Courage, principles vanish as we ignore Uighur nightmare
Why has the world been so slow to respond to China’s persecution and cultural genocide of more than a million of its Uighur Muslim minority population?
Is it a fear of China’s growing economic might and a reluctance to offend?
Or the dread of a ruthless backlash from China’s increasingly aggressive Communist Party?
Or is it the inevitable result of an imploding 21st century in which Donald Trump’s amoral “America First” has quietly signalled to the world — and to China — that this type of criminality can happen?
Regardless of the reason — and it is probably a combination of the three — it is a stain on the international community that will not disappear soon.
And one thing is certain — we won’t be able to plead that we didn’t know.
From satellite pictures of detention camps, from leaked internal Chinese documents and from the desperate testimony of relatives and former inmates, a picture is being formed of what has been described as the worst human-rights crisis in the world.
Mass sterilizations, forced abortions, reports of rape and torture, lengthy prison terms and brutal efforts to eliminate the traditional language and religion — these are some of the horrifying details of what life has become for many of China’s Muslim minority in the country’s northwest Xinjiang province.
Between one million and two million Muslims have been reportedly detained in hundreds of detention centres, which some human-rights observers have compared to concentration camps. Most of those detained are Uighurs but some are ethnic Kazakhs and Uzbeks, and all are Muslim.
Beyond the camps, the 11 million Uighurs living in Xinjiang province have suffered from more than a decade of anti-Muslim repression from Chinese authorities. Uighur parents cannot name their sons “Muhammad,” their children cannot enter mosques and Uighur women are not allowed to wear a veil in public.
China claims that these camps, which it calls “vocational training centres,” are intended to prevent the spread of terrorism in the region. But it has refused to provide information about these detention centres and has prevented journalists and foreign governments from examining them.
There have been protests from international groups and some political figures, but they have been largely ineffective. As it flexes its expanding economic muscle, an emboldened China seems confident that it can count on global hypocrisy to keep its Uighur issue contained.
The United States is a case study of that. Even though Trump has recently signed a law calling for sanctions against Chinese officials, China knows that this is largely for show, as part of Trump’s beleaguered re-election campaign.
In his new memoir, John Bolton — Trump’s former national security adviser — recalls that China’s president, Xi Jinping, explained to Trump in 2019 why detention camps for the Uighurs were created.
According to the book, Trump told Xi that China “should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do.”
The world’s Muslim states have been similarly hypocritical. Arab countries, in particular, which have benefited from Chinese investment and foreign aid, have remained silent about China’s handling of its Muslim minority.
For his part, Turkey’s authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has apparently pushed his hypocrisy to a new level. Uighur Muslims have accused Turkey of deporting their relatives who had been living in Turkey back to China — in exchange for Chinese aid.
Even Pope Francis seems to have become strikingly conflicted about China’s rights violations — particularly the Uighurs’ plight. Uncharacteristically for him, the pontiff has been silent on the issue. His critics accuse Francis of doing a deal with Xi’s regime in an attempt to protect the rights of Catholics in China.
In spite of the deafening silence and hypocrisy of some leaders, there are efforts emerging on behalf of China’s Uighurs.
A Canadian parliamentary committee just recently concluded hearings into the Uighur issue, and that triggered new momentum for Canada’s assistance. This was outlined in an excellent column by Amira Elghawaby in last Wednesday’s Star — headlined “Uighur genocide must end — and Canada can help.”
As this century takes shape, it is clear that the rivalry between the world’s two economic superpowers — China and the U.S. — will largely define it.
How constructive or dangerous this relationship will become cannot be known yet, although the current bitterness in the debate is ominous. This may ease once Trump is driven from the White House next January, but it may not.
Regardless, this fractured world of ours needs to learn — or relearn — that the issue of universal human rights should supersede everything. It shouldn’t be undermined by the grubby interactions of trade agreements, or the corruption of desperate political leaders serving their own selfish interests.
That is just one reason among many why China’s Uighurs deserve our attention and support.
In spite of the deafening silence and hypocrisy of some leaders, there are efforts emerging on behalf of China’s Uighurs