The Genocide of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang
If you've been reading the news since the fall of 2019, you've probably heard by now about the "re-education" camps in Xinjiang, China. But if you're like most people, you don't know the dark depths of what's going on there right now. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is arbitrarily detaining roughly two million Uyghur Muslims, ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities. Under the outgoing Trump administration, the US state department declared the Chinese government's treatment of Uyghurs to be "genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity" in January. The US was subsequently joined by similar denouncements from the Canadian and Dutch parliaments. Still, the Chinese government has repeatedly defended its actions in Xinjiang. Foreign Minister Wang Yi called allegations of genocide "preposterous" during a March 7th news conference.
The CCP has told the world and UN officials that these "re-education" camps are vocational facilities that have been put in place to end terrorism and alleviate poverty in the region. That is only one small part of a much more disturbing truth. These "re-education" camps are concentration camps where inmates are subjected to torcher, gang rape, systematic rape, organ harvesting, medical experimentation, sterilization, forcibly denouncing their Muslim faith to become more "Chinese," they're beaten, and they're killed. The urgency of this matter cannot be stressed enough. The people in these camps are innocent. Their only 'crime' is the misfortune of being Muslim in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The People's Republic of China is directly in breach of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. According to the convention, There are five ways in which Genocide can take place. While violating only one act in the Genocide Convention would constitute a finding of Genocide, the Chinese government has broken all five provisions of the UN genocide convention. In a 2018 interview with Human Rights Watch, Sophie Richardson, the China Director at Human Rights Watch, said, "The authorities [The CCP] have stepped up their "Strike Hard" Campaign which is designed on paper to eradicate terrorist threats but in reality is being used to justify massive abuses across the region including the establishment of political education camps in which people are forced to swear their loyalty to the party and the government."
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on his final day in office (January 19th, 2021), said, "In the anguished cries from Xinjiang, the US hears the echoes of Nazi Germany, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur." Researchers cited official CCP speeches and documents in which Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are referred to as "weeds" and "tumors." This is eerily reminiscent of the language used in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide when the Tutsis were called "cockroaches" by the Hutu perpetrators. The CCP's targeting of Uyghur intellectuals brings to mind the Cambodian Genocide and the killing of everyone with glasses under the Pol Pot regime, and the rise of the Khmer Rouge. One CCP government directive allegedly called on local authorities to "break their [the Uyghur Muslims] lineage, break their roots, break their connections and break their origins." This is the language of Genocide. This is ethnic cleansing.
Evidence
There is overwhelming evidence that Genocide is taking place, based on public and leaked Chinese communications, thousands of witness testimonies from refugees and ex-pats with family in Xinjiang, and satellite imagery.
The first independent report was published on Tuesday, March 9th, by the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a non-partisan Washington, DC think tank. It involved more than 50 global experts in human rights and international law who conducted the first non-government analysis of China's alleged actions in Xinjiang. Azeem Ibrahim, the director of special initiatives at Newlines and a co-author of the report, described China's leadership as "architects of genocide" in an interview with CNN.
However, many speculators have made arguments either denying that the camps exist altogether, denying that China is committing Genocide, denying Adrien Zens' credibility (a German anthropologist known for his studies of Xinjiang internment camps), spewing irrelevant whataboutism, or claiming that front-page news articles regarding the actions of the CCP in regards to the ethnic cleansing of Uyghurs are a CIA western propaganda effort similar to that of the false accusation of "Weapons of Mass Destruction" made during the Bush Administration, in order for the US to go to war with Iraq, following 9/11. And so on.
Here's my issue with all of that:
There are half-truths and holes in many of these arguments. It is not unlikely that western media is grooming us for war. War is profitable.
However, it is also true that thousands of people worldwide have come forward with witness testimonies claiming first-hand accounts of the genocide that the CCP is committing against Muslims in Xinjiang. It is not possible for the CIA to have paid off that many people in a false flag operation. The numbers are too great.
If you have done extensive research on the topic and you still don't believe that there is a genocide happening, I have two questions for you:
1. What evidence/source would you trust?
2. Are you a holocaust denier as well?
Witness Testimony
Tursunay Ziawudun, a former Xinjiang camp detainee, told the BBC that women were taken from their cells every night to be raped by Guards. She said that she was subjected to three separate instances of gang rape while detained. She accounts being tortured in the form of a guard placing an electric baton inside of her and shocking her until she passed out. Her injuries were so severe that she had to have her uterus removed upon her asylum in the US due to all of the internal damage.
Ziawudun said, "They don't only rape but also bite all over your body; you don't know if they are human or animal."
In an interview with CNN, Ivan Watson, the senior international correspondent, asked Ziawudun, "The Chinese Government says no women were abused in these camps. What do you say to the Chinese government?" she said:
"I am a 43-year-old woman. Do you think this is something I could be proud of sharing with the whole world? I would tell them that I'm not afraid of them anymore because they already killed my soul."
