China Detains Ethnic Kazakh Activist in Xinjiang, Scholar Says

Authorities in Xinjiang have detained an outspoken ethnic minority activist, scholar Rune Steenberg said, adding to persistent concerns over human-rights abuses in the far western Chinese region.

Zhanargül Zhumatay, an ethnic Kazakh musician who advocated for the rights of herders, was taken by state security police from her sister’s house in the outskirts of Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi on Friday, according to Steenberg, a postdoctoral researcher and Xinjiang expert affiliated with Palacky University Olomouc in the Czech Republic.