Historian of China & Central Asia and mandolinist w By & By. Work on Xinjiang, Qing, Silk Road, & stringed instruments across Eurasia.@jimmillward@bsky.social
Washington DC
Joined April 2011
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Xinjiang Syllabus: a short list of key readings on the crisis in Xinjiang / East Turkestan:
jimmillward.medium.com/xinji…
James Millward 米華健 retweeted
The Uyghur Times Reddit account was hacked and terminated, and its username was changed to “Disastrous-End-4540” (4540 means “I am dead, I am dead” in Chinese culture and internet slang: 是我死了，是我死了). All content published on the account over the past five years, along with the followers we had gained, has disappeared entirely. Reddit has not responded to our emails or requests to recover the account.
@Reddit @Reddit_Support , do you want to Disastrous-End to Uyghur Times ?
Very well reported story on how new Starbucks in Urumchi stands on property confiscated from a private Uyghur company during mass internment / incarceration campaign a few years ago. Taken and sold at auction to a single state company bidder. kozet.org/starbucks-urumqi-s…
James Millward 米華健 retweeted
Fascinating how Gaza has exposed the intellectual emptiness and ignorance and dishonesty of our ‘public intellectuals.’
Historian Simon Schama seems blissfully unaware that the definition of genocide doesn’t revolve around percentages killed and, even if it did, far fewer proportions of the Uyghur and Rohingya populations have been killed than in Gaza and yet the US government classifies both of those cases as genocides.
James Millward 米華健 retweeted
That’s rich coming from someone who wears his bed sheets out at night.
James Millward 米華健 retweeted
Since June, ICE has been arresting Hongkongers lawfully present in the US by intercepting airports, holding them for weeks, and pressuring them to sign voluntary departure forms. In every case I’ve handled, courts eventually order them released, but this only happens after weeks or months of illegal detention of innocent people. Even after release, many are forced by ICE to wear ankle monitors and barred from leaving their area.
@phelimkine of @politico investigates these illegal detentions in a new article out today. DHS told him that DED "is not a status." But Hanscom Smith, who served as US consul general in Hong Kong under both Trump and Biden, shared the reality: if you're a Hongkonger here on DED, you're here legally.
Many of these people were part of the 2019 democracy protests. Administration officials have told us the White House will not extend DED past February 5. After that, DHS's position is that it can put them on a plane back to a government that jails people for wearing a "liberate Hong Kong" T-shirt or posting pro-democracy statements on social media.
Senator Merkley and Rep. McGovern's Hong Konger Promise of Refuge Act would let these Hongkongers stay and apply for green cards. It is the clearest fix on the table, and it needs support now. Time is short: Please ask your senators and representative to cosponsor it.
Republicans in particular: this should be your bill too. In 2021 Marco Rubio cosponsored legislation to fast-track Hong Kong exiles for refugee status. These are pro-democracy Hongkongers fleeing the Chinese Communist Party, and every one of them was vetted before arriving. We need Republican cosponsors to get it moving, and I'm glad to talk with any office considering it.
politico.com/news/2026/10/10…
Happy to be giving a talk at UC Irvine on Oct 12: "Structuring Chinese History: Diwang tu 帝王图, Nianbao 年表, 'Chinese Dynasties' Charts, and Paradigmatic Crisis in Chinese Historiography" as part of a cool-day long program: Revisiting the Past humanities.uci.edu/events/re…
Big crowd turned out this evening to defend the Kennedy Center from Trump attacks. He wants to tear it down because a judge told him he can’t put his name on it. That’s what we have to deal with.
I wish it were not so far fetched in US politics to suggest that when Trump et al are displaced, US should rejoin ICC and submit them for war crimes prosecution. Just talking about doing so would help — let’s open the Overton window. theguardian.com/world/2026/s…
James Millward 米華健 retweeted
On August 14, 2026, passengers flying on Etihad Airways were stunned when a Chinese in-flight broadcast suddenly welcomed them to "China Taiwan."
While the English pre-landing announcement correctly said "Welcome back to Taiwan," the Chinese version completely altered the geopolitical reality.
It even warned travelers they could face fines from the "China government" for bringing in meat products.
When angry passengers confronted the cabin crew, they admitted they were simply reading a newly updated script from headquarters.
The national airline of the United Arab Emirates had quietly changed its standard language. In the process, they stripped a sovereign democracy of its identity to sound like a subordinate province of the Chinese Communist Party.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately protested the broadcast. As the official diplomatic body representing the island's sovereignty, they demanded an instant correction.
The fierce public backlash worked. On August 21, Etihad issued a formal apology to Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration and scrubbed the offensive wording from all future flights.
James Millward 米華健 retweeted
What a disgusting piece of propagandistic trash this is. The State Department reduced to shilling for the most corrupt USG ever. state.gov/releases/office-of…
How about the thousands of students denied research opportunities because Trump has GUTTED RESEARCH FUNDING?!
Are you an American student, postdoctoral researcher, or academic who believes you were denied a research position, laboratory opportunity, or postdoctoral appointment because preference was given to applicants from China?
@ChinaSelect wants to hear from you. If you have firsthand information or supporting documentation, please contact the Committee through our whistleblower email at [email protected].
Now this committee, too, has to flog the bogus narrative that universities are hotbeds of DEI radicals doing nothing but looking for white men to discriminate against. Guys, it won’t help your task to earn disdain of all the China experts with your Trump / Miller racism.
Are you an American student, postdoctoral researcher, or academic who believes you were denied a research position, laboratory opportunity, or postdoctoral appointment because preference was given to applicants from China?
@ChinaSelect wants to hear from you. If you have firsthand information or supporting documentation, please contact the Committee through our whistleblower email at [email protected].
James Millward 米華健 retweeted
I can’t recommend this episode enough for understanding the CCP machinery of repression. This Han police officer sees himself as a victim of the system, which is true, but is unwilling to recognize that he was also a perpetrator. That’s disappointing, but not surprising.
张亚博在新疆当了9年警察，参与中国政府对维吾尔人的大规模监控、拘禁和强制同化政策。他说，自己只是在执行命令，是国家机器上的“小螺丝钉”。他认为，自己也是体制的受害者。
受到体制的伤害，能否免除一个人协助体制加害他人的责任？这期播客探讨了关于责任、罪责和救赎：youtube.com/watch?v=_aAAAT3k…
James Millward 米華健 retweeted
I see so many people (rightly) praising the depth and erudition of this interview and lamenting that in other large countries (such as the U.S. and India) media interactions with Nolan or the cast of the Odyssey are mostly mindless infotainment. (I don’t know if this is true, but I have no reason to doubt it.)
The explanation I don’t buy is that only China is producing people who can discuss the Odyssey with depth and complexity. The only difference between China and the U.S. here is that a Chinese PhD student gets to question Nolan whereas her American peer would never penetrate the PR machinery around the director. She would have to compete with Joe Rogan.
Is Christopher Nolan portraying Bronze Age / Archaic Period Greece as a civilization at Dusk because of American decline? Orders of magnitude smarter discussion on the movie from this Chinese podcaster
Citizen Historians singing to support the Smithsonian against White House / Heritage Foundation bogus attacks. It’s your museum—go visit it! Don’t believe the trash-talk (all tied to fundraising efforts by Heritage Foundation)
This is a very important publication: Zenz has codified his systematic methodology for investigating rights abuses through the document trails of China (or other regimes) themselves. Widely applicable for journalists, social scientists. Weaponize your research chops!
