Five months ago, I left Radio Free Asia on furlough. Last week, my resignation became official. Like most of my colleagues, I made the difficult choice to leave when it became clear the Trump administration would not reverse its decision to defund and close the agency.
For the Uyghur people, this closure is more than a budget cut. Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur service was the only independent Uyghur-language news outlet in the world. It was a lifeline to our people inside East Turkistan and a thorn in Beijing’s side.
It was a platform that told the truth about China’s mass internment, forced labor, and systematic destruction of Uyghur culture. And yes — it was a weapon against a dictatorship.
We wielded that weapon with honor. Our reporting helped push the U.S. government to recognize China’s actions as genocide. That designation will outlive any single newsroom. One day, China’s regime will be held accountable for it.
The end of the Uyghur service is not the end of our resistance. The Uyghur cause still has bipartisan support in Congress. The fight will shift to other platforms, other strategies. The mission remains: to ensure the world never forgets, and to keep hope alive for the day East Turkistan is free.
Some fear that China’s crimes will now be hidden from the world. I say, not while we still draw breath. Independent outlets — Bitter Winter, Taipei Times, Global Voices and others — have long amplified our voices. And I will continue writing, now openly under my real name.
I have returned to my real estate business to make a living. But every day, in every way I can, I will keep speaking out. A political wind can close a newsroom, but it cannot close a conscience.
The struggle continues — until the last Uyghur is free.
Shohret Hoshur is a political emigre from China’s Xinjiang Province now living in Washington, and a former employee of Radio Free Asia.
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