Jo Smith Finley
jsmithfinley.bsky.social
Jo Smith Finley
@jsmithfinley.bsky.social
Reader in Chinese Studies, Newcastle University, UK. Sinologist/Social anthropologist/Political scientist. I study the Uyghur region (a.k.a Xinjiang, NW China).
Pinned
3 years after #UyghurTribunal judgment that #China is committing genocide, crimes against humanity & torture in #UyghurRegion, accountability more important than ever. 2020 Reflection: Why Scholars and Activists Increasingly Fear a #Uyghur Genocide in #Xinjiang.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Why Scholars and Activists Increasingly Fear a Uyghur Genocide in Xinjiang
For the past four years, the region of Xinjiang in Northwest China has witnessed the largest forced incarceration of an ethno-religious minority anywhere in the world since the Second World War: up...
www.tandfonline.com
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
ps. @timeshighered.bsky.social raises the red flag-but only for the UK: "foreign government interference on UK campuses"
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/sheffie...

But China silencing us by weaponizing their students, is a live threat against the whole world, all our universities, not just UK!
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/sheffield-hallam-apologises-china-scholar-over-publication-ban"-But
November 3, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
Please everyone, re-read all of Laura Murphy's reports on the current slavery in China in their Uyghur genocide.

How precious they are!

Sheffield Hallam U actually DELETED her page at Forced Labour Lab, at the Helena Kennedy Centre, SHU!

But some are still here: www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our...

4/5
www.shu.ac.uk
November 3, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
This is a huge scandal -- a warning to all the world's academia, about China's brazen intimidation and shameless weaponizing of their own students in order to silence the BEST RESEARCH in our free universities.

