Running Head: THE SUPPRESSION OF THE UIGHUR MUSLIMS IN CHINA 1

The suppression of the Uighur Muslims in China

Name

Institution
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Abstract.

There is no unanimous definition of what constitute ethnic minorities. An ethnic community

shares a general tribute like language, religion, nationality and race or the combination of all

these characteristics. The word ethnic minority refers to ethnic groups in a country where they

are in the minority in population and influence. The ethnic minorities are smaller in population in

comparison to the dominant groups, has a distinct culture, language, and religion. The members

of these communities often have the will to protect and preserve these characteristics.

Nevertheless, ethnic minorities have a history of marginalization and prejudice. In this paper, we

explore the discrimination the Uyghurs based on their religion. Their culture and religion have

been under attack by the Chinese government in the pretext of curbing Islamic extremism. And

these efforts have resulted in severe human rights violations.

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Introduction.

Over ten million Uyghurs are living in the Xinjiang region in China. Xinjiang became part of the

republic of china after they were conquered in the late 1940s. Human rights activists have

accused the Chinese government of perpetrating sinister policies that target the people of

Uyghurs terming it an ethnocide. Some human rights experts have described the Chinese

government's actions as genocide. Activists highlight the holding of ethnic Muslim Uyghurs in

state-sponsored concentration camps. The government uses these camps for the re-education of

Muslims, suppression of their religious practices and other alleged human rights violations. The

leaked Xinjiang papers in 2019, brought the treatment of Muslim Uyghur into the limelight. In

an interview journalist Adrian Zenz, said that the Xinjiang papers confirmed what the Chinese

government was doing as a method of cultural genocide. Another journalist described Chinese

government actions as a deliberate campaign of cultural genocide. These papers stated that the

Chinese party officials were in a campaign to brainwash, cleanse hearts to cure their Muslim

population of extremist thoughts.

Due to the recent rise of terrorism in Europe and the ongoing Syrian civil war, the Chinese

launched a serious campaign against terrorism and extremism. The Chinese party implemented

new bans in 2017. Reports estimate that about eight hundred thousand to two million Muslim

Chinese people have been in detention since 2017. Most of these detained individuals do not

have charges for any crimes and cannot access judicial channels to contradict their detentions.

Their crime though silent is their Islamic religion. They banned growing of long beards,

mandated watching state-run television and radio programs, all children were required to attend

state-run schools. Religiously fevered names were banned too. Mosques were destroyed and

demolished as a result of these regulations. The Chinese government started its re-education
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campaign in 2014 and has seen exponential growth ever since. They built camps dedicated to re-

education programs and named them vocational centres. These camps tripled in 2019 despite

claims by the Chinese governments that most detainees had returned home.

China justifies its abusive counterterrorism policies to frame ethnic uprising as Islamic terrorism

by hiding behind the global war on terror. According to anthropologist Sean Roberts, the

ongoing clampdowns are as a result of the Chinese government trying to forcibly assimilate the

people of Uyghurs and make the region an important part of the republic of china than it is as a

result of security threats. These efforts would have to be backed up with depopulation, identity

erasure, marginalization and destruction of their communal solidarity. The Chinese government

broadly defines terrorism with vague extremism references, thus misusing counterterrorism as a

shield for gradual cultural elimination and human rights violations.

Human rights organizations and activists have called out the Chinese governments treatments of

the people living in Xinjiang, asking them to stop the clampdown. However, Chinese authorities

are adamant that these camps they call vocational training do not violate any human rights, and

have described them as job empowerment centers. Chinese officials are refusing to enlighten the

world with any information concerning the camps, and have prohibited foreign journalists from

investigating these detention camps. The ruling party dismisses international criticism to reports

of human rights violations, claiming that they only use humane ways to fight violent extremism.

However, the leaked Xinjiang papers show the forceful ways of the clampdown in the very

words of the officials who designed and enforced these bans. Although the government presents

their action in Xinjiang as altruistic, these papers narrate a ruthless, violent campaign

propagating drastic actions targeting Muslims (Ramzy & Buckley, 2019). The leaked papers
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showed an in-depth look into how China's state machinery enforced such an internment

campaign.

The current state of affairs.

A report shows that there have been prevalent retaliations against mosques that are not state-

controlled in Xinjiang, claiming that Uyghurs do not have to construct new places of worship.

The state has also banned minors from participating in Islamic activities like madrassa, in a way

that has no basis in Chinese law. The Guardian reports that the number of mosques has

experienced structural damage or even destruction.

