Uyghur Genocide

Who:  The Uyghurs (sometimes spelled “Uighurs”) are a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority living in the Xinjiang province of China. 

Where:  Xinjiang is located in northwestern China. The region has a large population of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other groups that are largely Muslim.

What:  The Chinese government has been accused by a growing number of countries — including the United States — of committing genocide against the nation’s Uyghur population.

New York Times, 07/27/2021

On the final full day of the Trump presidency, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that China was carrying out a genocide against Uighurs and other Muslim peoples, the toughest condemnation yet of Beijing’s crackdown against its far western region of Xinjiang. …  

In his statement, Mr. Pompeo said the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang had committed crimes against humanity that include arbitrary imprisonment, forced sterilization, torture, forced labor and “draconian restrictions” on freedom of religion, expression and movement.  

He added that the United States believes the Chinese authorities have committed genocide because they had “engaged in the forced assimilation and eventual erasure of a vulnerable ethnic and religious minority group.” …

In 2016, a new Communist Party boss, Chen Quanguo, transferred to Xinjiang from Tibet. He began carrying out an intensified campaign of repression, putting large numbers of Uighurs, Kazakhs and other minority groups in re-education camps.  

Under Mr. Chen, the use of surveillance, in the form of both high-tech facial recognition monitoring and traditional measures like police checkpoints, surged in the region. China has also attempted to control the growth of the Uighur population, and researchers say it has used repressive methods such as forced sterilizations.  

Large numbers of children in Xinjiang have been placed in boarding schools designed to assimilate and indoctrinate them, according to the government’s published plans. And the authorities have carried out the widespread destruction of mosques and shrines while turning others into tourist sites. …  

Officials have held one million or more people in internment camps in Xinjiang, the country’s most sweeping mass detention program since the Mao era. A wide range of behavior can lead to detention, including acts of religious devotion, travel to certain countries, violations of birth restrictions or installing cellphone apps that allow encrypted messaging.

Human rights groups believe China has detained more than one million Uyghurs against their will over the past few years in a large network of what the state calls “re-education camps”, and sentenced hundreds of thousands to prison terms.  

There is also evidence that Uyghurs are being used as forced labour and of women being forcibly sterilised. Some former camp detainees have also alleged they were tortured and sexually abused.  

The US is among several countries to have accused China of committing genocide in Xinjiang. The leading human rights groups Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have published reports accusing China of crimes against humanity.

Ann Strimov Durbin (Jewish World Watch) & Rachel Kahn-Troster (T’ruah)