There are hundreds of testimonies like Ziawuduns. There are first-hand accounts from former victims who have come forward, including Qelbinur Sidik, Gulbahar Haitiwaji, and Gulbinar Jalilova, to name a few. The more you know, the worse it gets. Many Muslims don't come forward because it's incredibly dangerous to do so. If the Chinese government deems them as subversive, their families may be punished or worse. In fact, the CCP can arrest Muslims in Xinjiang for any reason at all. They can be detained for reasons including but not limited to:
Having a beard
Wearing a veil
Applying for a passport
Communicating with people from different countries (including their families).
Setting their clocks to a different time zone
Accidentally viewing foreign internet sites
The Chinese government's intense surveillance capitalism makes it incredibly difficult for Uyghurs to have any hope of escaping them. In a chilling attempt to deport Uyghur Muslims abroad, The CCP's strong-arm reached beyond China when they ratified extraditions in various other countries.
Why is China Doing This?
It's complicated.
Rarely do you find in politics that any given policy carried out by any country has one single cause or motivation. Popular news sources will tell you that this is an ethnocide or religious persecution, and in a way, it is. The truth is much more complicated than that. It usually is.
1) The Belt and Road Initiative
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a massive one trillion-dollar infrastructure project and investments scheme that would stretch from East Asia to Europe. Specialists are saying that the Uyghur Genocide is directly related to the BRI, many of whom also see it as a disturbing expansion of Chinese power and military expansion. Xinjiang covers an area so large that it accounts for one-sixth of China's landmass. It is rich in natural resources such as oil, natural gas, and coal reserves that make up more than 20% of China's energy reserves.
In other words, the region is a national powerhouse. Some experts say that Xinjiang's geopolitical position as China's bridge to central and south Asia is another motive behind Beijing's efforts to control the region and prevent any possible dissent. China's President Xi Jinping introduced the BRI in 2013, to connect China with over 150 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. The Uyghur way of life, religion, separatist sentiment and attachment to the land, are seen by the CCP as a risk to the successful installation of the BRI.
In an interview with VOA news, Sean Roberts, an international development professor at George Washington University, said, "The intention to make Xinjiang a central part of BRI created a new urgency in the CCP to prevent further Uyghur dissent in the region. In many ways, what we are seeing today is an attempt to eliminate any possible Uyghur dissent [in regard to] the transformation of their homeland that the BRI will inevitably facilitate."
2) Responding to Terrorism in the Name of Separatism
The Uyghurs are a Muslim Turkic ethnic group distinct from the Han Chinese east Asian group, which makes up most of China's demographic core, and they've been known to have separatist sentiments in the past. They have much more in common with their Islamic neighbors in the Central Asian countries to the west than with atheistic and quasi-Confucian Beijing.
The best examples of Uyghur separatism are the two secessionist republics set up by them and their siding with joint White and Red Russian forces in their invasion of China during the Xinjiang wars (1930s/1940s).
A faction of the Uyghurs have also more recently committed violent acts in the name of ethnic separatism. The 2009 riots and the terrorist attacks being key examples. For this reason, China promotes Han and Hui immigration into Xinjiang as a means to demographically replace the local populace. This is why they have drastically reduced Turkic birth rates.
China's worried. And this isn't a new concern.
3) Convenience
It provides a convenient source of slave labor and halal organs to sell to high-paying Saudi customers.
History
To understand why China is committing Genocide against Uyghur Muslims, you have to look at the history of the Uyghur minority in its relationship to the Han majority and the CCP.
Once known as "East Turkestan," Xinjiang officially came under Chinese rule during the 18th century. From Muslim revolts during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) to the Xinjiang Wars in the 1930s and 1940s, this is an ethnoreligious and political struggle that has been going on for decades, and arguably, for centuries. The unrest did not suddenly arise with the coming to power of the CCP in 1949. Nor did it begin with the expansion of Islam from the Middle East or Afghanistan. Neither ISIS nor Al-Qaeda are primarily responsible for the conflict in Xinjiang, although there is evidence that some Uyghurs have worked with both groups.
Following the collapse of the Soviets in 1991, Turkic people in central Asia formed independent states in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. However, there was no equivalent liberation for the Uyghurs, who the CCP still overpowered. Frustration led to an increase of resistance by clandestine militant groups inside Xinjiang and others in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan.
An impossibly interwoven dance of growing oppression, protests in response to the oppression, and oppression in response to the protests have played out since then. Tensions reached a boiling point in 2009 during the ethnic riots between the Uyghurs and the Han in Xinjiang. Since then, the Chinese have steadily increased the already draconian restrictions on the movement and culture of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
In May of 2014, the Government of China launched the "Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Terrorism" in Xinjiang. In 2019, these oppressive campaign efforts were dramatically heightened when CCP Secretary Chen Quanguo relocated from the Tibet Autonomous Region to assume control of Xinjiang. The indoctrination of Uyghur Muslims at the camps began in 2017.
