By Kritin Deb
The Xinjiang Province, the largest administrative region of China, is of imperative geographical and economic importance. Located at the northwestern border of China, it shares boundaries with 8 other countries- Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and India. It also enjoys rich oil and mineral supplies, with Xinjiang being China’s largest producer of natural gas. However, when a region of such importance also hosts a diverse group of cultures and communities, tensions are bound to rise. These tensions are further fuelled when paired with an authoritarian government which overtly implements systematic subjugation.
The Uighurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims who hail from Central Asia. Islam and Islamic practices are central to their ethnicity and identity. Data from 2017 suggests that over 11 million Uighurs reside in the Xinjiang region. However, the province has faced its own struggles with China over the past. Annexed in 1949 by the Chinese state, the region and its inhabitants didn’t merge with the Chinese culture, choosing to preserve and practice their customs and religion. However, with China’s economy skyrocketing over the latter half of the 20th century, development in the Xinjiang province attracted several Han Chinese to the region. In 1949, 76% of all inhabitants of the region were Uighurs. As of 2019, that percentage has dropped to 42%, with the Han Chinese comprising of 40%. As population dynamics shifted, the Uighurs saw a rise in systematic oppression against them. The Chinese state saw their cultural practices as separatist in nature and therefore, considered them as a threat to national security. For a country that values territorial integrity over human lives, it is unsurprising to see the crackdown by the government over economic, cultural and religious aspects of the Uighurs existence. The prosperity brought about by the economic development in the region was mostly reaped by the Han Chinese, who landed the best jobs. With time, commercial activities of the Uighur community, who mainly rely on trade and agriculture, were curtailed. The Chinese Government continued the ethnic cleansing by curbing several freedoms on practising Islam. Several mosques were demolished, it was made illegal for men to grow long beards and for women to wear a veil in public and Muslim civil servants were banned from fasting during the month of Ramadan In a report published in 2013, rights group Amnesty International stated that the government criminalised ‘illegal religions’ and ‘separatist activities’ and clamped down upon peaceful expressions of cultural identity. While the Chinese state continued to assert its control over the region, the Uighurs refused to be oppressed. Condemnation began with street protests, which were swept away with ease by the government. However, with every protest, the state ensured to reinforce its military presence in the region. In 2009, tempers soared as large scale ethnic rioting took place, killing over 200 people, most of them being Han Chinese. This commenced a long decade of violence, with neither of the two factions willing to compromise or negotiate. The Government utilised these conflicts to their benefit, creating a narrative condemning the acts of terror and separatist motives of the Uighurs. As conflicts escalated, so did the crackdown of the Chinese state. As of 2017, over a million Uighurs are held across 85 detention camps, where they live in abysmal conditions and are often beaten up. The Government defends this move by terming it as a measure to ‘re-educate’ the Uighur people and have termed the detention centres as ‘vocational training centres’. Often, they are randomly arrested and sent to prison. The government constantly monitors the region using advanced surveillance, spying on cyber activities, phone calls and gathering intel from on-ground resources.
In July 2019, 22 European countries wrote a letter to the UN expressing concern regarding the reports of large scale detention of the Uighurs. Four days later, 34 countries praised China’s achievements in Human Rights, claiming their defence against terrorism, separatism and religious extremism to be noteworthy. Surprisingly, this list included several Muslim majority countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Sudan. Furthermore, the US along with 30 other countries condemned China, calling their camps a “horrible campaign of repression”. As brave journalism and brave accounts of the Uighur population continue to come forth, greater light will be shed regarding the ground reality experienced by this community. In the meantime, it is imperative that other nations come together in solidarity and condemn China’s outright violation of Human Rights. We must learn from our past mistakes and correct them going into the future. As the modern world values itself upon its support towards secularism and equality, it is imperative to pressurize, criticize and ostracize nations that value human lives as dispensable.