By Saira Khan
Uyghur or Uighur - a term used to describe a person who is a part of a Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic minority in Xinjiang, a northwest region in China. The Uyghurs are currently experiencing, and have been since 2013, widespread repression with intense surveillance and policing tactics. They are also detainees of China’s “re-education and vocational training school.” where they are forced to drink, renounce their religion, not have beards and are prohibited to fast during Ramadan. This has all been carried out to erase ethnic and religious diversity in China through surveillance, imprisonment and indoctrination.
Xinjiang is an autonomous region in China, meaning in theory they have a degree of self governance from Beijing. However, in practice, the region has been under complete control of China’s communist government since 1949. The Xinjiang region has a Uyghur minority and a Han Chinese majority, which is believed to be due to the government encouraging the Han Chinese to migrate to the region after seizing it in 1949. Tension between the two ethnicities is believed to be caused by economic and cultural factors, with the Han Chinese receiving the best jobs and being favoured by the government, while there are severe hindrances on the prosperity of the Uyghurs. Severe restrictions are placed on Islamic practices with fewer mosques and control over the attendance of religious schools. Large scale campaign boarding schools are being made for Uyghur to separate them from their parents and raise a new generation cut from their ethnic and religious roots.
In 2013, the human rights group Amnesty International revealed that authorities criminalised illegal religious and separatist activities and clamped down on expression of peaceful cultural identity. It was only in November of 2018 that Beijing acknowledged the existence of these camps when they described them as “camps for low level criminals and vocational training centres.” Yet it is in these “vocational training centres” where prisoners were hung for hours and beaten with wooden batons and whips made of twisted wire and had their nails pulled off with pliers. They are also subject to medical experiments, organ harvesting and gang rape. Their idea of “low level criminals” are those who have spoken against the communist government or even those who text their relatives abroad about the situation in the country. This is due to the fact that Uyghurs are severely monitored and the media is banned. In July 2019, the government stated that detainees had all been released but this is far from the truth and they even deny that they are committing human rights abuses.
Official documents state that detainees are locked up, tortured and indoctrinated. They are awarded points for their ideological transformation and compliance. This reward system determines whether the detainees are allowed contact with their family once they are released. Four Communist party members must evaluate their ‘transformation’ before being considered for release also. Chinese ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming said the measures had safeguarded local people and there had not been a single terrorist attack in Xinjiang in the past three years."The region now enjoys social stability and unity among ethnic groups. People there are living a happy life with a much stronger sense of fulfilment and security.
In terms of international recognition Uyghur people have testified before the UN, the US Congress and human rights groups but China is unmoved by criticism as they believe it is an “internal affair” and beyond the world’s business. "In total disregard of the facts, some people in the West have been fiercely slandering and smearing China over Xinjiang in an attempt to create an excuse to interfere in China's internal affairs, disrupt China's counter-terrorism efforts in Xinjiang and halt China's steady development." In 2019, it was stated that 1 in every 10 Uyghur people are detained in these camps with a population of 11 million people. The U.K., France, Germany, Australia, Canada, Japan and 17 other countries at the UN have condemned China over their detention of Uyghur Muslims. Zhang Jun, China’s ambassador to the U.N claimed that the accusations were baseless and a “gross interference in their internal affairs.” and that it would affect America’s trade deal with the country. However while having the support of 23 countries, a rival group of 54 countries including Russia, Pakistan, Serbia and Belarus are praising China’s efforts of ‘counter-terrorism’ and their ‘protection of fundamental human right.’
History is repeating itself. With the establishment of these concentration camps comes torture and suffering and silence from the international media and insufficient effort from international powers. Condemning China isn’t enough.
See below for some resources to further educate yourself and petitions to sign
Sources/Resources
Wall Street Journal video Life Inside China's Total Surveillance State
Uighur Woman Tells Congress of Torture in Chinese Internment Camp (1:33) from Time.
Life Inside China’s "Re-Education" Camps (4:32) from Wall Street Journal.
Ex-Detainee Describes Torture in China’s Xinjiang Re-Education Camp (4:56) from NPR's Morning Edition.
Hughes, R., 2018. China's Muslim 'Crackdown' Explained. [online] BBC News. Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-45474279> (Hughes, 2018)
Facing History and Ourselves. 2020. The Targeting Of Uighur Muslims In China. [online] Available at: <https://www.facinghistory.org/educator-resources/current-events/targeting-uighur-muslims-china>
(The Targeting of Uighur Muslims in China, 2020)
BBC News. 2014. Why Is There Tension Between China And The Uighurs?. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-26414014> (Why is there tension between China and the Uighurs?, 2014)
BBC News. 2020. Data Leak Details China's 'Brainwashing System'. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-50511063>
(Data leak details China's 'brainwashing system', 2020)
Kirby, J., 2018. China’S Brutal Crackdown On The Uighur Muslim Minority, Explained. [online] Vox. Available at: <https://www.vox.com/2018/8/15/17684226/uighur-china-camps-united-nations> (Kirby, 2018)
Photo source : BBC
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