Tashpolat Tiyip is a Uyghur academic and the former president of Xinjiang University. In 2017, Chinese authorities stopped Tiyip at Beijing airport as he was traveling to Germany and forcibly detained him. It is rumored that Tiyip was secretly sentenced to death. The Chinese government stated to the United Nations that he is detained on corruption charges but has not disclosed details or conditions of his detention. His current whereabouts are unknown.