Cedars, November 2018

November 2018 10 by Staff O ver one million members of the Ui- ghur population in China have been detained in what China calls “re-ed- ucation centers” and the United Nations calls “internment camps.” Meanwhile, the international community has maintained a Faustian silence. The Uighurs are an ethnically Turkic, religiously Muslim minority that live primar- ily in the Xinjiang province of western China. While Xinjiang is officially an autonomous re- gion, Islam a legal religion, and the Uighurs a recognized minority, the Chinese government has increasingly come to treat the Uighurs as a threat to national identity, security and order. Over the past few years, this tension has culminated in the establishment of at least 181 internment camps, where accord- ing to a report by Radio Free Asia, each dis- trict’s officials were ordered to detain about 40 percent of the local Uighur population. The Chinese government denied the existence of these facilities until this Octo- ber when China finally acknowledged them as “vocational” or “re-education” centers. State-run television has broadcast footage of clean classrooms, sparkling facilities and grateful students. “Through vocational training, most trainees have been able to reflect on their mis- takes and see clearly the essence and harm of terrorism and religious extremism,” said Xin- jiang’s government chairman Shohrat Zakir in an interview published by Xinhua, a state- run news outlet. “They have also been able to better tell right from wrong and resist the infiltration of extremist thought.” However, the statements from Uighurs who “graduated” from the program sound more like confessions than interviews, even in the Chinese media. “I wouldn’t even have known that I had made mistakes,” said one graduate, accord- ing to the Xinhua article. “But the govern- ment didn’t give me up. It has actively saved and assisted me. ... Now I have made great progress in many aspects. I will cherish this opportunity and become a person useful to the country and society.” In stark contrast to this portrayal, ana- lysts located these facilities on open-source satellite imagery — many before China even acknowledged their existence — and identi- fied features such as guard towers and razor wire lining the exterior walls. Ben Dooley of Agence France-Presse, a leading French news outlet, recently published a report analyzing over 1,500 publicly available Chi- nese government documents that revealed one precinct’s purchase of 2,768 police ba- tons, 550 electric cattle prods, 1,367 pairs of handcuffs and 2,792 cans of pepper spray for use in these centers. Uighurs living overseas confirmed to the BBC the rumors of both physical and emotional abuse, including being beaten for any minor failure, forced to sing Communist songs and recite Chinese laws, and prohibit- ed from practicing Islamic rules. In contrast to the gleaming images broadcast on televi- sion, released Uighurs described cramped dormitories with only a bowl as a toilet. In the early stages of these facilities, Uighurs were detained for perhaps a few months at a time. However, according to the Radio Free Asia report, at least one official from the Xinjiang township of Haniqatam recently confirmed that no one has yet been released from their local center, though the first residents sent for “re-education” were detained nearly two years ago. As more fa- cilities have been built and expanded, policy seems to have shifted to detain the inmates indefinitely. As many as one million Uighurs are being held in these camps against their will, according to a UN panel this August. Why? According to international stud- ies professor Dr. Glen Duerr, this is only the latest development in a long history of con- flict between the Uighurs and the Chinese government. “The Uighurs have a long history of be- ing connected to China, but not necessarily fitting within the mold of Chinese national- ism,” Duerr said. Ethnically, culturally and linguistically, the Uighurs are more similar to the nations to the west than to the Han Chinese (the ma- jority ethnic group in China), leading some in Xinjiang to suggest that the province break off and form its own free nation. “For the Chinese that’s just a no-go,” Duerr said. “You do not divide China. There is a one-China policy in place, and even out- lying entities like Taiwan, in that view, must be brought back one day.” Separatism is especially threatening in Xinjiang, international studies professor Dr. Christine Kim explained, because the province is crucially positioned for China’s New Silk Road initiative, which aims to re- vitalize ancient trade routes by updating transportation infrastructure connecting all of Afro-Eurasia. Xinjiang serves as both China’s economic connection point to the other nations and its geopolitical buffer be- tween them and itself. The Uighurs’ separatist impulse com- bined with concerns over terrorism lead the government to perceive the Turkic, predom- inantly Muslim Uighurs as a threat to both national security and Chinese identity. Giv- en the opaque nature of the Chinese media, it is difficult to determine whether this rea- soning is well-founded; terrorist attacks and revolts against the government tend to be covered up rather than reported, and even then the perpetrators often go unnamed. Additionally, it is unclear whether sepa- ratist sentiment is as strong among the main Uighur population as it is in the vocal minori- ty. Some commentators suggest that the ma- jority of Uighurs would be content to remain a part of China if they were allowed exercise OFF CAMPUS Over One Million Detained in Chinese Internment Camps Xi Jinping’s Crackdown on Religious Freedom (937) 766-9852 105 W Xenia Ave, Cedarville, OH 45314 From oil changes to brake jobs we have proudly served the Cedarville community for over ten years. Free shuttle service for University students!