More than 40 groups to boycott Hilton over planned hotel on Uighur site

More than 40 groups say they are boycotting Hilton over its plans to build a hotel on the site of a demolished Uighur mosque in China's Xinjiang province.

World

1 min read

Brooke Anderson

Washington, D.C.

16 September, 2021

CAIR and other civil rights groups announce boycott of Hilton over planned hotel on demolished Uighur mosque [Getty-file photo]

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, along with 40 other civil rights and advocacy groups, have announced an international boycott of Hilton Worldwide over the company’s construction of a hotel on the site of a bulldozed Uighur mosque in the country’s Xinjiang province.

The groups will hold a press conference on Thursday morning at 11:30am outside the Capital Hilton in Washington DC.

Hilton announced its plans earlier this summer for the hotel, which was immediately met with criticism due to its sensitive location.

China's Uighurs have faced routine crackdowns, including mass surveillance, forced labour, indefinite detention, and destruction of their cultural sites.

A growing number of international institutions are using the term genocide to describe the treatment of the Uighurs.

On 8 September, CAIR led a group of activists to deliver a letter to the Hilton headquarters in northern Virginia. The letter stated that if the hotel chain continued with their project on the site that they would face a boycott.