Citing a recent Chinese official announcement about sentencing Gulshan Abbas, sister of Uighur-American activist Rushan Abbas, to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges in Xinjiang, Nury Turkel, a commissioner at the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), said the Chinese government frequently uses relatives of Uighurs abroad as hostages to intimidate and silence activists, reports Voice of America.

“Many Uighurs who live overseas continue to live in fear for their safety and the safety of their relatives still in the Uighur region,” Turkel told VOA.

Rushan Abbas earlier told the news channel  that her sister’s imprisonment is a retaliation against her activism in the United States.

“Six days after I had given a speech on a panel at (the) Hudson Institute about China’s abuses against Uighurs in September 2018, my sister was taken from her home by Chinese authorities,” she told VOA, explaining that terrorism is the term China uses when targeting Uighur activists and their families.