Sonny Bill Williams: Rugby star condemns China over persecution of Uighur Muslims

NZ forward shares image of Chinese hand grabbing bloody arm representing Xinjiang province

A New Zealand rugby star has become the latest high-profile sportsperson to criticise publicly China's treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority, as well as those who “choose economic benefits over humanity”.

Sonny Bill Williams, one of the world's best-known players, tweeted an image of a hand with the Chinese flag gripping onto a bloody arm representing East Turkmenistan, the former name of China’s Xinjiang province.

Williams, who is a practising Muslim, wrote above the picture: “It’s a sad time when we choose economic benefits over humanity.”

The Rugby World Cup winner’s remarks follow the controversy over Mesut Ozil, the Arsenal midfielder, speaking out in support of China’s Uighurs.

His Premier League club distanced itself on Chinese social media from his comments and a fellow Muslim footballer said Ozil was “wrong” to get involved with politics.

Ozil had called Uighurs “warriors who resist persecution” and highlighted China’s crackdown on their culture and freedoms.

“(In China) Qurans are burned, mosques were closed down, Islamic theological schools, madrasas were banned, religious scholars were killed one by one,” he wrote. “Despite all this, Muslims stay quiet.”

Ozil has been deleted from a football game in China and broadcasters have threatened not to show Arsenal games in the country following the striker’s comments.

It is not the first time Williams, who recently joined club Toronto Wolfpack, has expressed solidarity with Uighurs on social media.

Williams tweeted earlier this month: “If you don’t know what’s happening to the Uighur people in China please enlighten yourself. Always in my duas.”

At least one million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities are estimated to have been detained in camps in China. Beijing has admitted the camps' existence but refers to them as voluntary "vocational training" centres, and said recently that all who attended them had now "graduated".

A series of leaked documents have revealed more details on the apparently planned crackdown on China’s Muslim minorities, including systemic detention and brainwashing in the centres camps and how freedom to practise their faith is restricted.

The UK has called on China to open up access to its detention centres – kept under a veil of secrecy – to UN inspectors.