The Plight of Uyghurs in Xinjiang: A Genocide?

This academic essay was written for a school paper assignment in grad school. 

Introduction

Recent media reports have raised concerns about the detrimental situation of Uyghurs in Xinjiang Province, China. This is reinforced by the wave of circulating atrocious images of Uyghurs and testimonies from camp survivors describing the cruel experience. Despite this significant information, China has denied them and continued with its draconian policy and practice against the Uyghurs. The efforts of the international community for the Uyghurs had made a little impact on this seeming genocide. While some scholars considered the Uyghurs’ plight as cultural genocide (Zand, 2019; von Hein, 2019; Finnegan, 2020), there’s still a gap in categorizing this as pure genocide due to insufficient evidence of intent and China’s strong power. In addition, the international legal framework has apparent loopholes in addressing the protection of cultural minorities. Hence, this brief article aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse of understanding the case of Uyghurs. Specifically, it intends to investigate available proofs that might relate it to genocide. 

Background

         The Uyghurs are Chinese ethnic-Muslim minority groups living in Xinjiang, an autonomous territory in northwest China. Since 1949, the Uyghurs attempted to secede from PRC for full independence. This move is due in part to the pronounced difference in ethnicity and religion. Social and economic deprivation have triggered more tension as minority Uyghurs’ needs are not addressed by the state which led to dissatisfaction (Martina, 2014). Compared to the Han Chinese emigrants, Uyghurs are “underpaid and unwelcome” in their home. As a result, the call for independence grew stronger and separatist movements emerged. In response, China strengthened its foothold in Xinjiang by imposing oppressive policies (Frankel, 2016). In practice, Chinese officials applied direct force and initiated a movement to unify a homogenous Chinese identity which was perceived as a tactic to erase the Uyghur culture. Consequently, it became a vicious cycle of social strain because of incompatible interests: group self-determination vs state integrity.

         Over the years, the Uyghur separatists such as the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) mobilized. In addition, armed Uyghur groups have combined forces with Islamic extremists (i.e. Al-Qaeda and ISIS) to achieve their goals. Since early 2000, these transnational “terrorist” groups have executed attacks that killed innocent people (Wong, 2020; Kaiman, 2013; Thomas, 2009). These indiscriminate hostile attacks were carried out in public spaces and largely harmed Han Chinese individuals. Expectedly, this threatened the security of PRC which led to government policies and practices to contain violence and curb the growth of terrorism. However, at the outset, the counterterrorism approaches of the Chinese government have been disproportional to the magnitude of the actual source of threat. It started with government crackdowns, executions of suspected terrorists, and court sentences. Non-violent protests were repressed. Later on, exacerbating social policies (e.g. prohibition of wearing burqas, banning of fasting during Ramadan, among others) were implemented for greater assimilation of Uyghurs into mainstream Chinese culture (Demirtepe & Bozbey, 2012). This oppression persisted until today and evolved into harsh programs that killed people and violated human rights. With its intentions, means, and targeting of a particular group, can the Chinese government’s action be considered genocide?

A Genocide of Uyghurs?

         In his seminal work, Raphael Lemkin described genocide as constituting “political, social, cultural, economic, biological, physical, religious, and moral genocide”. This description largely contributed to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 1948. The convention defines genocide as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious groups, as such: (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) imposing measured intended to prevent birth within the group; and (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Using these guidelines, the author will explore the case of Uyghur.            

         One crucial aspect of prosecuting perpetrators of genocide is providing evidence of intent “to destroy in whole or in part”. Leaked documents of the Chinese government demonstrated the systematic nature of the state-orchestrated severe policies and practices against the Uyghurs (Ramzy & Buckley, 2019). Although there are no shreds of evidence of statements on hate speech from government officials, Xi explicitly ordered party leaders to “be as harsh as them and show absolutely no mercy”. Instead, hate speeches have been growing online from society, particularly middle-class Han Chinese citizens (Shih, 2017). What has been very visible in Xinjiang is the “widespread and/or systematic discriminatory and targeted practices culminating in gross violations of human rights of protected groups” of Uyghurs. Tortures have been reported (Meixler, 2018). This is on top of other report practices that breach the rights and dignity of Uyghurs (Fuchs, Benaim, & Johnson, 2018). There had been a lack of information about rape, but one incident of abortion, IUDs, and sexual humiliation of Muslim women in China have been published in The Washington Post. (Ferris-Rotman, 2019). Satellite images of mosque destruction in Xinjiang have been confirmed (Kashgarian, 2019). In fact, the Guardian and Bellingcat investigation found that more than two dozen Islamic religious sites had been wrecked. This action of the Chinese officials is consistent with the “destruction of or attack on cultural and religious property and symbols of the targeted groups…designed to annihilate the historic presence of the group or groups”. While these pieces of evidence are existent, their sufficiency and reliability are sometimes questioned.