What Are Other Countries Doing About This?
Many countries have supported the Chinese government, including countries in Africa, South Asia, the middle east, parts of Southeast Asia, and ex-soviet states like Russia, Belarus, and Turkmenistan. However, many countries have taken measures such as speaking out against the Chinese government, placing sanctions on China, holding protests, or forming awareness groups. These countries include countries within the EU, Canada, the UK, Japan, New Zealand, Turkey, and the US. The US has sanctioned tomato and cotton products that were produced through slave labor in Xinjiang. There's also talk of canceling the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
None of this is enough.
Governments must pursue multilateral measures to send a strong message to the highest levels of the Chinese government to end this undeniable attack on human rights. Senior officials must use all opportunities to challenge President Xi publicly. Senior officials responsible for the Strike Hard Campaign, including Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, should face targeted sanctions – through tools like the US Global Magnitsky Act and visa protocols. Appropriate export control regimes must be imposed to deny China technologies that facilitate abuses. Governments must take action to assist their own people harmed by Xinjiang's cruel policies and expedite asylum claims of people at risk of being returned to persecution in Xinjiang.
What is the UN Doing About This?
Since the Genocide convention was introduced in 1948, most convictions for Genocide have occurred in the International Criminal Tribunals held by the UN, such as those for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, or in national courts. However, any establishment of an International Criminal Tribunal would require the UN Security Council's approval, of which China is a permanent member with veto power. This makes any hearing on the allegations of Genocide in Xinjiang unlikely.
That being said, the political obstacles to holding the CCP accountable for its violations do not relieve the UN and governments of their responsibilities to uphold human rights protections.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, discussed the possibility of a visit to Xinjiang in order to examine "the impact on human rights of its policies" in September 2020. Since then, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' office has negotiated terms of access to China. Still, the High Commissioner has not visited the country.
Most recently, at a March 2021 meeting of the UNHCR, the US ambassador condemned the CCP's human rights violations in Xinjiang as "crimes against humanity and genocide." Still, 64 countries (including China) issued a statement urging member states not to interfere in Chinese affairs in Xinjiang and not to make "unfounded allegations against China out of political motivations"”
It's not looking good.
What You Can Do to Help
1) Spread Awareness
We must talk to other people. We must post on social media. We must talk to friends and family and raise awareness so that more people realize the severity of the situation. Students should organize protests, create viral hashtags, make donations, write more news about Uyghurs and bring these concerns to the general public. You can start or contribute to Go Fund Me's for Uyghur Muslims seeking asylum in the US or other countries who have lost contact with their families.
2) Put Pressure on People in Positions of Power
We must force the UN Human Rights Council to do its job. We must put pressure on the IOC (International Olympics Committee) to pull the Olympics from Beijing. We must sanction every CCP leader possible. We must do our best to damage China economically. China holds too much power over the global organizations that are supposed to be acting as impartial referees, and we need to put pressure on those organizations (aka The UN & the Biden Administration).
3) Boycott Chinese Products
Imagine if every individual boycotted Chinese products? Not everyone has the financial means to do this, but if there was ever a time to be more intentional with where you buy your products from, it's now. Don't support slave labor.
4) Keep Paying Attention
Stay tuned to see what steps are taken by various forms of government and the UN in relation to the camps. Acknowledge the problem of forced labor in supply chains and look for legislation that bans companies from having forced labor in their supply chains. Pay attention to future discussions about the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Everything that happens in China should be of interest to everyone in the world. Speak up.
Bottom Line
Did a faction of the Uyghurs commit terrorist attacks? Yes.
Does that give China the right to detain and torture millions of innocent people who had nothing to do with those terrorist attacks? No.
What should China have done about the terrorist attacks?
They should have solely condemned the perpetrators. They should have acknowledged their own role in the oppressive acts and tensions built up that led up to those terrorist attacks. They should have respected the Turkic people's Muslim faith instead of oppressing them and placing increasingly draconian restrictions on them.
But that's not how the CCP operates. Instead, they condemned everyone. They doubled down with their "Strike Hard" campaign, and they fought the terrorism they provoked, with more terrorism.
There is now overwhelming evidence that Genocide is taking place. There are witness testimonies documented of women and men who have been gang-raped and tortured so violently that it's resulted in death or invasive surgery due to internal damage. There's no way to know how high the casualty numbers are when the CCP's atrocities on human rights are hidden behind a thick curtain of Communism. Meanwhile, the Chinese government is forcing prisoners to flex for western cameras in a truly Orwellian fashion, singing songs like, "if you're happy and you know it clap your hands." This is a flimsy attempt to appease human rights concerns. This is the stuff of dystopian nightmares. Except it's real. And it already happened before, in 1933.
