Ilham Tohti - The moderate critic
Ilham Tohti, a well-known Uighur and a moderate critic of Beijing s policy towards the country s Muslim minority, is on trial in China on charges of separatism. DW takes a look at the scholar s life. Ilham Tohti is not a typical dissident – the 44-year-old sees himself first and foremost as an economist. Born in 1969 in the small town of Artux (also spelled Atush or Atushi), in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, Tohti moved to Changchun for higher education and from there to Beijing to advance his career as a renowned economist. For several years, Tohti researched at Beijing s Minzu University, amongst other things, about the Uighurs social standing in Xinjiang Province. He came to the conclusion that the Muslim minority in the province was not treated the same way as the majority Han Chinese. On the contrary, he learned that there were fewer jobs for Uighurs and they were paid less for the same positions. He also found that the Uigh