         Among the acts that constitute genocide, China’s indoctrination of Uyghur Children had been closely related to “forcible transfer of children, imposed by direct force or through fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or other methods of coercion”. This approach involves forced placement of children in government-run “public boarding schools or in special children’s shelters”. The supposed aim of this “red-education”, according to Zenz (2019) is to subject children under “coercive Chinese language education and immersion along with political indoctrination and psychological coercion”. China has used outright coercive methods to reconfigure the culture of young Uyghurs. Subsequently, intergenerational separation has transpired among Uyghur families and communities, in general (ibid).

         Mass internment camps have also been a notorious tactic used by the communist government against the Uyghur population. The construction of these forced-labor camps has been very evident through imaging satellites (von Hein, 2019). The government calls them “vocational education centers” where detained Uyghurs are brainwashed to shed their way of life and subscribe to the Han Chinese manner of living. They are pressured to denounce their religion. Some news outlets even reported on the alleged compulsion of Uyghurs to eat pork and drink alcohol which is both strictly forbidden in Islam (Sharman, 2019). Although this does not exactly coincide with the acts stipulated in the 1948 convention, it is noteworthy that deaths have occurred and over a million Uyghurs have been detained. Indeed, the experiences of Uyghurs are downright horrible.

It is understandable that comprehensive documentation is lacking to fully warrant genocide. The nature of the Chinese regime with its tight media censorship and its strong military and technological power makes it even harder to obtain proof. China has prudently utilized the counter-terrorism narrative to justify its practices of oppression. With that, the ambiguity of the situation persists. What is clear though is that some of Stanton’s 10 stages of genocide are present in the strategies of the PRC government. Classification, discrimination, organization, polarization, preparation, persecution, some extent of extermination, and denial are all evident in varying extents. Finnegan (2020) and some other scholars asserted that the plight of Uyghurs fits perfectly with cultural genocide. In his article, he posited logical arguments with outstanding support. However, even if that’s the case, cultural genocide is not prosecuted in the international legal framework. But whether the Uyghur case can be considered a pure genocide or cultural genocide, it is no doubt that human rights are violated and a crime against humanity is transpiring while the rest of the world watch. It is imperative that the international community come together and free the Uyghur from the dragon’s claw.

Conclusion

          Truly, the case of Uyghurs in Xinjiang is one of the contemporary issues that necessitates the collective response of the international community. But responding requires a thorough understanding of the context and history of the conflict. While the question of genocide lingers, human rights advocates should continue the investigation of the experiences of Uyghurs. Proper documentation for evidence will help a lot in building a genocide case for Xinjiang. At this moment, existing pieces of evidence are not sufficient for genocide. What is clear is the systematic oppression and destruction of Uyghurs! Drawing a parallel from previous cases of genocides, all these policies and practices signal the beginning of genocide, if not civil war or domestic terrorism, where either way innocent people will die. Moving forward, it’s time we use proactive actions so we can look back to the Uyghurs in the future and not say, “Never again”.

 

References

 

Demirtepe, T. M., & Bozbey, I. A. (2012). Accommodation or Assimilation? Chinese Government Policies toward Uyghur Minority. Uluslararasi Stratejik Arastirmalar Kurumu.

Ferris-Rotman, A. (2019, October 05). Abortions, IUDs and Sexual Humiliation: Muslim Women who Fled China for Kazakhstan Recount Ordeals. Retrieved from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/

Finnegan, C. (2020). The Uyghur Minority in China: A Case Study of Cultural Genocide, Minority Rights and the Insufficiency of the International Legal Framework in Preventing State-imposed Extinction. MDPI Laws.

Frankel, J. D. (2016). Chinese-Islamic Connections: A Historical and Contemporary Overview. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 569-583.

Fuchs, M. H., Benaim, D., & Johnson, B. (2018, November 28). China Is Violating Uighur's Human Rights. The United States Must Act. Retrieved from Foreign Policy: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/28/china-is-violating-uighurs-human-rights-the-united-states-must-act/

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Kashgarian, A. (2019, December 01). US: China Targets Uighur Mosques to Eradicate Minority's Faith. Retrieved from VOA News: https://www.voanews.com/extremism-watch/us-china-targets-uighur-mosques-eradicate-minoritys-faith

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