police Station in Urumqi said that the situation was normal and foreign tourists could visit the areas around the Grand Bazaar, but he did not deny that the building had been demolished.
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“The Grand Bazaar can still be visited and the museum is open for visits,” the official said. “However, the Kadeer Trade Center no longer exists. Currently you cannot refer to it using that name. This is a sensitive topic.
When asked why the building was demolished, the officer said she and others at the police station had heard about it but could not provide details due to the sensitivity of the subject.
A duty officer from the Foreign Affairs Department of the Municipal Public Security Bureau said that the Kadeer Building was demolished by municipal construction workers on November 29. But she said she had no further information.
A staff member of a tourism agency in Urumqi also confirmed the destruction of the center.
“The Kadeer Kadeer Trade Center has been demolished,” she said. “I haven’t been there because it’s in ruins and everything is a mess.”
A government worker in Urumqi, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said authorities were trying to carry out the demolition work as quietly as possible, but the sound of exploding buildings and a police presence on surrounding streets added to an already uneasy city. fear.
On November 29, a police officer from the Nanhu Police Station near the Kadeer Building who was on duty around the Grand Bazaar said that other people’s claims were exaggerated and pointed out that there was little need for police during the demolition process because Urumqi’s streets were filled with monitor.
“The demolition work was carried out without causing any alarm,” she said.
Arrested in 1999
While Kadeer lived in Xinjiang, she was politically active, holding positions at China’s National People’s Congress in Beijing and other political bodies before she was arrested in 1999 in Urumqi while meeting with a delegation of U.S. congressional staff .
Chinese authorities accuse her of sending confidential internal reports to her husband, then a broadcaster for Radio Free Asia and Voice of America
Kadeer was released on medical parole in 2005 and fled to the United States, where she held leadership positions in overseas Uyghur organizations, including the World Uyghur Congress.
After deadly riots between Muslim Uyghurs and Han Chinese in Urumqi in July 2009, Chinese authorities accused Kadeer, who was not present, of being the instigator of the riots and permanently closed her trading center.
Translated from Uyghur by Radio Free Asia. Edited by Roxanne Gerland and Malcolm Foster.