Schools in Xinjiang have transitioned to accommodate bilingual learning. However, the majority

of the learning is done in standard Mandarin Chinese with very few hours dedicated to Uyghurs

literature. Additionally, despite the emphasis on bilingual learning, other regions of China.

Uyghur children have also been alarmingly sent to boarding schools away from their

communities, where they lose in touch with their language and culture. This is an obvious

attempt by the Chinese government to erase the Uyghurs culture and language.

China has been relentless at making sure that the Uyghurs are suppressed and do not oppose the

crackdown they experience. the government has been arresting and detaining Uyghur

intellectuals and religious leaders at alarming rates. Vocal opposition of the crackdown on

ethnic, cultural, and religious suppression conducted by the government have all been gradually

disappearing from the limelight.

The Uyghurs are offered incentives from the state to have fewer children, and they are massively

encouraged to marry outside their race. The Chinese government is using Uyghur women to aid

in cultural erasure. Intermarried couples receive an annual cash reward, preferential treatment in
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housing, and they can enjoy free education for their whole families. The Chinese government,

however, claim that their advocacy for intermarriage is aimed at creating a social structure where

all ethnic groups are intertwined. They claim it is aimed at boosting unity to realize the Chinese

dream finally. however, in 2020 traditional Uyghur marriage rites were no longer possible to

perform in Xinjiang county.

The Chinese government have discouraged the wearing of traditional Islamic clothing in the

region. Some reports suggest that Uyghur women can face detention when they wear

headscarves. There has been a naming regulation propagated to the Uyghurs that has a list of

banned names.

Human rights violations.

Many witnesses who had been detainees at these detention camps describe the environment as

unhygienic and overpopulated with only basic sustenance for the detainees. Their right to food

and sanitation are violated in the detention camps. The Uighurs were forced into learning

Chinese, and that torture and rape were common in the camps. The detainees are forced to take

some drugs that leave them sterile and mentally decapitated. the Chinese government introduced

a mass sterilization policy that only the Uyghurs had to take part in. they are subjected to forceful

abortions, sterilization, and forceful birth control. The Uyghurs also risk detention for having too

many children. The Chinese government violates their freedom of free-will.

Witness report the camp routines as brainwashing. Uyghurs have to sing praises of the Chinese

leader before being allowed to partake in any meal. The detainees are also reportedly forced to

memorize documents trashing religion while encouraging them to only believe in the ruling

party. They are stripped off their right to worship. According to the leaked Xinjiang papers
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(Ramzy & Buckley, 2019), children who watched their parents taken away were to be told that

their parent’s minds were polluted with dangerous thoughts. And their freedom will only be

guaranteed once these thoughts had been wiped off. Anthropologists Zenze (Zenze, 2020)

narrates of the ordeal of children as young as one-year-olds sent to orphanages while their

parents languished in detention camps. Children of detainees are always sent to state-controlled

homes where they are taught to disregard their cultural roots. Other children with ‘free’ parents

are sent away from home to be taught the Han Culture. These schools are heavily monitored, and

political indoctrination is a daily routine. The detainees in the camps are forced into unpaid

labour, and those who cannot complete their tasks are at risk of violent punishments. These

children are denied the right to have a childhood free from labor.

Away from the detention camps, the government still hound the Uighurs with their

counterterrorism crackdowns that infringe on religious rights and basic human rights. The

government uses exquisite technology for monitoring the not detained Uyghurs. Media reports

that there are frequent police checkpoints characterized by constant identification by scanning

identity cards, facial recognition cameras and impromptu searches. Their right to privacy is

constantly violated. These data are used for DNA sampling and analysis of the Uyghurs.

Authorities in the region also ordered the Uyghur population to install tracking devices in their

cars. The security officials claimed that this measurement was necessary to confront religious

extremism. Moreover, the Chinese government have hired communist party loyalists to stay in

Uyghurs homes where they can monitor and report on any supposed extremist behaviors,

including observation of the Ramadan. However, the government claimed that the cohabitation

was to help Uyghurs assimilate in the Han Chinese culture. These children are traumatized and
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are forced to conform to the Chinese government regulations or risk suffering their parents' fate.

(Withnall, 2020)

Moreover, the destruction of mosques has been rampant under the pretext of shoddy

construction. Additionally, the Chinese government has pressured foreign governments to

provide data on Uyghurs living abroad. These individuals risk arrest upon re-entering China.

Despite the Xinjiang population constituting only about one per cent of the total Chinese

population, most IUD placements in China were done in Xinjiang. The birth rates across the

region have seen a sharper decline in comparison to the rest of China.

