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In April 2018, the international community was shocked by the emergence of satellite imagery of China’s north-eastern autonomous region of Xinjiang. Where there was once nothing but desert, these images depicted what looked like vast secure compounds, complete with metre-high walls and watch towers. This was one of the first indicators of the mass incarceration of over 1 million Uighur Muslims which, according to Human Rights Watch, has been carried out by the Chinese authorities since 2017. The BBC states it now has evidence of 44 such camps in the region.
Approximately the size of Alaska, Xinjiang province is the largest region of China and home to a population of 21 million. Uighur Muslims, a Turkic-speaking Muslim ethnic group, make up almost half of this population (11 million). For years China have sought ways to eradicate what they see as the three main threats posed by the Uighurs: terrorism, extremism and separatism. The Uighurs consider themselves more culturally and ethnically aligned with central Asian countries, and some among the community have long harboured separatist feelings. One example of this is the Turkestan Islamic Group, a strongly separatist Uighur organisation, who have carried out numerous terrorist attacks across the territory with the aim of gaining independence from China. These include the killing of two citizens in Tiananmen Square in 2013 and riots in the regional capital Urumqi in 2009 which killed at least 200 people, mostly Han Chinese.
The Chinese government’s actions in Xinjiang constitute a clear attempt to eradicate the Uighur identity. The government’s ‘de-extremification’ measures now police every aspect of Uighur life. The State maintains that they are simply correcting the Uighur’s ‘extremist thoughts’. Satellite images show evidence that Muslim burial grounds in the area have been destroyed alongside nearly 5000 mosques, and the population are forbidden from practicing Islam or showing any external adherence to their former religion. This is what is happening outside the vast detention centres. The Uighurs live in fear of arbitrary arrest and those who are detained, for reasons as trivial as having WhatsApp downloaded on their phone or a relative abroad, are forced to renounce all religious and cultural ties to their Uighur identity. Their beards are shaved off, they are made to forego fasting and prayers. They must rote-learn Mandarin and Communist party propaganda, and constantly swear allegiance to the Party and Xi Jinping. This is unashamedly the official party line; these camps are marketed as ‘voluntary re-education centres’ designed to correct their ‘mistaken thoughts’. This is instead a thinly veiled attempt to cover up the systematic brain-washing of a population, and the limited access we have to the full truth alludes to an even more sinister picture.
As recently as last week, reports from previous detainees have emerged which describe the horrific conditions inside the camps. In some of these detention centres, the Uighurs are routinely tortured, forced to confess to fabricated crimes on pain of further punishment and even used for medical experimentation. They are reportedly given pills and injections that leave some cognitively impaired and others sterile. This testimony was confirmed most recently by Sayragul Sauytb, a Uighur Muslim granted asylum in Sweden after fleeing the camps, and who has provided one of the clearest insights into this mass detention. She recalls inmates as young as thirteen and as old as eighty-four being subjected to unmentionable atrocities. She also recounts gang rape and the regular disappearances of inmates for ‘punishment’, who were never seen again. These reports suggest that, in at least some of the camps, Chinese officials use threats, routine violence, and torture to control the bodies and manipulate the thoughts of the Uighurs.
Beyond the walls and watch towers of the detention camps, the establishment of an all-encompassing surveillance state has long been a reality in Xinjiang. This means that every aspect of everyday life is under constant surveillance by the Chinese authorities. Highly advanced technology, such as accurate facial and gait-recognition, and obligatory mobile phone apps which monitor the position of every citizen, give the state comprehensive knowledge of the actions of the Uighur population. There are travel checkpoints and security cameras everywhere in the region and many Uighurs have been forced to register their DNA with the authorities. It is no wonder that foreign journalists trying to gain more information are often met with petrified silence when attempting to interview local Uighur Muslims. BBC footage shows armed police showing up immediately to interrogate anyone with whom journalists have spoken. This scale of repression and surveillance would be hard to stomach in an Orwellian dystopia, but this is not fiction. It is happening now, and it is happening in a country with whom the UK, and the international community more widely, have significant economic and diplomatic ties.
So, what is being done about it? The response to the Uighur incarceration has been slow, perhaps due to a lack of accurate information, or an unwillingness to confront the global superpower that is China. However, partly due to the efforts of Human Rights groups, such as the Uighur Human Rights Project and Human Rights Watch, there has been growing international criticism of the Chinese government’s actions in Xinjiang. Whilst media is virtually banned from the province, the persistent truth-seeking efforts of investigative journalists, such as those writing for media outlet Free Radio Asia, have played a crucial role, despite some Uighur journalists receiving reports of their relatives in Xinjiang being arrested due to their reporting.
In October, 23 members of the UN, led by the UK ambassador Karen Pierce, condemned the Chinese government for its treatment of the Uighur Muslims, calling on the Chinese Communist Party to ‘uphold its national laws and international obligations and commitments to respect Human Rights, including freedom of religion or belief, in Xinjiang and across China.’ It also called for immediate access for Human Rights groups and international organisations in Xinjiang. This is one of the first examples of action on the part of the international community to confront China, and although it marks a positive step, this does not go far enough. The response from the Chinese representative to the UN was to accuse the countries involved in the report of ‘attacking and slandering’ China in a poorly supported ‘anti-China show’. Still more concerning is the fact that thirty-seven other members of the UN signed a retaliatory statement, commending China for its ‘remarkable achievement in the field of human rights.’ These signees included Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and many central African countries. These also included, interestingly, many majority Muslim countries. The letter accused the UN Human Rights Council of ‘naming and shaming and publicly exerting pressure on countries’ by calling them out for Human Rights violations. China has taken a strongly defensive position on the issue of Xinjiang and this latest exchange does not bode well for the one million Uighur people currently incarcerated.
It is vital that we recognise Xinjiang as a key priority in the fight for basic human freedoms in Asia Pacific. This is a policy of mass incarceration and torture of over one million people based on their ethnicity and religion, and it is being facilitated by modern technology and surveillance techniques which have given it unimaginable scale. China have so far made it clear that they will not bow to international pressure on the issue and they maintain that these are ‘re-education camps’.
If this is the case, then why are so few ‘re-educated’ Uighurs being released from the camps? From the evidence we have, this is undoubtedly a cultural genocide. However, China will not listen to countries such as the UK and the USA, who, in the words of China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, themselves have human rights records that are ‘nothing to be proud of.’ Western powers are simultaneously struggling to exert influence on a country upon whom global economic stability may rest.
Nevertheless, now that there is sufficient witness testimony and hard photographic evidence to piece together the extent of the human rights abuses perpetrated in Xinjiang, those countries who place great importance on upholding human rights must act now. This may be occurring 4000 miles away within the borders of an economic ally, but Xinjiang is a ‘political and social experiment’ that, if left unchecked, will set a precedent for technological surveillance and control of the population on a terrifying scale. The fate of the Uighur people matters to us all. We cannot continue to look away.
Author: Charlotte Hughes-Morgan
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