East
Turkestan was occupied by China in 1949, and accordingly renamed to Xinjiang, which
is currently the largest province in China. Uyghurs are the native residents of
East Turkestan and many of them have vanished; estimates fluctuate between
800,000 and a few millions detained in a vast network of compounds, which
the Chinese government calls reeducation centers, or centers for vocational
training, while human rights activists around the world call them China’s
Concentration Camps.
They are
called Uyghurs or Uighurs, they are mainly Muslims, they speak the Turkic
language, and they live in Xinjiang, the far north western part of China. China
occupied this region, previously known as East Turkestan in 1949, and since
then the Chinese governments have been worried about separatism among
Uyghurs. Till now, separatists and other Uyghurs insist on maintaining
their language and ethnic identity, as well as their religion(s) and East
Turkestan as a name for the region. This is among the key reasons for the Chinese government to keep targeting Uyghurs.
Since 2017,
the Chinese government has been building these increasingly large compounds in
East Turkestan (Xinjiang). China’s internment camps are surrounded by high walls with
razor wire, and their main aim is to erase the detainee’s ethnic and religious identity.
The Chinese
government has tried to keep these camps a secret, just like every other
troubling issues of governance in China; however, they recently had to admit
the existence of such camps. They were pressured by multiple governments and
institutions, after satellite imagery showed changes in landscape, for
instance, in one area empty a couple of years ago, a facility covering 5.6
million square feet was established. Until this moment, news networks and human
rights organizations across the globe are not capable of determining the
number of prisoners in China’s Concentration Camps.
How are
Uyghurs treated in these camps?
Detainees
are given lessons in laws and loyalty to the state. For long hours, they are
required to chant “There is no such thing as religion”, “All hail the Chinese
state”, “All hail the Chinese President Xi Jinping”, “Long live Xi Jinping”,
“Lenience for those who repent and punishment for those who resist”.
Anyone who
could not memorize a book of slogans and rules within 14 days would be denied
food or beaten. Those who complained about the indoctrination were reportedly
tortured through waterboarding, starvation and electric shocks. Snakes
are being used for interrogation, detainees may also get their nails or
teeth pulled out, get forced into restraint devices and stress positions
for hours, beaten until they are dead, or even sterilized; making
these Nazi style concentration camps a typical attempt of genocide.
There are no
verdicts and no sentences, the number of detainees remains unknown and the
release of any of them entirely depends on a decision to be made by the Chinese
government’s officials. According to some of the former detainees, the sole
purpose of these camps is to strip Muslims of their religious identity, and their
only crime was being Muslims, however, other camp survivors confirm that their
ethnicities were also considered crimes; Uyghurs, Tibbets and Kazakhs are
currently among the main targets of the Chinese government.
The Chinese
government keeps insisting that these “reeducation centers” are only a tool to prevent
extremism in a region it considers vulnerable. Former detainees on the
other hand reported that they were being forced to sing the anthems of the
Chinese Communist Party, forced to repeat slogans about the greatness of
president Xi Jinping, while describing what a great place China is to live in,
they were also ordered to disavow Islam, and other brainwashing
activities that are aimed at affiliating people with the Chinese state and
nothing else, disorienting them from their own ethnicities and religion(s).
How does
the Chinese government define extremism?
China’s government
claims to be combatting extremism, so what do they mean by extremism? And who
can be considered an extremist?
Those who
avoid alcohol, don’t smoke, wear hijab, have a long beard, go to Friday
prayers, recite the funeral prayer and greet each other by saying Al-Salam
Aleekom (meaning peace be upon you) are categorized as extremists.
Citizens are
obliged to fill an application, which includes questions such as, are you a
Uyghur? Do you have a job? Do you have a passport? Do you pray? Answers
to these questions were turned into a scoring system, in order to
categorize people, into “Safe”, “Regular”, and “Unsafe” people.
Even before
creating the Nazi style concentration camps, religion has been received by the
state as a mental illness that had to be corrected. Government officials keep
claiming that their treatment of people inside the “reeducation centers” is humane,
justified and legal.
Over the
years, the Chinese government has been destroying churches and mosques, while
forcing some Priests to replace the holy images in some churches with the
picture of the Chinese President Xi Jinping. According to multiple human
rights activists and organizations, the Chinese government is aiming to erase
religion (especially Islam), as well as ethnicity, especially when it comes to
Uyghurs, Tibbets, and Kazakhs.
Resource
Rich Occupied Territories
Chinese
governments had their unique imperialistic approach in regard to the treatment
of occupied countries and territories. The British Empire for instance used to
let the annexed countries maintain the name of the country, while leaving
cultures and ethnicities almost untouched and maintaining control over the
resources, as well as the governments of these countries. The French
governments used to have a similar approach of control, while attempting to
embed the French culture within occupied territories, making it difficult for
any movements of resistance to get rid of the French control.
The Chinese
governments on the other hand has renamed occupied territories like East
Turkestan; they aimed at getting them integrated within the Eco-Political
system of the mainland, but this never meant that Uyghurs and other ethnic
minorities would be getting the same treatment as the Hun Chinese. The
ethnically Hun citizens would just get treated with the regular oppression
of a dictatorship, when Uyghurs, Tibbets, and Kazakhs would always be
treated as inferior citizens. For instance, Uyghur girls are
reportedly being forced to marry Hun Chinese men, as a part of the
state’s plan to erase the Uyghurs’ ethnic identity.
From Tibet Truth
Uyghurs have
long held economic grievances with the state, for instance, when it comes to
job distribution, most jobs are dedicated to the majority ethnically Han
Chinese. East Turkestan, just like Tibet is treated as a resource rich
occupied territory. Inside Tibet, the situation has been ridiculously dire
since 2008; citizens have been heavily scrutinized, and more than 150
Tibetans have set themselves on fire to protest the lack of freedom of speech,
freedom of movement and freedom of religion.