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

3/x
UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China
Exclusive: Leading professor at Sheffield Hallam was told to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China after demands from authorities
www.theguardian.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
China's Embassy in the UK openly admitting their students are now their WEAPONS: "over 200,000 Chinese students in the UK.. China the largest source of international students in the UK," adding "educational cooperation has become a driving force in bilateral ties".. yeah, and not just in the UK.
2/x
November 3, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research www.bbc.com/news/article...
Shame on SHU for caving to Chinese intimidation.
Even if they backed off when they were duly warned by the UK govt.
But how many such horror cases of selfcensorship by universities go undetected, out of fear?
China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show
Sheffield Hallam University apologises to Professor Laura Murphy for restricting her academic freedom.
www.bbc.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
Nader Hashemi and James A. Millward. 2024. ‘Lessons On Genocide From Xinjiang And Gaza’. Dawn. February 23.
Lessons on Genocide From Xinjiang and Gaza
Comparing events in Xinjiang and Gaza not only illuminates the double standard over genocide, but reveals the hole at the heart of the supposedly rules-based international order.
dawnmena.org
July 26, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
Rachel Harris. 2020. ‘Islamophobia, the Global War on Terror, and China’s policies in Xinjiang’. Society and Space. December 7.
Islamophobia, the Global War on Terror, and China’s policies in Xinjiang
What we need to understand is how and why these incidents were used to justify such massive, invasive and violent methods of control over the Muslim peoples of Xinjiang. After all, violent incidents i...
www.societyandspace.org
July 26, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
Joanne Smith Finley. 2019. ‘The Wang Lixiong Prophecy: “Palestinization” in Xinjiang and the Consequences of Chinese State Securitization of Religion’. Central Asian Survey 38 (1): 81–101. doi:10.1080/02634937.2018.1534802
doi.org
July 26, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
Daniel James Schuster. 2017. Resisting under Occupation: A Palestinian–Uyghur Comparison. Hamburg: Anchor Academic Publishing.
Science Publishing Hamburg - Resisting under Occupation. A Palestinian – Uyghur Comparison
This comparative study of the resistance behavior between the Palestinians and Chinese Uyghurs delineates the commonalities of the two case studies in ...
m.anchor-publishing.com
July 26, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
Sean R. Roberts 2018. ‘The Biopolitics of China’s “War on Terror” and the Exclusion of the Uyghurs’. Critical Asian Studies 50 (2): 232–58. doi:10.1080/14672715.2018.1454111.
The biopolitics of China’s “war on terror” and the exclusion of the Uyghurs
This article provides an overview of People’s Republic of China (PRC) counter-terrorism policies targeting Uyghurs since 2001 when the state first asserted that it faced a terrorist threat from thi...
doi.org
July 26, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
Nitasha Kaur. 2020. ‘China : Xinjiang :: India : Kashmir’. Made in China Journal 5 (2): 62–71. doi:10.22459/mic.05.02.2020.05.
China : Xinjiang :: India : Kashmir
Kashmir and Xinjiang share a border. Or, more precisely, the erstwhile princely state of Kashmir that is now divided between India, Pakistan, and China (and officially known as Jammu and Kashmir and L...
madeinchinajournal.com
July 26, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
Darren Byler and Karissa Ketter. 2024. ‘On the Travel of State Crimes by Algorithm: Chinese Camera Systems in Israel’. Made in China Journal 9(1): 18–21. doi:10.22459/MIC.09.01.2024.02.
On the Travel of State Crimes by Algorithm: Chinese Camera Systems in Israel | Made in China Journal
In one of the opening scenes of Surveillance State, Josh Chin and Liza Lin (2022: 41) describe how then Xinjiang party secretary Chen Quanguo tested the response time of local police in front of a mar...
madeinchinajournal.com
July 26, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
For those considering a facetious ’what about the Uyghurs’ argument against people expressing care for the desperate fate of the Palestinians, I refer to my extensive bibliography of sources that make clear many true Xinjiang experts have seen linkages from the very start.
Selected Academic Bibliography of Uyghur Genocide
An overview of the academic sources and serious investigative reports related to the ongoing genocide of the Uyghurs by the Chinese state. Emoji 🍐 means peer-reviewed. Bolded entries are suggested sta...
sensehofstede.nl
July 26, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
PLEASE SIGN. On Thursday 8th May 2025, 153 academic colleagues at Newcastle University were summoned at short notice to meetings with Uni Exec Board, where they were told they have been placed in ‘redundancy pools’ with 38 of them to be laid off. www.change.org/p/end-unnece...
Sign the Petition
End unnecessary redundancies at Newcastle University
www.change.org
May 24, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
Absolutely sickening. Full solidarity with Newcastle academics.
PLEASE SIGN. On Thursday 8th May 2025, 153 academic colleagues at Newcastle University were summoned at short notice to meetings with Uni Exec Board, where they were told they have been placed in ‘redundancy pools’ with 38 of them to be laid off. www.change.org/p/end-unnece...
Sign the Petition
End unnecessary redundancies at Newcastle University
www.change.org
May 25, 2025 at 12:46 PM
BUSTED. #PRC spying on #Uyghurs in #Turkiye in aggressive act of #TransnationalRepression. The cell's leader, a Chinese citizen identified by the initials ZL, allegedly arrived in Turkey five years ago to establish the groundwork for the intelligence operation. www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-...
Turkey busts Chinese spying ring using fake cell towers
Officials say it's the most sophisticated espionage cell uncovered and used IMSI-catcher devices to eavesdrop on Uyghur and Turkish targets in Istanbul and Izmir
www.middleeasteye.net
May 24, 2025 at 1:15 PM
PLEASE SIGN. On Thursday 8th May 2025, 153 academic colleagues at Newcastle University were summoned at short notice to meetings with Uni Exec Board, where they were told they have been placed in ‘redundancy pools’ with 38 of them to be laid off. www.change.org/p/end-unnece...
Sign the Petition
End unnecessary redundancies at Newcastle University
www.change.org
May 24, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
A win (for now) but it's unlikely this struggle for our university is over
May 9, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
The workers united will never be defeated!

Our strike action finishes at Sheffield after membership of our UCU branch @sheffielducu.bsky.social accept offer from management for no compulsory redundancies as a result of organisational restructures this year (and no pay deductions to be taken!)
May 9, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
Een vote amongst staff shows trust in the current leadership is incredible low.
April 7, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
Sign the petition to #FundHENow 👇
stopthecutspetition.org.uk
stopthecutspetition
stopthecutspetition.org.uk
March 4, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
Trying to open a new campus while cutting jobs. Not a good look.

Our members should not lose their livelihoods because of management can't handle the finances.

14 days of strike action started today at @newcastleucu.bsky.social 👇

With hundreds of jobs at risk we must #STOPtheCUTS.
March 4, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
Dear Volodymyr Zelenskyy, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone.
February 28, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
UNESCO @unesconow.bsky.social promotes a scheme duping foreigners into puppets of the Chinese regime www.unesco.org/en/fellowshi...
..while China's massive destruction of Uyghur heritage continues.
UNESCO's brazen complicity drags shame over the UN.
@aazoulay.bsky.social
@unescochairlnu.bsky.social
UNESCO/The People's Republic of China - The Great Wall Co-Sponsored Fellowships Programme 2025-2026
Fellowship opportunities for students, researchers and professionals from developing countries to pursue one-year advanced study in China.
www.unesco.org
January 30, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Reposted by Jo Smith Finley
Just to add some more interesting numbers from the annual reports...
January 23, 2025 at 7:04 PM