Uighur concentration camps and the various international law and human rights violations committed by the Chinese Communist Party
Edited by: Rania Rayyan, editor for lajustitia.net
“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide ratified[1] on December, 9th 1948.
Genocide has been a part of the conqueror’s toolset for millennia; a savage tool used to brutally excise and eliminate unwanted groups. It is a tool that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not afraid to use as we’ve recently come to know.
Xinjiang is China’s westernmost province and is of strategic importance to fulfilling China’s global ambitions. In 2013, China launched the Belt and Road Initiative, a trillion-dollar program whose objective is to boost economic and trade relations through the funding of massive infrastructure projects in countries situated along the historic silk road. This program places Xinjiang province as the gateway to the western world by land and at the source of numerous transportation infrastructure projects leading westwards. Xinjiang is also rich in natural resources and represents some forty percent of China’s coal reserves and twenty percent of its total oil and gas reserves. However, much to the ruling party’s dismay, the province harbors a largely Muslim ethnic minority known as the Uighurs. The Uyghurs possess a different culture that is closer to its Turkic neighbors and speaks a distinct language. Their religious beliefs are also troubling in the eyes of the atheist state that would rather eradicate religion and replace it with cult-like worship of the ruling communist regime and its president. Following the 2009 race riots in Urumqi that pitted the disgruntled Uyghurs against the Han ruling class and fearing a reignition of historic separatist movements, the ruling party had the perfect excuse to crack down on the Uyghur minority and turn the province into a high-tech and highly oppressive police state[2]. Any infraction, no matter how insignificant, such as downloading a banned app was reason enough for the police to implement severe measures. As of 2017, these measures would entail the transfer to a de-extensification, re-education center. China’s brutal history of cultural assimilation rears its ugly head yet again as activists and journalists have uncovered the existence of detainment facilities in Xinjiang through whistle-blowers and using advanced digital tools such as satellite imagery. According to NBC News, a staggering 1,8 million Uyghurs have been sent to these facilities, which some rightly call concentration camps, where reports of death, torture, and rape are rampant. These concentration camps with Chinese characteristics[3] are created with a single objective according to the testimony of an ex-detainee. He said, “If you ask me about the ultimate goal of the government, it’s to make ethnic minorities Chinese.” A docile and loyal population is the cornerstone of any authoritarian regime, and the ruling communist party is aware of that. Their brutal assimilation programs aim at stripping away the elements that give the Uyghurs their unique ethnic identity through intensive Mandarin language courses, brainwashing with endless state propaganda, and forceful repudiation of their religious beliefs. “They put cuffs on my legs for a week. There were times when we have beaten”, reports one of the victims of this program. Detainees were also reportedly used as cheap labor, working in sweatshops linked to high-end brands that sparked international outrage and boycotts. For example, in late 2020, journalists reported the use of forced labor to produce P.P.E and face masks which were later exported or gifted to various nations across the world[4].
To hide this blatant violation of human rights from the western world and limit the damage to their reputation and international trade, the CCP first attempted to deny all allegations from various human rights groups and journalists. However, when the cracks in their story started to show, and the amount of evidence collected was too great to ignore, the communist regime instantly switched stances. They proceeded to go on damage control by acknowledging the existence of the camps while simultaneously attempting to control the narrative. They started using nom threatening language by describing the camps as “re-education centers”, as seen previously. They also broadcasted reportedly staged videos in camps; The guard towers were removed before filming, and the detainees performed various leisurely activities such as painting or playing basketball. The purpose of these videos is to obfuscate the truth behind an opaque veil of doubt. Moreover, the CCP uses the Belt and Road Initiative and its position as a major trade partner and foreign investor to intimidate and coerce countries into turning a blind eye to their blatant human rights violations. Losing billions of dollars in foreign investments and trade agreements is reason enough for most countries, especially during the pandemic, to submit to China’s will. Since 2018, multiple members of the United Nations, such as the United States and Australia, have raised concerns over the mass detention of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. A statement was even presented by Ambassador Christoph Heusgen on behalf of thirty-nine Countries in the Third Committee General Debate on October, 6th 2020[5]. It was, however, quickly countered by a statement written by a coalition of forty-five nations who came to the defense of China’s policies. This counter statement proclaims, among other things, that “China has undertaken a series of measures in response to threats of terrorism and extremism under the law[6] to safeguard the human rights of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.” The UN has been unable to propose a resolution so far. Unfortunately, it also seems that China’s stranglehold over the organization and its various member states has led to a stalemate between opposing parties. However, the United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on senior CCP officials and have strongly condemned China’s actions. The Human Rights Watch organization has also published numerous reports demanding the release of Xinjiang detainees[7]. Only two countries so far have formally sanctioned the CCP’s actions in Xinjiang as genocide. On January, 19th 2021, the United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that China’s treatment of the Uyghurs was indeed an act of genocide, making the United States the first country in the world to make such a designation. Canada became the second country, on February, 22nd 2021 when the Canadian House of Commons voted 266–0 to approve a motion that formally recognizes that China is committing genocide against its Muslim minorities, the Uighurs. Unfortunately, the bulk of countries with Muslim majorities have voiced their support for China by praising their efforts in “combatting extremism.”
