Why the world must not stop talking about Uyghurs and

Washington: The East Turkistan National Movement (ETNM) is set to hold a demonstration outside the US White House to mark 76 years of Chinese Communist Party’s invasion of East Turkistan in 1949. The event, scheduled on Sunday to observe a ‘National Day of Mourning for East Turkistan’, is to remind the world of the ongoing genocide of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang Autonomous Region, referred by Uyghur diaspora as ‘East Turkistan’ that is believed to be under the occupation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

The Uyghurs, an ethnic minority group in China are predominantly Turkic-speaking Muslims, officially recognised as one of the 55 ethnic minority groups. Uyghurs are predominantly inhabitants of the Xinjiang region that was incorporated into People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 in the final stage of China’s civil war, referred by the Chinese Communist Party as “peaceful liberation of Xinjiang”. In 1955, under Mao’s rule, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) was established, as part of PRC’s political integration of ethnic minority-dominant regions by constitutionally recognising them as autonomous regions. However, derailing from their promise of autonomy, the PRC initiated a policy of assimilation, to integrate XUAR politically and militarily, given its strategic geographical location that will act as China’s gateway to Russia and Central Asia.

The assimilationist policy encouraged migration of Han population into Xinjiang that ultimately led to Xinjiang’s demographic change. Uyghurs, who made over 90 per cent of Xinjiang’s population in 1949 now comprise roughly 44 per cent of it (2020 population census). The Han migration further excluded Uyghurs economically. Moreover, the surveillance, control and suppression of Uyghurs’ cultural and religious activities, especially intensified after the 9/11 attack in New York, aggravated Uyghurs’ resentment against the Chinese establishment’s mistreatment. However, Uyghur resistance (as witnessed in the Urumqi riot of 2009, Yarkand massacre of 2014) were treated as an “act of terrorism” and a brutal crackdown by the Chinese law enforcement.

China’s genocidal intent towards the Uyghurs received global attention only in 2017 when PRC, following the announcement of its intention to smash “all separatist activities and terrorists” in Xinjiang, carried unprecedented terror on more than one million Uyghurs, whereby they were detained, forced into prisons (branded as ‘re-education camps’), and even persecuted. China justified this crackdown as its operation to track “extremism”, whereby “radicalised” Uyghurs kept in detention camps would be de-radicalised which would make them contribute to China’s economy.

In reality, China has been found to conduct serious human rights violations. Uyghurs kept in ‘re-education camps’ have been reported to be forcibly subjected to the labour transfer system under state-mandated ‘poverty alleviation’ programme, where they were made to undergo not only ideological indoctrination, but also work in inhuman condition. As per the 2020 Australia Strategic Policy Institute’s report, more than 80,000 Uyghurs were transferred out of Xinjiang and assigned work at factories under state’s “Xinjiang Aid” that form supply chains to about 83 per cent of popular global brands. Thus, the global market (especially automobile sector, textile, food and electronics), directly or indirectly, is believed to draw the benefit of forced Uyghur labour, a modern state-sponsored practice of slavery, because of its ties with Chinese factories.

The Uyghurs have also been subjected to draconian state measures under so-called population control/family planning programmes. Through coercive methods like forced sterilization, abortion, IUD insertions, Uyghur women’s body autonomy have been violated. The stark drop in Uyghur population of about 84 per cent between 2015-18, and about 46.7 per cent decline in birth rate as per census data, reveals how steadily Xinjiang is going through demographic inversion, a grave human right violation of minority rights.

The most disheartening aspect is the systemic cultural erasure of Uyghur identity due to China’s Sinicisation policy. Through the imposing of Mandarin as the only language of instruction in all schools, Uyghur children risk forgetting their own identity. Children of incarcerated Uyghurs are also coercively separated from their families, whereby they are indoctrinated into obedience towards the Chinese government and Communist party, leading to psychological trauma and alienation with their families and Uyghur identity in general.

China’s Sinicisation policy extended even to religion with the state now maintaining strict control over religious practices. For instance, a 2015 regulation banned Islamic veils and robes, and a 2017 law implemented further restrictions on religious dresses, dietary, custom and traditional practices which the state deemed as “expressions of extremism”. The 2019 law to Sinicise Islam for next five years accelerated state control whereby Islamic practices are not only needed to be ‘compatible with socialism’ but religious venues are now also required to display loyalty towards the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Under Sinicisation policy, thousands of mosques have been reported to be demolished, removing Islamic motifs and Arabic writings to make mosques appear more Chinese.

Uyghur genocide is systemic, ongoing and multifaceted. State repression ranges from demographic change via settler colonialism and reproductive right violations in Xinjiang; cultural erasure and religious restriction via Sinicisation policy that criminalises Uyghur identity and forced labour. Instead of taking accountability, People’s Republic of China continues to display its denial, branding Uyghurs as terrorists and justifying its ongoing genocide as efforts to curb extremism/ radicalism/ terrorism. Now, China is proposing a new ‘Ethnic Unity’ law to further assimilate minority populations, not to mention, coercively, under the pretext of “common prosperity and development of all ethnic groups…along the path of rule of law.” Undoubtedly, this law, once in force, will intensify government repression and tighten ideological control on minorities, as feared by the Human Rights Watch. Therefore, on completion of 76 years of China’s annexation of Xinjiang, and the state’s genocidal acts against Uyghurs, amounting to crimes against humanity, the world must not stop talking about Uyghurs.