At a press event in Taipei, activist Rushan Abbas claimed the Chinese government had woefully underreported the death toll from the Nov. 24, 2022 fire and that the figure was actually in the "triple digits."
While China officially maintains that 10 people, all ethnic Uyghurs, died in the fire, this has been disputed by overseas activists citing information from social media.
Abbas has been touring Taiwan since Nov. 17 to screen "In Search of My Sister," which the activist said documents her efforts to find and free her sister Gulshan, a retired doctor, who disappeared in September 2018.
In 2020, Abbas said that the Chinese government had sentenced her sister to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges following a secret trial.
According to Abbas, her sister's imprisonment was likely in retaliation for her advocacy work leading Campaign for Uyghurs, which Beijing considers a terrorist organization.
[Edit typo.]