Report: China clamping down on Uighurs

Same as it ever was.

Rebiya Kadeer spoke in an Australian Parliament House committee room at the invitation of two government lawmakers despite objections from China, which denounces her as a separatist.

The 65-year-old U.S.-based businesswoman said through an interpreter that the recent overthrow of Middle Eastern governments "sent shock waves through the Chinese leadership that people's patience could run out — people will one day rise up and challenge the authority of the regime."

She said China had responded to the protests with a security crackdown that made the western cities of Kashgar and Urumqi resemble war zones as soldiers searched homes and rounded up members of her Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighur minority and found excuses to detain them.