China’s Uighur Muslims: What is really going on?

In northwestern China, bordering India, Afghanistan and Mongolia, lies the heavily policed Xinjiang region. Its inhabitants? Predominantly the Uighurs (or Uyghurs) – a population of ethnically Turkic Muslims. Also home to the vast Taklaman desert, Chinese ambassador Liu Xiaoming recently claimed that Xinjiang is one of the most beautiful places in China. But there is an ugly truth hidden in Xinjiang’s unreported depths.

In the same interview, conducted in July 2020 by renowned reporter Andrew Marr, the ambassador was presented with drone footage of shaved, kneeling detainees being directed toward awaiting trains in the Xinjiang region. The footage is part of mounting evidence against China in ongoing accusations of human rights abuse. It is believed that so-called voluntary re-education centres are being used as a cover-up for mass incarceration and mistreatment of ethnic minorities. In particular, Uighur Muslims. But Xiaoming denied all evidence of such a regime. He said: “I do not know where you got this videotape” before going on to explain that “there is no such concentration camp in Xinjiang”. Referencing state figures on population growth, the ambassador responded that accusations of a potential genocide against Uighurs are “totally against the truth”, though this followed comments on Hong Kong’s “unprecedented freedom”. It appears that China’s understanding of freedom and education are invariably different from that of the West. The outright contradiction between China’s comment and evidence leaking out of its northwestern pocket: what is really happening in Xinjiang?

Back in 2018, the UK government said it had concerns over China’s treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang. Since then, several reports have amounted evidence to suggest human rights breaches are commonplace across the region. With China’s history of anti-Islam policy, it is difficult not to draw the link between recent developments and the thousands of missing Uighurs. In October 2018, Xinjiang’s government chief spoke of its plans to set up vocational schools as part of an anti-terrorism response. This statement came soon after China denied its plans to set up any detention camps at the UN assembly in Geneva. But there is no denying the existence of these institutions, whether they are schools or – as some are suggesting – mass internment camps. Satellite images evidence that at least 44 new, high-security facilities have appeared in recent years. And, although the total number of sites for these constructions has dropped off, the overall surface area of these presumed detention facilities is rapidly expanding. Analysts at Guymer Bailey Architects estimated that one facility in Dachabeng could house up to 11,000 detainees at once, relying on each being granted a private room or cell. It is a timely mass construction project that has coincided with UN reports on the detention of up to one million Uighurs.

Alongside calls for Uighurs to return to China, and thousands of missing Muslim family members, harsh new penalties have been introduced in Xinjiang. These ban many Islamic practices including long beards and headscarves. Government officials are also prevented from practising the Islamic faith. And reports from inside the re-education centres build an even more harrowing picture. Whilst state-run media shows propaganda in support of the euphemism of these institutions as schools, interviews with former detainees detail extreme punishments. Some have recounted tales of extreme exercise regimes and physical punishment such as belt lashings. Many recall being forced to sing, “Without the Communist Party There Can Be No New China”. Human rights groups say that those within the camps are forced to learn Mandarin Chinese (as Uighurs speak their own language, called Uighur), swear loyalty to President Xi Jinping, and renounce their faith. Human Rights Watch have reported that Uighur Muslims that have been rounded up from 26 “sensitive” countries, including Indonesia and Turkey, are under intense round-the-clock surveillance. This includes QR codes on their doors and regular biometric tests.

A recent video from Uighur model, Merden Ghappar, has given further insight into the harsh conditions inside the re-education centres. He was detained under false allegations and, like many of the “schools’” inhabitants, without trial. After accusations of organ harvesting from inside the prisons were quashed by Chinese officials, scholar Adrian Zenz reported on the likelihood of forced sterilisation amongst Uighur women. Some women may have been involuntarily fitted with IUDs, whilst others were threatened for refusing abortion of pregnancies that exceed birth quotas. It follows concerns that China is attempting to implement population control over ethnic minorities. The evidence is stacked against Chinese authorities, as it appears that two of the most important components of Uighur culture (family and faith) are being systematically eradicated. And this is not anything new.

Once independent from central China’s communist regime, the government reclaimed Xinjiang from its Uighur community in 1949. However, like Tibet, Xinjiang is said to have some level of autonomy from Beijing. In reality, the population face major restrictions that inhibit their independence. With a population of nearly 1.4 billion, the Muslim community in China (approximately 20 million) represent just a small minority. Of this, the Uighur population is even smaller. About 11 million Uighurs live in Xinjiang, the capital of which is Urumqi. In recent years, they have felt their culture and livelihood to be under threat from the mass migration of Han Chinese to the region. Add to this the increased crackdown on Islam from the authorities. In 2014, university students reported being banned from fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. Just three years later, President Xi Jinping made a public statement that religions in China should be of Chinese orientation, and align themselves with the socialist society. This coincided with an increase in the number of Uighurs being sent to so-named re-education centres.

China has reasoned these supposed vocational centres with an increased threat from Islamic separatist groups in Xinjiang. Officials have publicly blamed terrorist and separatist activity for riots in 2009 that killed more than 200 people, attacks on police and government buildings in 2014 that killed 96, and a further knife attack in 2017. China aligns the three evils (terrorism, extremism and separatism) with an increased threat from the Muslim community, namely the Uighurs. But these sweeping generalisations are just an excuse for overt Islamophobia. Any civil unrest is more likely an indicator of the quality of life under China’s tough authorities. Though China idealises the re-education centres as a method of targeting criminal activity and campaigning cohesion, the evidence coming out of these facilities suggest otherwise.

Why, then, is the world so reluctant to act? Despite the evidence, the West is yet to impose any sanctions on China. The US congressional committee on China has urged the Trump administration to do so, and in July 2020, the UK’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab accused China of “gross and egregious” human rights abuse against the Uighurs. But he followed this with a warning that the international community must be cautious before making genocide allegations against China’s authorities. A statement from the UN was disappointingly vague, lacking any incentive for action: “And about the Uighurs, as in relation to any other cities in the world, we, naturally, hope that fully preserving and fully respecting the unity of the country that people are treated with full respect for their human rights.” In July 2020, the UK launched its new unilateral Magnitsky sanction regime, that will prevent individuals and organisations involved in human rights abuse from entering the UK, or benefiting from its economy. But action on China continues to be delayed.

Some say that it is too difficult to provide definitive evidence against Xinjiang’s authorities, particularly as media is banned from the region. Its heavy policing means that inhabitants are unable to speak freely, so gathering testimonies has proven challenging. But evidence has been building for years. Perhaps it is our own internalised Islamophobia that allows the West to overlook such atrocities? Or are we simply afraid of criticising China? More speculative reports suggest that sanctioning against the Uighur crisis would only serve to increase strain on relations between China and the West. Is the UK covering itself in light of potential post-Brexit free trade deals? Is this a last-ditch attempt to salvage international relations after Huawei was banned from the UK’s 5G network?

An independent tribunal is set to investigate China’s mistreatment of Uighur Muslims next year. But will this be too late? BBC News diplomatic correspondent James Landale explained: “The price for defending human rights could be less trade with China – and that could prove costly in a post-covid economic downturn.” But, not unlike at the beginning of the pandemic, the UK government must decide what is considered a greater loss. The cost to the economy, or the cost of human lives?

China’s Uighur Muslims: What is really going on?

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