Chinese Concentration Camps: Uyghurs Muslims in Detention Center
TikTok banned Feroza Aziz, a US teen who outspoke about the detention camps in China and the condition of the Muslim minority there. TikTok later resumed her account with an apology but by the time the news has become an international sensation. This is not the first time when China was criticized for using brutal force against its minority. Reports are floating from 2016 onwards how China is making detention center to ‘Reeducate’ its minority. Many reports claim from 800 thousand to 2 million people have been put into detention center for the purpose of reeducation in the Xinjiang Province of China where 11 millions Uyghurs Muslims resides. In the name of reeducation, this minority group has been put into camps and officials are using all brutality to bring the communist values in them along with forcing them to forget their religion and cultural values. Many who fled China after living in such camps have a nightmare to tell. On the other side most of the world, except the US, has kept quiet on this to maintain ‘good trade relation’ with China. US which is already undergoing a trade war with China is raising this issue in world forums.
Xinjiang Reeducation Program
The detention camps started as Xinjiang Reeducation Program in 2014 and started to grow rapidly in 2017. According to reports of Reuters which came after analyzing the satellite image, claims that the numbers of such camps tripled from April 2017 and August 2018. The newly made detention centers cover a total area roughly the size of 140 soccer fields. Further based on the financial data and analyzing the budgets of China, investigators found out that construction spending on security-related facilities in Xinjiang increased by 20 billion yuan (around $2.96 billion) in 2017.
It is estimated that China is running more than 1200 reeducation camps. Most of these camps are located in the Xinjiang Province. The detainee in these camps is Uyghur Muslims living in the region. Anyone who has a history of protest against Chinese authority including journalists, writers have been put in these camps. More than that anyone from the minority community who ‘can’ support the demand of East Turkestan in Future is a probable detainee. And most of the detainees have never been charged with crimes. The detainees seem to have been targeted for a variety of reasons, including traveling to or contacting people from any of the twenty-six countries China considers sensitive, such as Turkey and Afghanistan; attending services at mosques; and sending texts containing Quranic verses. Human rights groups say that many Uighurs have been labeled as extremists simply for practicing their religion. And these detainees have no legal rights to challenge their detentions anywhere.
Why China started ‘Reeducation’ camps?
Human rights abuses and violent suppressions of Uyghurs are not new in China. Xinjiang is the province where a majority of Uyghurs minority resides. The region has some autonomy. The East Turkestan independence movement, aka Xinjiang independence movement, aka Uyghur independence movement, is a political and social movement seeking independence for this region as a homeland for the Uyghur people and want a separate state named “East Turkestan”. Xinjiang has declared independence twice in modern history; once from 1931 to 1934, and again between 1944 and 1949. Also when in 1949 the Communist party overtook China, this region was absorbed into Communist China. The territory of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region has been controlled by the People’s Republic of China since it incorporated the Republic of China’s Xinjiang Province in 1949. The Chinese government considers all support for the East Turkestan independence movement to fall under the definitions of “terrorism, extremism, and separatism”. And China has all the legal rights to suppress any such activity in the name of Nationalism and it had been doing so on the Muslim minority Uyghurs continuously. There had been many violent clashes between Uyghurs protesters and Chinese forces 1949 onwards.
Disappearing of Uyghurs was not common till 2016, but suddenly it became very common in 2017. Almost every other day cases of disappearance are reported from the minority community. Reports claim that Chinese government organizations are before these cases and sending them to camps. The Re-education camps have been created to ‘treat’ its minority group to strip their freedom, become patriotic and nationalist for Communist China. And setting up such camps in the region shows Chinese agitation towards Uyghur separatism. Recent policies in Xinjiang have included banning the Uyghur language indicate the extremist step of the Chinese Government which can even lead to banning religious and cultural practices.
Inside the ‘Re-education camps’
The reeducation camps have been made with an ideology to remove the minority from China. China is using all forces inside the wall to force the detainees to give up their religion, culture, identity and pledge loyalty to the Communist Party of China and the Chinese President. The whole journey of the detainee is planned inside the camps. They are given points based on their behavior improvements, nationalist thought process, thinking to align with communist ideology. They are not allowed to leave camps before the Chinese authority makes sure he/she is no more a threat to the nation. Many who have fled China, describe their harsh experiences in such camps. They say they are forced to sing songs praising communism and learn Mandarin. Detainees are monitored with cameras and microphones around the clock. Others said they were tortured and subjected to sleep deprivation during interrogations. Sexual Assault is common against women, even forcing them to undergo abortions. Such inhuman and harsh conditions have brought many in a situation to commit suicide inside the camps.
How Chinese officials are covering this?
Chinese Government had started establishing the Reeducation Camps 2014 onwards but they never put this in public domain with any official statement. After many international journalists broke the story of the brutality of Chinese officials in such centers, first the Government officials declined the existence of any such camps. Later in October 2018, when international pressure started building on the Chinese Government, it made a statement saying China is running some ‘vocational and training’ institutes to develop skilled labor in the region and curb the problem of unemployment. In March 2019, they officially named them “vocational training centers.” Shohrat Zakir, governor of Xinjiang province, described them as “boarding schools” that provide job skills to “trainees”. According to him, all the trainees have voluntarily admitted for getting training and are allowed to leave the camps anytime they wish.
The high fencing, secure entry-exit, watchtowers and high security around the camps make the International community rethink about the Chinese policy and propaganda. Chinese have not allowed any independent media or press personals to walk though such camps and make an investigation. But they have organized few official visits of the press to record activities inside the camps in limited areas. The international community criticized China to make a highly choreographed arrangement for the press.
Despite all the protests and raising voice in international media like BBC, Reuters, Vice, etc there is hardly any impact on Chinese authority. As China is growing to become the largest economy in the world every other country wants to maintain good relations with it because the Chinese are going to influence the trade market around the world. Hope the UN and international community could stop the brutality against the minority in China.
