Why the US and the EU should form a coalition to address the rights of Uighur Muslims

Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazi regime in Germany and their collaborators conducted the systematic persecution and murder of over six million Jews in Europe and North Africa.[1] The toleration of these concentration camps by other nations allowed Germany to conduct these atrocities. China is currently engaging in similar practices in the Xinjiang region. The U.N. has reported that over 1.5 million Uighur Muslims are being held in concentration camps.[2] While the United States and some European nations responded to the Chinese treatment of Uighur Muslims with public condemnations and sanctions, these actions have not been enough to cause change. It is recommended that the United States and European Union form an international coalition focused on pressuring China to observe the right of Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities.

Since April 2017, between eight hundred thousand and two million Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained in the Xinjiang region of China.[3] Testimonies of over fifty prisoners have confirmed reports of torture and other forms of mistreatment. For example, tiger chairs (a chair in which an individual is restrained and unable to move) are being used to interrogate and physically torture prisoners.[4] Forced sterilization has also been reported by female prisoners of the camps. The Chinese government has attempted to justify the imprisonment and mistreatment of Uighur Muslims by claiming they presented a “terrorist threat.” [4]

The Trump administration’s foreign policy was centered on challenging China in any way possible, including responding to China’s mistreatment of Uighur Muslims. The Trump administration went as far as to say that China committed “genocide and crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang region. The U.S.’s other grievances against China included intellectual property theft, unfair trade practices, and mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.[5] Earlier this year, the Biden administration joined the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Canada in sanctions against China over “human rights abuses.”[4] These sanctions imposed penalties on Wang Junzheng, the secretary of the Party Committee of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, for their roles in imprisoning and abusing Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.[6] While these sanctions show the United States’s condemnation and intolerance of the way minorities are treated in the Xinjiang region, they provide little deterrence in preventing the Chinese government from further abuses.

The creation of a coalition with the primary goal of ending the human rights abuses toward Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in China could lead to coordinated targeted sanctions by countries around the world. These sanctions would severely disrupt Chinese international trade and China’s economy. These sanctions will, of course, come at a cost to the U.S. It is estimated the U.S. sanctions against China will disrupt approximately 25 million dollars in trade between two nations, harming the U.S. economy.[7] Creating an international coalition to simultaneously pressure China with sanctions will potentially allow coalition members to burden-share the costs associated with crippling the Chinese economy.

Coalition members will also have the ability to pressure China within the United Nations, which so far, has been ineffective in addressing human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region. The inability of the UN to mobilize even its Muslim member states against China is partially due to these countries’ massive trade deals with China that would be under threat.[8] The combined support of the United States, the European Union, and other coalition members may increase the coalition’s collective leverage against China to end the human rights abuses of the Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang region.

The persecution of Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang region of China may be the largest incarceration of an ethnic minority since the Holocaust and meets the United Nations definition of a genocide.[9] A coalition of nations, with the United States and the European Union at the head, will place the necessary pressure on China to end the atrocities being committed. A lack of action will embolden the Chinese government and could lead to a genocide at a similar scale as the Holocaust. History teaches us that not intervening in states’ crimes against humanity in a timely manner will create irreparable, intergenerational damage to the world’s societies.

References

[1] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, accessed September 27, 2021, https://www.ushmm.org/teach/fundamentals/holocaust-questions)

[2] Ailsa Chang, Anna Sirianni, and Patrick Jarenwattananon, “New Report Details Firsthand Accounts Of Torture From Uyghur Muslims In China,” NPR, June 10, 2021, accessed September 27, 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/06/10/1005263835/new-report-details-firsthand-accounts-of-torture-from-uyghur-muslims-in-china)

[3] Lindsay Maizland, “China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang,” Council on Foreign Relations, March 1, 2021, accessed September 27, 2021, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-repression-uyghurs-xinjiang)

[4] Ailsa Chang, Anna Sirianni, and Patrick Jarenwattananon, “New Report Details Firsthand Accounts Of Torture From Uyghur Muslims In China,” NPR, June 10, 2021, accessed September 27, 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/06/10/1005263835/new-report-details-firsthand-accounts-of-torture-from-uyghur-muslims-in-china)

[5] Macias, Amanda. “Trump or Biden Will Need Support from Allies to Keep China in Check, H.R. McMaster Says.” CNBC. October 19, 2020. Accessed November 03, 2021. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/19/trump-or-biden-will-need-support-from-allies-to-keep-china-in-check-hr-mcmaster-says.html.

[6] Verma, Pranshu. “U.S. Joins Allies to Punish Chinese Officials for Human Rights Abuses.” The New York Times. March 22, 2021. Accessed November 03, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/22/us/politics/sanctions-china-uighurs.html.

[7] Yihan Ma, “Total Value of U.S. Monthly Trade with China 2021,” Statista, September 22, 2021, accessed September 27, 2021, https://www.statista.com/statistics/277494/total-value-of-us-trade-in-goods-with-china/#:~:text=In%20June%202021%2C%20the%20total,billion%20U.S.%20dollar%20import%20value.

[8] Alex Ward, “5 Real Steps the US Could Take to Help Uighurs in China,” Vox, July 28, 2020, accessed September 27, 2021, https://www.vox.com/2020/7/28/21337081/china-uighurs-muslims-trump-forced-labor-help)

[9] Ailsa Chang, Anna Sirianni, and Patrick Jarenwattananon, “New Report Details Firsthand Accounts Of Torture From Uyghur Muslims In China,” NPR, June 10, 2021, accessed September 27, 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/06/10/1005263835/new-report-details-firsthand-accounts-of-torture-from-uyghur-muslims-in-china)