(Disclaimer: La Tonique Media LLC does not represent any political ideology. While we do not espouse any political beliefs, we do seek to provide a balance perspective by incorporating voices from both sides of the political spectrum.)

By Ruth Kae

After the 9/11 attacks, which were acts of the Islamic extremist group Al-Qaeda, general mistrust and dislike for Muslims rose in the whole world. The fear of being the next target of an Islamist terrorist attack prompted many governments to introduce new regulations and precautions in dealing with terrorism. Partly conscious, partly subconscious, terrorism is often associated with Islam by generalizing the religion as extreme. Islam has its origin in the Middle East, but today, Muslims live all over the world. One of the 56 ethnic groups in China is the Muslim minority of the Uyghurs. About 10 million of the 1.4 billion people who are Chinese belong to the minority Muslim group. Although this ethnic minority makes up only 0.75% of the population, the government has taken measures to restrict their freedom, not only in terms of religion. It has been known for a long time that there are tensions between the Uyghurs and Han Chinese, which make up about 91.5% of the population. At the end of 2019, the conflict reached its climax when the government's secret documents, the “China Cables,” were leaked to the public, revealing detailed plans and actions that have been taken to suppress the Uyghurs.

The Uyghurs are the fifth biggest ethnic minority group in China. They mostly live in the north-western province Xinjiang, which has been China’s largest autonomous region since 1955. Most of the Uyghurs are Muslim and speak the Uyghur language, which is part of the Turkic language family. Therefore they are “ethnically and culturally closer to other Central Asian nations like Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan rather than China.” The official name is the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Many different actors have already fought for dominance in the region, including Russia, nomadic peoples such as the original Uyghurs and China during the Qing Dynasty in the 19th century. Since 1945, the proportion of Han Chinese living in the XUAR has grown to be just as large as that of Uyghurs, reaching 40% in 2019.

Facts about XUAR: 

While only 41.2% of the region is arable land, it is rich in natural resources in comparison with other regions of China. About 38% of the national coal reserves and 25% of the natural gas can be found in Xinjiang. The XUAR shares borders with eight countries: Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Due to the fact that the region is one of the most western parts of China, it has a great importance in the implementation of the Silk Road Economic Belt.

The coexistence of the Muslim minority and the Han Chinese is characterized by protests and civil unrest. Many Uyghurs are driven by the desire of self-determination and want to escape the repressive politics of the Chinese government. Already in the 1990s, the resentment over the inequality fuelled protests in Xinjiang, which were mostly peaceful. Since 2009, the situation has escalated and there have been a number of deadly attacks carried out by militants who belong to the Uyghur minority group. Their motive is still the frustration over the inequality the Uyghurs experience in their daily lives in the XUAR. Besides the restriction of religious freedom, college-educated Uyghurs are discriminated against in the search for jobs. In addition, Han migrants still receive subsidies and benefits when they move to the region. They often live on the land that is actually owned by an Uyghur. The government in Beijing categorized events like the attack in 2014, in which 43 people were killed, as acts of terrorism. Many human rights advocates pointed out that the government’s oppressive policies, not the influence and inspiration of foreign Islamic terrorism, was the trigger for these events. Since then, the government has begun to exert even more control over the region, which mainly affects the Uyghurs. The ban of Ramadan, the traditional one month long fast, was one of the measures that was taken to restrict the practice of the Islamic religion in the province. While the Chinese government justifies its action as part of the fight against terrorism, critics such as the U.S. say the lack of transparency is concerning. As a reaction to this criticism, the government of the PRC denied “abusing anybody’s rights in Xinjiang.”

Facts about the Human Rights Violations against the Uyghurs in China:

• Already in November 2019, more than one million Uyghurs and other Muslim groups are suggested to be held against their will in internment camps in China. The government describes these as re-education centers where they “root out extreme thoughts, enhance the rule of law awareness through education, improve vocational skills and create employment opportunities for them”

• Companies such as Apple, Nike, BMW, Samsung, Sony and Volkswagen are supplied with products manufactured in factories where Uyghurs are subjected to subjected to forced labor, some of the factories are even outside of the XUAR

• The Human Right Report 2019 points out forced sterilization, forced abortion and involuntary implantation of birth control in the XUAR

• Mass surveillance systems  have been invented that especially target Muslims (facial recognition, surveillance cameras everywhere, apps that track movement). For a few years, the Chinese government collected DNA of minorities in order to track them

These facts show only a part of the detailed persecution, oppression and systematic exclusion of the Uyghurs that is happening in Xinjiang. Until now the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has declined to investigate the cases of the human rights violations against the Uyghurs, reasoning that China did not sign the court’s founding treaty. This means that issues can’t be investigated if there is no ”evidence connecting the situation to members of the ICC.”

3 ways to get involved: 

• Inform yourself and be aware of misinformation and propaganda

• Search for petitions to sign

• Find the person responsible for the topic in your country and write to him/her

Ruth is a political writer for La Tonique.