At least for once China has been made to realise that it can no longer be allowed to go on trampling on human rights of a section of its population – Uyghurs of Xinjiang – only because they are Muslims. At long last the democratic world has refused to accept the Chinese alibi that what it has been doing in the case of Uyghurs – torturing them to change their way of life – is its internal matter. The European Union (EU), the US, Britain and Canada have imposed sanctions on China like travel ban and freezing of assets in the case of certain Chinese entities and individuals to compel Beijing to mend its ways if it wants to live honourably as a member of the comity of nations.
The sanctions have come after the recent Quad meeting held virtually with the US, India, Japan and Australia being the participants. Though at no stage was it mentioned that the meeting intended to tame China in view of its growing assertiveness, it indirectly sent across the message that there are ways to challenge the display of Chinese might, particularly in South Asia and the ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) region.
Interestingly, China is the biggest trading partner of the EU, yet Brussels did not hesitate to go against Beijing with the sanctions, not very damaging though. In 1989, too, the EU had imposed an arms embargo
on China after the crackdown against student-protesters at the Tiananmen Square.
The Chinese have responded with their retaliatory sanctions but this cannot help hide its atrocities against the Uighurs. China’s shamefulness is clearly visible before the world so much so that any defensive move it makes will only further expose its blatant highhandedness against a section of its own population.
The sanctions by the US, the UK and the EU have greater significance as these powers have come together with the resolve that they will remain as a united force, come what may, to expose China’s open violation of human rights. These Western nations are reportedly in touch with one another on a daily basis on issues concerning China. Also, the sanctions have been announced after a recent meeting at Alaska between US and Chinese officials which did not bring about the desired results.
China’s Xinjiang province has over 11 million Muslims, popularly known as Uyghurs of the Turkic descent, and have been asserting for their rights, much to chagrin of the Chinese authorities in Beijing. They want to be allowed to live life as Muslims and have even gone to the extent of demanding independence from China which Beijing has been obviously denying on various pretexts.
China has been working on a policy of diluting the percentage of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang by encouraging the majority Hans to settle in Xinjiang in large numbers. This has led to violent clashes between the two social groups, resulting in different kinds of harsh measures against the Uyghurs.
As a part of China’s design to force Uyghurs to forget about their human rights, the Chinese authorities have put over one million of these Muslims in internment camps to “de-radicalise” or de-Muslimise them. Though the Chinese deny this, some of these victims have told media persons their painful story of Chinese brutality in graphic detail after they managed to escape from these camps. It is believed that the torture of Uyghurs in the internment camps is basically aimed at bringing them into the communist mainstream.
What is happening in China is rightly described as cultural genocide, though Beijing indulges in this inhuman activity in the name of keeping the Uyghurs from “extremism”. Those belonging to the second big concentration of Uyghurs in neighbouring Kazakhstan (over 200,000, according to one calculation) too have been subjected to untold suffering whenever they mustered courage to visit their relatives in China.
Unfortunately, Muslim-majority countries have been keeping quiet over this cultural genocide as if nothing serious is happening inside China’s Xinjiang region. Iran, which has been most vocal on the Palestinian problem and other such issues, has preferred to look the other way because of the massive Chinese investment in the Persian Gulf country. Arabs, as always, have been busy making money or ensuring that their throne is well protected. What happens to Muslims anywhere in the world is not a matter for them to be worried about.
Turkey has been the only country most vocal in highlighting the plight of the Uyghurs, but that situation existed till a few years ago. There is much improvement in Turkish-Chinese relations today, particularly in the areas of trade and technology. China, with its massive economic power, is believed to be helping the weak Turkish economy to recover. And this is how the communist giant has succeeded in forcing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to almost abandon the cause of the Uyghurs.
A few days back a Turkish parliamentarian, Meral Aksener of centre-right Good Party, remarked in the course of a speech in their parliament, bashing the ruling AKP, “They tell you that they’re the biggest (defenders of) Muslims, but they fail to hear the cries of our brothers and sisters who are tortured for saying they’re Muslim Turks.”
China is also using its vaccine diplomacy to deprive the Uyghurs of any kind of support. It is Turkey’s leading supplier of Covid-19 vaccines. The other day Turkish state media highlighted the supply of 6.5 million doses of a Chinese vaccine even as Turkish parliament is expected to consider ratifying its own extradition treaty with China. It is feared that the extradition treaty with China will be highly dangerous for ethnic Uyghurs, who may be forced to go back to Xinjiang and face the death penalty there.
That is why there is much uneasiness among an estimated 50,000 Uyghur refugees in Turkey who share a common linguistic, cultural and religious heritage with the locals. The Uyghurs in Turkey particularly get more upset when they are pointed out last year’s arrest by the Turkish security forces of a number of Uyghurs wanted by the Chinese on trumped-up charges of terrorism.
Some historians have described the Uyghurs as the original inhabitants of Xinjiang having a long history. In his book, “A history of East Turkestan”, Uyghur politician and historian Muhemmed Imin Bughra has highlighted the Turkic connection of these people, stressing the point that the Turks have a 9000-year history in the region. It is not for nothing that the Uyghurs prefer to call their region as East Turkestan.
The Chinese rulers paint them as extremists or potential terrorists and hence their scheme of brainwashing these people in a brutal manner so that they ignore their roots and become part of the majority Han culture. The truth is that Chinese leader Xi Jinping wants to promote Han nationalism as a unifying force – the Hans are China’s ethnic majority. The Uyghurs see in this scheme gradual elimination of their ethnic and religious identity.
Now the time has come for the world community to ensure that the atrocities against the hapless Uyghurs come to an end in the interest of justice and human rights, and they are allowed to live life with
honour and dignity.
[The writer is a senior journalist and political columnist based in Delhi.]