The Universal Declaration of Rights is a multi-national document adopted by the United Nations

that protects the freedoms, rights, and liberties of all individuals. the document declared that all

human beings were born free and deserved equal rights regardless of place of birth, gender,

ethnic background, religion, and race. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is

a treaty that was adopted by the United Nations Member states that committed them to respect

the civil and political liberties of human beings including the rights to life, freedom of religion,

speech, assembly and the right to a just trial. As a United Nations member state, China has failed

to consider and respect the Uighur’s freedoms and liberties.

Two Uighur’s representatives filed a petition to the ICC against Chinese leadership, and although

China is not a party to the ICC, the legal team argued that these crimes were committed in

Cambodia and Tajikistan, countries that are bound by the Rome Statue and therefore, the ICC

has jurisdiction. The court however, ruled that the evidence presented before it was insufficient

to open an investigation on China for human rights violations.

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Way Forward.

There is rising criticism of the Chinese government injustices and possible genocide towards the

Uyghurs globally. Zenz, who had first described the Chinese methods as geared towards

ethnocide, retracted his words and said that new reports suggested that the Chinese policies met

the United Nations definition of genocide. This is because the Chinese government deliberately

repress birth rates to enable them to suppress population growth. Activists globally are urging the

world to unite in exposing the Chinese government's atrocities and expose those acts as of

genocide.

A Canadian parliamentary committee ruled to label the atrocities conducted in the Xinjiang

region as genocide and vowed to impose sanctions on implicated officials. The pope in the

Vatican also joined the outcry by mentioning the Uyghurs plight in his recent book. The UK

government is also throwing their weight behind ways in which they can tackle the issue of

Uyghur. A joint parliamentary group vowed to explore every possible avenue to challenge

China’s crimes legally both at a national level and internationally.

What has been unanimous in the fight to stand up against China is the need for joint international

cooperation. According to an official in the UK, he said that one country could not challenge

China. He suggested a multilateral approach of countries that cared for human rights to take on

China. His sentiments are echoed by a German official who alleged that Chinas strategy was to

weaken democracy and fundamental freedoms worldwide by making economically weaker

countries dependent on then. Thus propagating false narratives and propaganda. He stressed on

the need for unification of their allies to challenge China's division attempts. The Canadian

government called for joint actions against the Chinese government.

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To increase the momentum of the pressure to the Chinese government, it is crucial also to garner

support from the smaller economic countries. These are the countries that are the strongest

supporters of the Chinese government, often going out of their way to praise the Communist

party while rubbishing human rights violation claims. And often more than not, most countries

fear standing up to China for fear of retaliation. It is important to note that the threats of

retaliation are often inconsequential. A US report on singling out companies implicated in the

Uyghur scandal did not result in seared trade ties between the two countries. So it is important

for nations globally to lend their voices in rallying support for the Uyghur Muslims. There is,

however, a glimmer of hope, surrounding the new US president-elect to form an international

coalition to challenge China.

Conclusion.

Although mounting pressure to the Chinese is a step in the right direction, it is not enough. The

Uyghur people have suffered injustices for so long, and it is time China was stopped from

genocidal elimination of the Uyghurs. For a long time, China denied reports of human rights

violations in Xinjiang region, and when the Xinjiang papers leaked, they hid behind

counterterrorism sanctions. The basic right to family, religion and life are frequently disregarded

in this part of China. Though media reports on this genocide are increasing to shed some light on

the profound suffering of the Uighurs, there are still some countries that disregard these

violations and choose to offer their support to China. Like everyone else in the world, the people

of Uyghur deserve to exist and enjoy their basic rights while celebrating their cultures and

identities. Meaningful action is beyond overdue, or the existence of the Uyghur people will be

wiped off.
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References.

Ramzy, A. & Buckley. C. (2019) Absolutely No Mercy: Leaked files Expose how China

Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims. New York Times. Retrieved on 1st December 2020 from

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html.

Schmitz, R. 2018. Ex-Detainee Describes Torture in China’s Xinjiang Re-Education Camp.

NPR. Retrieved on December 2, 2020 from https://www.npr.org/2018/11/13/666287509/ex-

detainee-describes-torture-in-chinas-xinjiang-re-education-camp

Withnall, A. ‘Cultural genocide’: China Separating thousands of Muslim Children from parents

for ‘thought education’ retrieved on 1st December 2020 from

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-muslim-children-uighur-family-

separation-thought-education-a8989296.html

Zenze, A. (2020). Sterilizations, Forced Abortions and Mandatory Birth Control: The CCP’s

Campaign to Suppress Uyghur Birthrates in Xinjiang.