Uyghur Question: Mechanisms of Oppression (1 of 2)

Preface: I am no expert on the subject matter; I am at best poorly informed and at worst wilfully ignorant. Please do your own research. Where possible, I'll leave links to mine.  

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Xinjiang is a far-western area of China with a troubled history. It is home to Turkic minorities of Central Asia like Uyghurs (pronounced Wee-gurs), Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and Tajiks who have their own ethnic and cultural identity. These differences are a source of tension between ethnic minorities in the region and rest of China where Han Chinese represent 90% of the ethnic make up. While 11.5 million Uyghurs represent just 1.5% of total Chinese population, in Xinjiang Uyghurs represented nearly 90% of population in 1939. 

This imbalance has continued to trouble Communist Party of China (CPC) who do not see Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities as Chinese citizens proper. Waves of sponsored migration of Han Chinese reduced the proportion of Uyghurs in the region to 49%. As region developed, employment discrimination and cultural dilution increased the tension between ethnic minorities and Han Chinese. This tension spilled over into a series of Uyghur protests that soon turned into violence targeting Han Chinese. During 2009 protests in Ürümqi nearly 200 Han Chinese were murdered and over 1,700 injured. In the aftermath, protests were treated as terrorist acts and CPC enacted a number of acts to root out and destroy sources of terrorism and extremism under Strike Hard campaign. 

Any sign of Muslim culture or faith was marked as suspicious or outright banned. Uyghurs cultural identity became synonymous with extremism. They are no longer allowed to name their sons 'Muhammad;' children can't enter mosques; fasting is forbidden during Ramadan; and beards and burkas are banned. Make no mistake however, CPC was far from satisfied with this garden-variety Islamophobia so common in the West. Under the guise of global war on terrorism CPC has branded all resistance to its rule as extremism deserving of annihilation and enabled tools for its complete suppression. 

Mass Surveillance State

Today Xinjiang is the biggest and most advanced mass surveillance state in the world. Facial-recognition cameras; iris and body scanners; collection of DNA samples; mandatory software that collects private data flow on Uyghurs' phones; secret surveillance apps installed on phones of tourists. If that wasn't enough, Xinjiang has the highest concentration of security forces of any other region in China. A necessary measure to staff 'convenience police stations' - a dense network of street corner and neighbourhood police stations designed to keep an eye on every person in the region. 

Report by Human Rights Watch revealed that at the heart of this digital and physical surveillance ecosystem is the IJOP app used by government officials to collect information on everyone in Xinjiang, report suspicious activities, and follow up on people the system flags as suspicious. This can be anything from donating to a mosque, to using WhatsApp, avoiding the use of the front door, prayer, or a passing affiliation with someone who used a new phone.

On the ground, a system of checkpoints filters and restricts movement in the city districts and region as a whole. Troubled cities like Kashgar have been reported to have police checkpoints every 100 yards. Authorities are able to flag when suspected people attempt to leave their designated area and restrict their movement. From June 2016, all residents applying for travel documents (i.e. passports) became required to provide a DNA sample. In November 2016, all Xinjiang citizens were required to hand in their passports to local authorities for 'safekeeping'. Those wishing to travel have to apply to get them back. It is a technocrat's vision of a Mao-era policy where people were restricted to local areas where they lived and worked, and could be arrested for leaving these areas. 

The entire Xinjiang region is in effect an open air surveillance box. No one can enter or leave without submitting a wealth of data to CPC. It goes without saying that CPC cares not to ask for consent for such data collection practices. In a surveillance state, no one is above suspicion and it falls on the oppressed to prove their innocence. These surveillance practices go against internationally guaranteed rights to privacy, right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, as well as freedom of association and movement. Dire consequences for being deemed suspicious further suppress right to freedom of expression and religion. Despite what United Declaration on Human Rights may state, CPC is clear on the matter: Uyghurs are not free and equal in dignity and rights.

Relatives Come to Visit

Since 2014, around 1.3 million Han Chinese were sent to Xinjiang to stay in the homes of Uyghurs under “Visit the People, Benefit the People, and Bring Together the Hearts of the People” and “Pair Up and Become Family” campaigns.

The guests present themselves as 'relatives' and are a living personification of states all consuming desire for control disguised as care. They are tasked with monitoring the family, ensuring that they speak Chinese, watch state approved TV programs, engage in state approved activities, and note any suspicious behaviour. Everything, from the way Uyghurs talk to the furnishings of their house is under review and can be interpreted as an indication of their extremism. As one of the questions in the manual asks: “Are there any religious items still hanging on the walls of the house?” Reports and witness statements also reveal that Uyghur women are required to share their beds with 'relatives' who are often male. A despicable practice that is an affront to both Muslims and basic human decency. Latest campaigns require Uyghurs to open up their homes to state officials for stays of 5 days every 2 months. Having never been invited to stay, these state sanctioned 'relatives' cannot be asked to leave.

The training manual issued to 'relatives' makes no attempt to hide the way state perceives Uyghurs, often referring to them as 'little brothers and sisters'. Language of belittlement is necessary to justify ruthless paternalism. Manual instructs 'relatives' to inform their 'little brothers and sisters' that authorities have been monitoring all phone and internet communication so they should not even think about lying about their communication, daily activities, and knowledge of Islam. Manual also instructs 'relatives' to help the Uyghurs by engaging them in poverty alleviating activities. Any resistance to these activities is to be noted as suspicious and reported to authorities for further investigation. Party accepts no resistance and is impatient in manifesting its vision.

