Since 2017, the Chinese government has detained more than a million Muslims in re-education camps in the region of Xinjiang and have also subjected them to many other human rights abuses such as intense surveillance, forced labour and involuntary sterilisations. Most of the detainees are Uyghurs, a predominantly Turkic-speaking ethnic group who make up approximately 45% of the population in Xinjiang. Although Chinese officials claim that these camps closed in 2019, with the governor of Xinjiang claiming that the detainees have ‘graduated’, international journalists and researchers have uncovered evidence that the mass detention of Uyghurs has not ceased. For example, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) identified over 380 suspected detention facilities. Another concerning finding is that there has been a shift towards using the justice system to unrightfully imprison Uyghurs by accusing them of being political extremists due to them practising their religion. This is evidenced by the Associated Press’ findings, which discovered that 4% of civilians in one county have been sentenced to prison on terrorism-related charges, all of them Uyghurs. However, despite the public outcry regarding this situation, the international response has not been sufficient to hold the Chinese government accountable for its actions and more must be done to provide aid to victims.
Why is the Chinese government persecuting Uyghurs?
The Chinese government justifies their actions by claiming that these re-education camps are ‘vocational training centres’ used to prevent terrorism. Discrimination against Uyghurs has existed in Xinjiang for many years but this escalated in 2009, when there were violent clashes between the Uyghurs and the Han Chinese, leading to around 200 casualties, in which most of them were Han Chinese. This has acted as a rationale for the government’s misguided prejudice towards Islam and associating the practise of this religion with political extremism. Their actions towards Uyghurs have also been part of a larger campaign by Chinese president Xi Jinping to promote Han nationalism, which is the country’s ethnic majority, and to suppress other ethnic and religious identities that may conflict with the loyalty towards the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The government is also motivated by economic reasons, as Uyghurs carry out forced labour in camps, boosting the economic growth in Xinjiang. Additionally, the importance of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects has propelled the Xi Administration to increase its repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. The BRI projects aim to develop new trade routes to increase China’s connectivity with the rest of the world, including Xinjiang’s connectivity with countries in Central Asia and the Middle East. As organisations such as the East Turkistan Islamic Party and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have threatened to seize Xinjiang, this has enhanced CCP’s concerns about separatist ideas among the Xinjiang Muslim population and thus contributed to their desire to persecute the Uyghurs. The BRI projects also serve to benefit the economies of other countries, reducing the global outcry towards the CCP’s actions, allowing them to continue their re-education efforts.
What is happening in these detainment camps?
Sources such as a UN report in 2022 and exposés found that detainees underwent psychological indoctrination programmes which involved pledging loyalty to the CCP and renouncing Islam, studying communist propaganda, praising Xi Jinping and learning Mandarin. They were also monitored constantly by cameras and microphones, tortured and subjected to sleep deprivation during interrogations. Furthermore, detainees were forced to consume unknown medications and women were subjected to sexual abuse, forced abortions and sterilisations.
However, repression of Uyghurs does not only occur in these camps. There has also been a birth control campaign to reduce the population of Uyghurs, which involves procedures such as forced gynaecological exams for minorities after mandatory flag-raising ceremonies and being threatened with mass internment centres for ‘having too many children’. This has caused a drastic reduction in the birth rate of Xinjiang and has been considered genocide by experts and the Uyghur Tribunal as it demonstrated an intention to significantly reduce the population of Uyghur, fulfilling the definition set out in Article II of the Genocide Convention, which is ‘a crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part’. Aside from the efforts to reduce the population of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, another human rights violation committed by the CCP is the mass surveillance of Uyghurs both inside and outside detainment camps. China has been tracking Uyghur individuals through technology such as biometric data collection of facial imagery and genomic surveillance through mandatory DNA sampling. Mobile phones are also connected to police checkpoints in the city and civilians are flagged for actions such as reading religious material or downloading banned apps such as WhatsApp. Uyghurs are also required to actively demonstrate their loyalty to the CCP by participating in communist group chats on WeChat, the government approved social media application, and documenting their political activities online. This demonstrates that while the focus of journals and news articles is usually on the torturous activities that occur within re-education camps, Uyghurs both inside and outside these centres face daily and extensive repression.
What is the global response to this situation?
The Uyghur tribunal was established in 2021 to review evidence and to objectively determine whether China had committed international crimes. Although the tribunal came to the conclusion that the Chinese government was committing genocide and other crimes against humanity, it could not be held properly accountable as the two international courts that can issue formal rulings on China’s policies in Xinjiang had not taken up the case. This is because China is not bound to be tried by the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice can only pursue cases that have met the approval of the United Nations Security Council, which China is a permanent member of and thus can veto this decision. Even so, some countries have demonstrated their opposition towards China’s treatment of the Uyghurs by imposing sanctions and restrictions. For example, the US imposed visa bans on officials involved with the persecution of Uyghurs and banned all imports from Xinjiang under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. There was also a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics due to the human rights atrocities China was committing. However, this is insufficient to stop China’s repression of Muslim minorities as its status as an economic superpower means that many countries have chosen to ignore the situation in order to maintain trade relations with the PRC. As a result, the UN rights council voted down a motion to hold a debate regarding the alleged human rights abuses by China against Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang, allowing the government to avoid further scrutiny. This raises concerns that China can continue suppressing Uyghurs without being held liable for its actions.
References
Associated Press. (2020, July 10). US imposes sanctions on senior Chinese officials over Uighur abuses | Xinjiang | The Guardian. Amp.theguardian.com. https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/10/us-imposes-sanctions-on-senior-chinese-officials-over-uighur-abuses
BBC. (2022, May 24). Who Are the Uighurs? BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-22278037
Cheshire, T. (2021, December 9). China guilty of committing genocide against Uyghur people, tribunal finds. Sky News. https://news.sky.com/story/china-guilty-of-committing-genocide-against-uyghur-people-tribunal-finds-12490720
China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. (n.d.). Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved December 5, 2022, from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/china-xinjiang-uyghurs-muslims-repression-genocide-human-rights#chapter-title-0-9
Chinese Persecution of the Uyghurs — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (n.d.). Www.ushmm.org; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/china/case-study/current-risks/chinese-persecution-of-the-uyghurs
Goudarzi, S. (2022, October 27). China’s high-tech surveillance drives oppression of Uyghurs. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. https://thebulletin.org/2022/10/chinas-high-tech-surveillance-drives-oppression-of-uyghurs/#:~:text=Developed%20in%20partnership%20with%20private
