21 Facts About Rebiya Kadeer

Rebiya Kadeer is an ethnic Uyghur businesswoman and political activist.

Rebiya Kadeer held various positions in the National People's Congress in Beijing and other political institutions before being arrested in 1999 for, according to Chinese state media, sending confidential internal reference reports to her husband, who worked in the United States as a pro-East Turkistan independence broadcaster.

Rebiya Kadeer was born in the city of Altay in Xinjiang.

Rebiya Kadeer later remarried in 1981 to Sidik Haji Rouzi, then an associate professor, who is divorced by his ex-wife Mehmusa, a colleague of Rebiya's elder sister, for his activism.

Rebiya Kadeer became one of the five richest people in China, and her success earned her the nickname "the millionairess".

Rebiya Kadeer founded the Akida Industry and Trade Co, which owns a number of properties in Xinjiang province.

Rebiya Kadeer was an active philanthropist within the community, most notably through her foundation, 1,000 Mothers Movement, a charity intended to help Uyghur women start their own local businesses, as well as support underprivileged and orphaned Uyghur children.

Rebiya Kadeer was not always at odds with the government, and was once welcomed as an appointed delegate to the eighth session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the National People's Congress and was a representative to the UN Fourth World Conference for Women in Beijing in 1995.

Rebiya Kadeer was a Communist Party member until she was expelled.

Rebiya Kadeer has served as vice chairwoman of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Federation of Industry and Commerce, and vice chairwoman of the Xinjiang Association of Women Entrepreneurs.

Rebiya Kadeer funneled Rouzi two years' worth of the neican publications Kashgar Daily, Xinjiang Legal News, Yining Daily, and Yining Evening News, with a focus on separatists' speeches.

Rebiya Kadeer was arrested in August 1999 while on her way to meet a US Congressional Research Service, with the additional charge of being in contact with nearly a dozen separatists.

Rebiya Kadeer was tried in March 2000 in the Urumqi Intermediate People's Court and convicted of violating article 111 of China's criminal code governing the leaking of state secrets.

Rebiya Kadeer won the Rafto Prize for human rights while imprisoned and she claims that she was not tortured in prison because of her newfound international reputation.

On 14 March 2005, Rebiya Kadeer was released early on medical grounds, into United States' custody in advance of a visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region.

Xinhua announced in early September 2009 that three properties owned by Rebiya Kadeer's companies, including the Akida Trade Center, where more than 30 members of Rebiya Kadeer's family were reportedly living, would be torn down due to "cracks in the walls and sunken footings".

In 2011, Rebiya Kadeer accused the Chinese government of intentionally cultivating multiple Uyghur governments in exile in order to divide the Uyghur people.

Rebiya Kadeer believes that independence movements have less support in the international community and the given autonomy by Chinese laws were never implemented.

Rebiya Kadeer said that the Uyghur people were never happy under the Chinese rule.

On May 2012, while in Tokyo for a conference visit, Rebiya Kadeer called on the Japanese government to raise with Beijing the subject of human rights violations in China.

Rebiya Kadeer visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine and reportedly expressed that she wanted to establish a similar place dedicated to Uyghur heroes in the future.