Whenever I am in Washington, D.C., I make a point of heading to the White House, sometimes two or three times. More times than not, I see a bunch of idiots on Segways with bicycle helmets covering their aging heads, or dozens of tourists with their backs pressed up against the iron fence posing for photographs. But sometimes Pennsylvania Avenue offers up photographic gold. Today was such a day.

On Monday, several Uyghur activists began a hunger strike in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House. They were there today when I arrived at 5:30 PM, marking their third day without food. The autumnal equinox was just 24-hours away, so the light was fading fast, although beautiful patches of sunset cut through the descending darkness.

Republican Congressman Christopher Smith (representing New Jersey’s 4th Congressional District) had his back to the White House as he offered lengthy remarks outlining his efforts on behalf of the Uyghurs. Smith was unhappy with President Biden’s speech earlier today before the United Nations General Assembly, arguing that Biden should have been far more vocal about Chinese human rights abuses. Smith noted the absence of the words “genocide,” “concentration camps,” and “forced sterilization” in Biden’s remarks. Smith also asserted that the relationship between the United States and China would be much different had President Clinton pursued different policies back in the Nineties.

Smith deserves kudos for how he conducted himself during the rally. I’ve seen plenty of elected representatives speak at rallies and demonstrations over the years. An aide often arrives long before the politico, who arrives shortly before the appointed time for his or her speech. Sometimes the elected official mingles with the crowd after the formal remarks, but in many cases, the aide whisks the boss away long before the event concludes.

Smith was already speaking when I arrived, fully engaged with the assembly during the 55 minutes that I was present. When he wasn’t speaking, he posed for photographs, took questions, listened to the stories detailing forced detainments and torture, and comforted demonstrators who lost their composure as they recounted their own victimization or referred to family members who were still incarcerated.

Not to impugn Smith’s motives, but I am curious why Smith has taken such an interest in the plight of the Uyghurs. He might simply be a humanitarian who is passionate about the sort of abuses being inflicted on Muslims who live in East Turkistan. Or his district might include a large block of Uyghur immigrants who are concerned with China’s continuing erasure of Uyghur culture through re-education camps, torture, forced sterilizations, and even murder. Perhaps Smith is a China hawk, who believes the United States should use the Uyghurs as part of a larger campaign discrediting China in the eyes of the world, thereby impeding the Chinese government’s efforts to dominate Asia both economically and militarily. Is he a Peter Navarro acolyte—an uncompromising fanatic?

Whatever his motivation, Smith functions as an committed advocate for the Uyghurs. To date, he has chaired over 75 congressional hearings covering Chinese human rights abuses.

When Smith finished his formal remarks, my attention turned to the four people seated on the ground with white signs in front of them. These were the hunger strikers, three of whom had been imprisoned in Chinese concentration camps. As Smith engaged in an informal back and forth with them, the strikers vacillated, at times overcome by emotion and tears, and at other times retelling their stories with conviction.

One of the strikers, Zumrat Dawut, has a particularly remarkable story, coming to the United States in 2019, having escaped East-Turkestan through Pakistan. Dawut has spoken repeatedly about her forced sterilization and torture, winning condemnation by the Chinese government. Since 2017, the Chinese have detained over 1.8 million Uyghurs in so-called “re-education” camps, arguing that they are simply providing the Uyghurs with skills training, hoping to curb terrorism. Such “re-education” included forcing Dawut to eat pork, use contraception, and house Han Chinese in her home.

Those who want more information about Dawut’s trials and tribulations should read I Escaped a Chinese Internment Camp, an illustrated story authored by Fahmida Azim and Josh Adams; it won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting.

While I looked on, Gulzira Auelhan’s emotions ricocheted in every imaginable direction, like a pinball first being repelled by a flipper, and then bouncing from one bumper to another, rolling down toward the other flipper, only to be sent upward again. Auelhan is one of the four hunger strikers. Tears flooded from her eyes, with her face growing redder by the second. And then a switch flipped, turning Auelhan into a forceful and defiant Uyghur spokesperson.

One of the strikers, Diliyaer Saifuding, stood stoically throughout the proceedings, holding a sign demanding the release of his father. Another woman sat quietly, at times in what might be described as something akin to a fetal position, clearly upset. And then just as the event came to an end, she broke into a gleeful smile. Overall, the strikers and those who were there functioned as a closely-knit community.

I will be interested to see how far the hunger strikers are willing to go. If they remain in Lafayette Park for an extended period, will the Biden Administration make any overtures to them, possibly offering to take more concrete action against the Chinese if the strikers agree to resume eating?

As for the idiots on Segways: they managed to ruin quite a few images, standing motionless in the background as a guide repeated the same prattle for the umpteenth time. They had come to Washington, D.C. to learn about our government and see the monuments, but they completely overlooked the living monuments to human freedom engaged in First Amendment activity while putting their lives on the line. Talk about missing the forest through the trees.

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Copyright 2022, Jack B. Siegel. All Rights Reserved. Do Not Alter, Copy, Display, Distribute, Download, Duplicate, or Reproduce Without the Prior Written Consent of the Copyright Holder.