These practices prove that authorities will not stop at public compliance of Uyghurs alone, they must surrender every facet of their public and private life. In direct violation of basic rights, authorities have implemented a state of total deeply invasive surveillance that enforces assimilation practices and punishes any resistance. Dolkun Isa, the president of the World Uyghur Congress, described “Pair Up and Become Family” campaign as 'total annihilation of the safety, security and well-being of family members,' and rightly pointed out that these practices have 'turned Uyghurs' homes into prisons from which there is no escape.'

Concentration Camps

Mounting reports and witness statements over the past 3 years suggested that Uyghurs who were deemed suspicious were sent to concentration camps. A measure reminiscent of Japanese-American internment camps setup in the aftermath of the attack on the Pearl Harbour. At first, CPC denied the very existence of these camps. As evidence continued to surface, CPC changed the story and admitted that camps did in fact exist but were re-educational camps. Current CPC narrative assures that these are vocational training facilities and 'students' are free to come and go as they please.

This narrative is inconsistent with witness statements, reports by human rights groups, and internal documents. Leaked training manuals offer suggested answers to likely questions. If asked where disappeared family members are, officials are advised to state that they are in training schools. If pressed they are also to confirm that while they have committed no crimes, they are not free to leave these schools. Thereby directly contradicting latest vocational training narrative adopted by CPC. This is what officials are instructed to say when asked about whether those forced into indefinite 're-education' have committed any crimes:  

Q: 'Did they commit a crime?'

A: 'It is just that their thinking has been infected by unhealthy thoughts, freedom is only possible when this ‘virus’ in their thinking is eradicated and they are in good health.'

What distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom is our ability to think and the answer betrays the depth of totalitarian desire for absolute control. What other freedoms can one claim to have if the government authority reserves the right to police the thoughts themselves?

Conservative reports put number of incarcerated at 1.5 million, others at 1 to 3 million. In other words, 1-in-10 to 1-in-4 Uyghur Muslims could be held in concentration camps. Research by ETNAM identified 500 suspected concentration camps across China where Uyghurs are held. Leaked documents reveal the true intent and nature of incarceration. Camps must exercise total physical and mental control over inmates down to their number in the lunch queue. Inmates could be held indefinitely but must spend at least a year in the camp before they can be considered for graduation. Mind you graduation does not mean release, instead they are moved to the next tier of camps for labour skills training.

Camps operate on a point system where inmates earn credits for “ideological transformation”, “compliance with discipline” and “study and training”. Uyghurs spend their days subjected to an indoctrination and brainwashing program, where they are forced to listen to lectures, renounce their religion, sing hymns praising the CPC, and write 'self-criticism' essays confessing the error of their religion and culture. This is a realisation of a 2017 report from a local branch of the Xinjiang Ministry of Justice whose intent was to “wash brains, cleanse hearts, support the right, remove the wrong”. Nothing but  a complete surrender to party ideology would do.

Witness accounts report that physical/mental/sexual torture, malnutrition, forced labour, rape, sterilisation, abortion, and deaths are commonplace in the concentration camps. And this is what they are in the end. Not re-educational facilities, not vocational training centres, but Nazi- and Khmer Rouge-esque concentration camps that remind us of the most vile human-made atrocities.  

Kindness Students

Having put measures in place that would imprison the adults, CPC looked to kids as the next target. In 2017 alone, nearly half a million children were separated from their families and placed in boarding schools. In this instance CPC takes a page directly from the past campaigns enacted in Canada, United States and Australia that removed indigenous children from their families and placed them in specialised schools to enforce assimilation. Resembling prisons more than schools, indigenous culture, language, and affiliations were brainwashed or beat out of children leaving a lasting legacy of trauma in children and their communities.

Official 2017 document suggest that CPC will not stop at just half a million children either as it plans to build one to two boarding schools in every of the 800 townships in Xinjiang. To staff these schools, some 90,000 teachers from largely Han Chinese ethnic background were brought into Xinjiang. Chosen for their allegiance to the CPC, they are instructed to toe the party line at the risk of punishment. Note that orphanages are being built at the same time as concentration camps, this is a coordinated plan of attack aimed to systematically re-engineer a group of people by driving their culture to extinction.

The goal of these schools is to groom a new generation of children who's loyalty belongs to party and the nation as opposed to their cultural identity. Previous attempts to enforce assimilation have largely failed as children were able to return home where they would be exposed to the culture of their families. Presently children are only allowed to return home every few months. They are taught in Mandarin and punished for using their native language and observing their cultural or religious customs.  

CPC officials fondly call them 'kindness students'. Where 'kindness' is a reference to party's generosity in arranging special education designed to eradicate cultural and ethnic identity of now orphaned children whose parents are indefinitely imprisoned for no known crimes. Sick fucks.  

In Summary

Under the umbrella of Strike Hard Campaigns, officials have an imperative to monitor, control, punish, and incarcerate minority groups based on their ethnic and religious identity alone. Note further that targeted behaviours are not crimes under Chinese law. Thus, the entire system of oppression exists outside of the legal system. Those who are persecuted, have no right to legal counsel, no right to basic procedural protections, no way to redress their treatment, and no right of appeal. In turn authorities reserve the right to arbitrarily punish, torture, indoctrinate, separate families, and incarcerate people indefinitely.

CPC justifies these acts as a means to fight terrorism, but most of the behaviours deemed worthy of suspicion and subsequent punishment have nothing to do with terrorism. They are behaviours that are particular to a cultural and ethnic identity of Uyghur Muslims and Turkic people.

This is not an anti-terrorist campaign. This is a horrific experiment in social engineering of 11.5 million people fuelled by totalitarian paranoia of otherness and bolstered by technology. It is an unhinged demand for total unity, total servitude, and total fealty in deed and thought.