Cornell students from China jeer, walk out on Uyghur student who asked lawmaker about Uyghur genocide

A group of international Chinese students from Cornell University staged a walkout and allegedly booed an Uyghur student during a public service career talk last week.

The walkout occurred after Fulbright scholar Rizwangul NurMuhammad spoke during the question-and-answer portion of a talk that was part of a weekly speaker series for the students of Cornell University's Master in Public Administration program on Thursday.

NurMuhammad asked guest speaker Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) about why the U.S. and the international community have spoken up against Russia for invading Ukraine yet remain quiet on the issue of the alleged genocide of the Uyghurs, the most persecuted ethnic minority in China.

NurMuhammad said that her brother, Mewlan, was arrested in 2017 during the Chinese government’s crackdown on the Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The student also said that she has not been able to speak to her brother since his detention.

As Slotkin tried responding to NurMuhammad’s question, around 40 Chinese students reportedly walked out, prompting a university staff member to inform the Democrat representative, who joined the event via a video link, about their exit. “We have a lot of the Chinese students exiting the room, congresswoman, just to let you know,” the staff member can be heard saying in a video shared with The Independent.