Uyghur Monitor

Our Mission

Founded in 2026 and based in Washington, D.C., we report on the full spectrum of Uyghur life - from culture and diaspora experiences to human rights, politics, and social developments. Our trilingual coverage ensures these stories reach global audiences.

Our Commitment

Uyghur Monitor operates as an independent nonprofit, free from commercial pressures and committed solely to journalistic integrity and accountability.

Board Chairman

Donald Clarke

Donald Clarke, Professor of Law Emeritus, George Washington University Law School
Donald Clarke is Professor of Law Emeritus at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. His academic specialty is modern Chinese law, with a particular focus on corporate governance, Chinese legal institutions, and the legal issues presented by China's economic reforms.In addition to his academic work, he founded and maintains Chinalaw, the leading internet listserv on Chinese law, and writes The China Collection blog and the Chinese Law Notes Substack newsletter. He has also served as an expert witness on Chinese law matters in a number of legal cases, and has advised organizations such as the Asian Development Bank, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Public Company Accounting and Oversight Board, and the U.S. Department of Justice. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.Professor Clarke holds an A.B. degree from Princeton University, an M.Sc. degree from the School of Oriental & African Studies of the University of London (SOAS), and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Prior to joining the George Washington University faculty, he was on the faculty of SOAS and the University of Washington School of Law, and he has been a visiting professor at New York University Law School, UCLA School of Law, and Duke Law School.

Board Member

Bethany Allen

Bethany Allen is an award-winning investigative journalist and foreign correspondent, and author of "Beijing Rules: How China Weaponized Its Economy to Confront the World," named by the Financial Times as a Best Book of 2023. Bethany currently leads the China investigations and analysis team at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Australia's premier foreign policy think tank.Bethany previously served for 4 years as the China reporter at Axios, where she focused on how China projects power and influence beyond its own borders. Before joining Axios, she served as the lead reporter for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' China Cables project, a major leak of classified Chinese government documents revealing the inner workings of mass internment camps in Xinjiang. For her work on the China Cables project, Bethany received the Robert D. G. Lewis Watchdog Award, the top prize awarded annually by the Society of Professional Journalists DC Dateline Awards, as well as the Investigative Journalism prize in the online category. The China Cables project was also a finalist for the Batten Medal for Courage in Journalism.Bethany also spent four years as an editor and writer at Foreign Policy magazine. She now resides in Taipei, Taiwan.

Board Member

Gene Bunin

Gene A. Bunin is the founder and curator of the Xinjiang Victims Database (shahit.biz), an independent documentation project dedicated to tracking the victims of the mass incarcerations in the region. Prior to starting the project in 2018, he was a long-term resident of Xinjiang, where he did independent research on the Uyghur language. He has extensive experience working with data and information flows, factchecking, and triangulation, drawing on both a technical background in math and engineering and his years as a database curator.He has also written about Xinjiang in various media outlets on a freelance basis, with bylines in The Guardian, Foreign Policy, and Agence France-Presse.

Kasim Kashgar is the Founder and President of Uyghur Monitor. He brings extensive experience in international journalism, having reported on human rights, geopolitics, and Uyghur communities for global audiences.Prior to founding Uyghur Monitor, Kasim worked as a journalist at Voice of America, where he covered developments affecting Uyghur populations and broader regional issues. His reporting has been recognized for its depth and commitment to journalistic integrity.Based in Washington, D.C., he is fluent in Uyghur, English, and Chinese, enabling Uyghur Monitor's multilingual mission.