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PRC detaining up to 3 million Uyghurs, report says

Joseph Hammond

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) may be committing genocide against Uyghur and other Turkic minorities and has imprisoned as many as 3 million people in detention camps, according to a November 2021 assessment from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum that supports the findings of previous investigations.

While Beijing has long claimed that its use of detention camps and other restrictions in the Xinjiang region was driven by fears of terrorism, the museum’s 60-page report suggests other factors are at play.

“There is an increasing entrenchment of Han supremacist values in the Chinese government’s treatment of the Uyghurs, which has nurtured an environment where genocidal ideologies can take root,” the report’s authors wrote, referring to China’s dominant ethnic group. The rise of such values within the government rank and file has contributed to the campaign of repression, the authors contend.

Furthermore, the report argues there are geopolitical reasons behind Beijing’s efforts. “Control over the region — which the Chinese government treats as synonymous with controlling the Uyghur population — is seen as essential” to the success of the PRC’s One Belt, One Road infrastructure scheme to invest in nearly 70 countries.

There is now a reasonable basis to believe that crimes against humanity, such as forced sterilization, sexual abuse, enslavement, torture and forceful transfer, are also being perpetrated, the study indicates.

The findings of the museum, an independent agency, confirm those of the U.S. State Department and governments around the world that the PRC’s treatment of the Uyghurs amounts to crimes against humanity.

“Canada, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Belgium, and the United Kingdom all approved motions proclaiming that China [had committed] genocide,” the report states. (Pictured: A member of the Uyghur community joins a demonstration to call on the United Kingdom Parliament to recognize the persecution of China’s Muslim minority Uyghurs as genocide.)

The study also describes efforts to ethnically cleanse Xinjiang through sterilization and the compulsory use of intrauterine devices. The government has put in place incentives to encourage Han Chinese and Uyghurs to marry. Those who have previously refused similar efforts have been detained.

Furthermore, efforts to divide Uyghurs by gender have helped limit population growth. The study cites gender segregation and programs that confine Uyghur males to work camps or other distant assignments as examples. The authors contend that Beijing has also encouraged Han Chinese immigration, with over 2 million people moving to Han majority districts of the region between 2015 and 2018.

“This report adds to the growing pile of evidence against the Chinese Communist Party’s genocidal crimes against humanity,” Rushan Abbas, executive director of the Campaign for Uyghurs, told FORUM. “Perhaps most importantly, given the prestigious role of the museum in the study of genocidal policies, the report provides critical evidence of a goal to prevent births, and thus to eradicate the population in the long term.”

The study makes policy recommendations to the international community, including a plea for a United Nations investigation into the treatment of the Uyghurs.

“The international community does indeed have a responsibility to act, and it is the hope of our organization Campaign for Uyghurs that this report spurs the international community to recognize their obligation and join the effort to see the Uyghur genocide brought to an end,” Abbas said.

Joseph Hammond is a FORUM contributor reporting from the Indo-Pacific region.

 

IMAGE CREDIT: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

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