Haley Slams Cornell for Not Protecting Uyghur Who Spoke Out Against China

Former Trump administration ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Cornell University “should be ashamed” after a group of Chinese students boycotted a recent event in which a member of China’s oppressed Uyghur community lashed out at the CCP for its genocide against her people.

Rizwangul NurMuhammad—a Uyghur woman and Cornell student whose brother Mewlan is being detained by the Communist regime—spoke out about the CCP’s crimes against her people during an event last Thursday at the university that featured Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.). NurMuhammad reportedly asked Slotkin why the international community has not done more to sanction China’s ongoing genocide.

Her remarks prompted audible jeers from Chinese international students attending the event, with 40 students walking out in protest. The incident drew international headlines and Cornell came under fire for not doing more to protect NurMuhammad from public scorn.

Haley, in comments to the Washington Free Beacon, said Cornell “should be ashamed for not having [NurMuhammad’s] back.”

“My heart goes out to Rizwangul,” said Haley, who pushed the international community to sanction China for its mass human-rights abuses during her time at the U.N. “She was using the power of her voice to speak truth about Communist China’s genocide against the Uyghur people. Cornell should be ashamed for not having her back. I hope she’ll continue to tell the world about what is happening.”

NurMuhammad’s brother, Mewlan, was reportedly detained by CCP authorities in 2017 amid a crackdown on the ethnic minority Uyghurs being waged in China’s Xinjiang region. China’s treatment of the Uyghurs, which includes corralling them in concentration camps and using them for slave labor, was deemed genocide by the Trump administration.