By Yerin Do, South Korea
Image: Cyberscoop
Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group consisting mainly of Muslims, are being repressed by the Chinese government. They reside in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China. These Uyghurs are being persecuted for their religion and race in multiple ways including cultural eradication, surveillance, and detention/re-education camps.
The Uyghurs have always been in China with records of them existing even in the 3rd century. Even though they are recognized as citizens, Uyghurs and the Chinese government have always been at odds. Ever since the 1900s, the Uyghurs have attempted to form an independent state from China, which was met with violent resistance. This created tensions between the Chinese government and the Uyghurs which reached a climax in July 2009. Peaceful protests turned into violent riots where the Uyghurs and Han citizens shed blood and fought until the Chinese paramilitary intervened. This movement spread and resulted in hundreds of casualties and thousands wounded. This incident and more have caused the Chinese government to respond with violence and disappearances.
The Chinese government has been building detention centers and kidnapping Uyghurs to put them in these centers and brainwash them. As absurd as it sounds, at least a million Uyghurs are confined in detention camps where they are forced to learn the Chinese language and adapt to their culture. It almost seems like “China's aim is to turn Kazakhs into Chinese. They want to erase the whole ethnicity” (Abdurasulov). Not only have they tried to brainwash Uyghurs, but they are also destroying mosques and tombs while targeting religious people and figures.
The Chinese government has also turned Xinjiang into a police state with heavy surveillance. Uyghurs are forced to let the police collect their “biometric data, including DNA, blood type, fingerprints, voice recordings and face scans” (Byler).
They frequently have cellphone checks where the police check their phones and social media for any political or religious wrongdoings. There are cameras everywhere that constantly scan faces and record data for future uses. In the case of Alim, an Uyghur man who recently came back to China, he had gone through a detention center and was tortured and starved for 2 weeks before he was released. A few weeks after his release, he visited a mall where he had to pass a checkpoint by scanning his id card and have the security camera scan his face. When the camera scanned his face, there was an alarm and shortly after, the police arrived and detained him. It turns out that he was blacklisted from public establishments because the system tagged him as a potential terrorist.
Uyghurs do not deserve this type of treatment. While Uyghurs in the past have been violent towards the Chinese government and people, it is undeniably shocking that the Chinese government is targeting all Uyghurs with these inhumane methods. Not only is it shocking, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to find resolutions to this problem. “Many Muslim-majority countries aren't speaking out because they don't want to jeopardize their economic relationships in China” (Ma). There are other reasons such as many of the Middle Eastern countries not treating their religious minorities well or the countries not wanting to interfere with “other states' internal affairs to avoid the same interference in theirs" (Ma). When Turkey’s prime minister stood up to the Chinese government by reprimanding them and offering the Uyghurs shelter, Chinese media lashed out and threatened him.
Works Cited
Ma, Alexandra. “Why the Muslim World Isn't Saying Anything about China's Repression and 'Cultural Cleansing' of Its Downtrodden Muslim Minority.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 27 Aug. 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com/why-muslim-countries-arent-criticizing-china-uighur-repression-2018-8. Accessed 28 September 2021.
Byler, Darren. “China's Hi-Tech War on Its Muslim Minority.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 11 Apr. 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/apr/11/china-hi-tech-war-on-muslim-minority-xinjiang-uighurs-surveillance-face-recognition. Accessed 28 September 2021.
Buckley, Chris, and Paul Mozur. “How China Uses High-Tech Surveillance to Subdue Minorities.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 May 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/world/asia/china-surveillance-xinjiang.html. Accessed 28 September 2021.
Beauchamp-Mustafaga, Nathan. “Bearing Witness 10 Years on: The July 2009 Riots in Xinjiang.” – The Diplomat, For The Diplomat, 29 July 2019, https://thediplomat.com/2019/07/bearing-witness-10-years-on-the-july-2009-riots-in-xinjiang/. Accessed 28 September 2021.
Khan, Aysha. “Uighurs Reflect on 2009 Violence That Set off Chinese Crackdown.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 10 July 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/uighurs-reflect-on-2009-violence-that-set-off-chinese-crackdown/2020/07/10/03ce53ae-c246-11ea-9fdd-b7ac6b051dc8_story.html. Accessed 28 September 2021.
Dillon, Michael. “A Uighurs' History of China.” History Today, Jan. 2020, https://www.historytoday.com/archive/behind-times/uighurs%E2%80%99-history-china. Accessed 28 September 2021.
Abdurasulov, Abdujalil. “Uighur Crackdown: 'I Spent Seven Days of Hell in Chinese Camps'.” BBC News, BBC, 12 Feb. 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47157111. Accessed 28 September 2021.
“Who Are the Uyghurs and Why Is China Being Accused of Genocide?” BBC News, BBC, 21 June 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-22278037. Accessed 28 September 2021.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Uyghur". Encyclopedia Britannica, 6 Jul. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Uyghur. Accessed 28 September 2021.
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