Letters: Should conservatives be worried that high-spending Boris has a majority?

My father’s imprisonment

Sir: Harald Maass’s piece on the plight of Uyghurs in China (‘A cultural genocide’, December 14) captures the grim reality of what has been happening. Articles like this draw vital attention to the crisis. I am an ethnic Uyghur and live in Belgium with my wife and children. My father, a 58-year-old secondary school teacher from Xinjiang, was jailed in China in April 2018. No reason was provided by the authorities as to why, and there was no trial or any other legal procedure. He was obviously imprisoned just because he is a Uyghur.

After 18 months in prison, he was finally released recently and is at home in Xinjiang. Even so, we have only been in touch once — he and all my family members in China are too afraid to be open with me. Imagining the harsh treatment my father might have gone through almost kills me. I fear that I might never be able to see my family again. To me, it is clear what the Chinese government wants to do: eliminate ethnic Uyghurs and exterminate our culture, identity and spirit.
Aiziheer Ainiwaer

Belgium

It’s behind you

Sir: I was much taken with the Revd Steve Morris’s encounter with the force of nature known in theatrical circles purely as ‘Biggins’ (‘I’m too pretty to play an Ugly Sister’, 7 December). He is a fine actor in many modes but his panto dames are quintessential Biggins. I speak as one who a) sold tickets for him when I was the number three in the RSC Box Office in 1969; and b) has played opposite him in pantomime. I gave my Abanazar to his Twankey, a bracing but ultimately life-enhancing experience as he first created and then effortlessly dominated huge tsunamis of laughter. His command over the audience was extraordinary, even when a little boy was asked what he’d received from Santa and answered: ‘A toilet.