Surveillance
in the Digital Dictatorship of China
Technology
is at the core of the Chinese government’s digital dictatorship, and
the government has built an especially advanced police state in Xinjiang.
In every 100 meters or so you can
see a police station implanted in Xinjiang, aided with enormous amounts of
CCTV cameras, with facial recognition technology; in order to enable
the state’s totalitarian control over the region’s residents. With this kind of
technology, they are most probably capable of counting each citizen’s breaths.
The locals can rarely have a
chance to communicate their fears to foreign reporters (who rarely visit the
province and try to investigate the issue); armed guards and surveillance
cameras are spread all over the region, when Chinese flags are enforced on
roof tops of several buildings, including the dimes of the mosques.
The Chinese government is moving
forward to apply a “Social Score” system in which almost every instance of a
citizen’s life is recorded, and the score is calculated accordingly. Low
Social Scores may mean imposing restrictions on citizens in terms of
travel, banking services, transportation, employment… or may even mean detainment.
Miserable enough for the majority of the Chinese
citizens, this system involves an enormous burden on ethnic minorities in
China. If you are a Hun Chinese, you are deemed trustworthy and granted freedom
of movement (as long as you do not oppose the state or have trouble meeting any
of your social, legal or financial obligations), if you are a Uyghur, you
start with an average score, with restrictions imposed on travel and
religious practices. If you are a Uyghur male who breaks any restrictions, you
are marked as untrustworthy and detained in what the Chinese Communist
Party calls “Education and Training Centers”.
Part of the
surveillance effort is to collect bio metric data such as iris scans, finger
prints, voice scans, and DNA. According to the Chinese authorities, 36
million people in Xinjiang took part in a program called “Physicals for all” between
2016 and 2017.
To improve
their DNA tracking and testing capabilities, China’s Police purchased genetic
sequencing equipment, and worldwide genetic data to compare them with the Uyghurs’
genetic information. The comprehensive DNA database, and the biometric data
possessed by the Chinese government can be used to chase down Uyghurs who
resist conforming to the campaign.
Uyghurs
Abroad
Uyghurs
abroad are deadly worried about their relatives in China, a Uyghur in Xinjiang
can simply be deemed dangerous to China’s security if they contact people
abroad.
Uyghurs
living in the United States, Europe and other places around the world are also targeted
by the Chinese government. They are deemed are unpatriotic by nature,
they are typically threatened that their family members in China would
be held in custody if they choose to speak out against the government’s
oppression, or even that the Chinese officials would figure out ways to get
them back to China to pay back for condemning such practices.
Some of the
Uyghurs, Tibbets and Kazakhs who currently live out of the Chinese borders have
been defying the odds, and speaking out against the Chinese government’s
oppression. They have been promoting their cause by communicating with
organizations such as Amnesty International, raising awareness on social media
with campaigns like #MeTooUyghur and #SaveUyghur while hoping that
international pressure might force the Chinese government to change its
policies.
How is
the World Reacting?
More efforts are highly needed,
but China is already facing International Condemnation for its mass detainment of ethnic Uyghurs, and its crackdown on
Tibetans and people of various faiths:
- · The Swedish government has granted refugee status to China’s Uyghur Muslims.
- · Republicans and Democrats in the United States condemned the Chinese government’s treatment of the situation, without using diplomatic or economic tools to enforce changes, but the trade war might still be picking up momentum.
- · The Turkish government also condemned the crackdown on Uyghur Muslims in China, but did not actually do anything beyond the official statement of condemnation; diplomatic ties and trade agreements with the Chinese government are still steady.
Why are the
majority of governments still silent about it?
Mega
projects and investments, including “The Belt and Road” initiative have enabled
the Chinese government to buy the silence of multiple states, especially
that the execution of this precise initiative would leave dozens of countries in
debt to China for the investment.
The Belt and
Road initiative is actually the biggest planned project for the Chinese
government and the biggest infrastructure project in the whole world;
aimed to connect three continents together, and Xinjiang is right at the hub of
this infrastructure development plan. If Xinjiang (East Turkestan) is not
stable, the Chinese government’s entire foreign policy initiative might be
undermined.
As a major player
in today’s world economy, and the initiator of the project, the Chinese
government is put in a situation in which it can hold other governments
liable for any sort of instability within their borders if it may
negatively influence the flow of goods, this means that it cannot tolerate
instability within its own borders. China’s government must lead by example in
terms of stabilization, and the only way they know how to do it is through ethnic
cleansing, building on their heritage of state oppression and killing
the rights of individuals as well as groups to think or even look different
from the rest of the Chinese citizens.
States of Muslim
majority countries have mostly remained silent about the Chinese
government’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims:
- · According to Mohamed Ben Salman of Saudi Arabia, “China has the right to carry out anti-terrorism and de-extremisation work for its national security”.
- · Sisi, the Egyptian President has always maintained an almost identical position to that of the Saudi government on most issues, however, he did not even comment on the Uyghur issue.
- · Imran Khan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan was asked in an interview if he would speak out against what is happening in China, and he simply responded “If I had enough knowledge, I would speak about it; it is not so much in the papers”.
China’s
President, Xi Jinping and his communist party are likely to keep dismissing any
criticism from foreign activists or governments as some sort of meddling in
China’s internal affairs, while relying on oppression along with a bubble of Nationalism to silence critics within the
country. Other governments will keep relying on similar Nationalistic bubbles;
while encouraging their citizens to only care about the interests of their
own country, unless we move as human beings against all types of injustice,
including that in China.
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