China is performing the worst form of racism in recent memory and committing genocide against Uyghurs, millions of whom are suffering in modern day concentration camps, intended to eradicate their culture, language, traditions and ways of life. Nearly two dozen activist groups have said that a genocide is taking place against mostly Muslim Uyghurs in China’s remote Xinjiang area.
Genocide is considered to be the greatest of crimes against humanity which is possible to collect. It is the mass extermination of the whole group of people, and attempt to wipe them out of existence. There have been three genocides after the term was coined and adapted by the UN convention in 1948, which are:
- Mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks between 1915-1920.
- The Holocaust, during which 6 million Jews were killed.
- Rwanda, where 8 lakh Tutsis and moderate Hutis died in 1994 genocide.
India is home to some 200 million Muslims, one of the world’s largest Muslim populations, but also a minority in the predominant Hindu country. It is estimated that that Muslims in India, out of which most of them identify as Sunni, account for 15% of the population.
The Muslim community in Gujarat continues to suffer serious deprivations of economic, social and cultural rights as a result of the 2002 riots against Muslims in Gujarat. A report by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights showed that Muslim persons, women in particular, are denied access to important rights, specifically the right to work, an adequate standard of living, education, health, cultural life and non-discrimination.
Jammu and Kashmir, the one Indian state with a Muslim majority, was stripped of its autonomy last August and has been locked down ever since. Mass detentions and torture are the norm according to few witnesses. For 150 days, the government revoked the state’s special status, the internet was cut off and has only been limited to a degree. The security forces detain who they want and distraught family members complain that they cannot find their relatives.
In Bihar, a planned communal riot in 2018 led many parts of the state under fire as one-third of the state was under riots during March,2018. Several parts of Bihar witnessed communal clashes over the one week following Ram-Navami. The riots broke out after members of BJP, RSS and Bajrang Dal carried out processions without seeking permission. A week later, clashes broke out during Ram – Navami procession, in which two communities resorted to violence with stone-pelting, injuring people on both sides. Soon the members of both the communities were engaged in violence, with mosques being vandalized and some people trying to hoist a saffron flag on top of the mosque.
Alternatively, the idea of a composite culture, where Hindus and Muslims live together in harmony has developed in South India and not in the north, the former Vice chancellor of Osmania University, Suleman Siddiqui said. Kerala is a state where civilized coexistence between Hindus, Muslims and Christians is seen majorly. This contrasts with other cities and states in North India, where growing hatred against Islam pits Hindus and Muslims against each other.
Uighurs are Muslims and Islam is an important part of their life with Turkish as their language. Major development in Xinjiang’s big cities has attracted Han Chinese from Eastern provinces, who are given better jobs and opportunities, which has fueled resentment among Uighurs. In response to a slew of attacks by Uighurs such as plane hijacks, bomb and knife attacks, the authorities launched a ‘yearlong campaign’ against terrorism. China has been intensifying its crackdown on Uighurs after street protests in 1990s and again after the Beijing Olympics in 2008. In 2009, people were killed in the unrest, leading to increase in security and many Uighurs detained as suspects.
A report published in 2013, said that authorities criminalized what they labelled ‘illegal religious’ and ‘separatist’ activities’ and clamped down on peaceful expressions of one’s cultural identity.
The genocide undertaken by the Communist Party of China is akin to the genocide undertaken by Nazis in Germany with reports emerging of systematic sterilization of Uighur women. Over a million Turkic Uighurs are detained in Concentration camps, prisons and forced labor factories in China. These detainees are subject to military style discipline, thought transformation and forced confessions. They are abused, tortured, raped and even killed. Those who survive report being subjected to electrocution, waterboarding, repeated beating, stress positions and being injected with unknown substances. These mass detention camps are designed to cause physical, and psychological harm and mentally break the spirit of the Uyghur people.
For the past 3 years, it has confined more than 1 million Uyghurs to detention centers and sought to eradicate their allegiance to Islam. The detainees have been forced to eat pork and memorize Chinese songs, women have been sterilized and children separated from their parents. Vast, mysterious facilities were built in Xinjiang’s desert areas, which appeared to be camps, where thousands of Muslims began to disappear.
Chinese men are exploiting Uyghur women at home who are living alone as their men have been detained in concentration camps. According to multiple reports, Uyghur women have been forced to share a bed with uninvited Chinese guests. Newest reports indicate the government is forcefully sterilizing Uyghur young women to prevent the growth of the population noted Turdi Hoja, Chairman of the advisory board, Campaign for Uyghurs, in an article with Times of India.
In an investigative report by Scholar Adrian Zenz from the Associated Press, the evidence shows that China is systematically using pregnancy checks, forced intrauterine devices, sterilization and even abortion to reduce the population of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang. Moreover, having too many children is being punished by incarceration in the camps. The report shows that authorities have gone hunting for such parents, ripping them away from their families unless they can pay huge fines. Mr. Zenz found that authorities subjected 80% of women of childbearing age to intrusive birth prevention surgeries, intrauterine devices or sterilization in 2019. Across the Xinjiang region, birthrates continue to plummet, falling 24% last year, compared to 4.2% nationwide, even though the region makes up only 1.8% of China’s population.
According to The Guardian, china is the world’s biggest supplier of cotton products and 84% of the country’s cotton output is sourced from Xinjiang. Activists named 38 companies that are connected to forced Uighur or Turkic Muslim labor. These Companies were blasted on Social media, such as Nike, H&M, Apple, Samsung and Sony. Nike responded to the claims by conducting diligence to identify and asses’ potential risks related to employment of Uighur. H&M responded by cutting all ties with producer operating in Xinjiang.
In an article by Business Insider, Jasmine O’Connor, the CEO of Anti-Slavery International said that ‘The only way that brands can ensure that they aren’t profiting from the exploitation is by exiting the region and by ending relationships with the suppliers propping up this Chinese Government system.’
China has aggressively bullied for the past couple of years many of its neighbors, from Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Nepal to India. now Hong Kong is added to the list recently as China imposed Draconian national security law in Hong Kong with an aim to crush dissent. Turdi Hoja claimed that ‘As the world has kept largely silent this human rights tragedy has gradually deteriorated into a full-blown genocide today. Now as billions of people are confined to their homes by a pandemic that originated in China, people finally have the time to slow down, open their eyes and take a good look at China as well as at themselves and recognize that their blindness to China is biased partially responsible for this pandemic and China’s aggressive behavior towards minorities like Uyghur.’
Beijing has repeatedly denied any mistreatment of the Uighur communities and insists that its actions in Xinjiang have been taken to combat terrorism and called it ‘vocational training’. Business Insider’s article showed that China’s ambassador to the UK was confronted with drone footage showing Uighurs blindfolded, tied up and ready to be loaded up onto trains. Ambassador Liu Xiaoming did not deny the footage’s veracity to BBC’s Andrew Marr but insisted that it could merely show a regular transfer of prisoners in the country. Mr. Xi has clearly signaled his intent to continue these criminal acts. Yet the international response remains weak. The EU has confined itself to request to send observers to the region. According to former national security adviser john Bolton, Mr. Donald Trump believed that Mr. Xi’s attack on the Uighurs is ‘exactly the right thing to do’. But in recent days, US shelved plans for a broad import ban on cotton and tomato products from Xinjiang. President Trump has signed a sanctions law against individuals’ who are found responsible for abuses in Xinjiang. What’s needed is a concerted and unified response by all democracies around the world.
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