Following the horrors of the world wars, western nations sought to reconcile their differences diplomatically to avoid any further unnecessary bloodshed. This mutual goodwill led to the foundation of the United Nations in 1945 and the birth of international human rights law in 1948 following the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)[8]. In 1948, an important human rights instrument was adopted named the “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” (CPCG). This convention was the first legal instrument to codify genocide as a crime[9] and was, unanimously, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. As of 2021, 152 parties have signed the Genocide Convention, including China. However, it is significant to note that the Republic of China (Taiwan) signed the treaty in 1949 and ratified it in 1951. Thus, the People’s Republic of China, the current representative for China at the UN, has proclaimed that “the ratification to the said Convention by the Taiwan local authorities on 19 July 1951 in the name of China is illegal and therefore null and void”[10]. The PRC does not consider itself bound by Article IX of the convention that stipulates: “Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfillment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice[11] at the request of any of the parties to the dispute”. As the International Criminal Court (ICC) has the power to convict individuals as well as states for the crime of genocide or the failure to prevent it. The prime example of this is when Jean Kambanda became the first head of government to be convicted of genocide in 1998. it is clear from the declarations of The PRC that they seek to absolve themselves of any crimes relating to the genocide. However, the provisions in the CPCG are widely considered to be reflective of customary law and therefore binding on all nations whether or not they are parties. International law also characterizes them as peremptory norms, or jus cogens, which means that any deviation from these norms is illegal. Jus cogens also ban maritime piracy, slavery, wars of aggression and territorial aggrandizement, torture, and refoulement (deporting asylum seekers to a country where they risk persecution). Under the principle of jus cogens, the officials responsible for the mass detention and torture of the Uyghurs could and should be tried under the genocide convention. Unfortunately, this is unlikely since the PRC is a member of the UN Security Council, possesses veto power, and is a non-signatory of the International Criminal Court Statute.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction over the crimes cited previously in only three instances, the first of which is if they occurred on the territory of a state party. Jurisdiction is also valid if a state party’s national commits the crime. The third case is if the crimes were referred to the Prosecutor by the UN Security Council.
The ICC must also rely on the cooperation of national police forces to make arrests as it does not possess its police force. For now, the only diplomatic retaliation a country can do is to impose travel restrictions on high-ranking officials and their family members involved in the genocide[12] or apply diplomatic pressure as the Trump administration has done by closing the Chinese embassy in Houston[13].
As our collective attention is distracted by the current pandemic and various other international crises, the plight of the Uyghurs grows larger. Due to diplomatic pressure and other obstacles, international organizations that safeguard and guarantee human rights cannot take action. However, governments can still face the fierce red dragon if they gather the courage, even if they get burnt.
[1] Participation in the genocide convention: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Genocide_Convention_Participation.svg
[2] “A country where people’s freedom, especially to travel and to express political opinions, is controlled by the government, with the help of the police”, Oxford dictionary
[3] In reference to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, commonly abbreviated as Xi Jinping Thought, which describe a set of policies and ideas derived from the writings and speeches of Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping.
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/19/world/asia/china-mask-forced-labor.html
[5] https://new-york-un.diplo.de/un-en/news-corner/201006-heusgen-china/2402648
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_Hard_Campaign_Against_Violent_Terrorism
[7] https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/10/china-free-xinjiang-political-education-detainees
[8] Illustrated version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: https://www.un.org/en/udhrbook/#1
[9] https://treaties.un.org/doc/Treaties/1951/01/19510112%2008-12%20PM/Ch_IV_1p.pdf
[10] https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-1&chapter=4#EndDec
[11] The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutes this crime following the Rome Statue in 1988
[12] https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/voa-news-china/us-issues-visa-restrictions-chinese-officials-suspected-rights
[13] https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/22/houston-chinese-consulate-close-donald-trump/
