17/09/2023 – 13:55
A year after publicizing human rights violations against the Uyghur Muslim minority in the northwest of the country, Beijing is trying to show the world a different picture of life in the Xinjiang region. A year after the United Nations highlighted “serious human rights violations” against the minority Uighur in China, little progress has been observed in investigations, analysts say. Meanwhile, Beijing continues to try to reformulate the narrative about its policies in Xinjiang, an autonomous region in the northwest of the country.
In 2022, a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) concluded that the discriminatory detention of Uighurs in Xinjiang by the Chinese government may constitute a “crime against humanity.”
Beijing promptly reacted to the accusation, labeling it “disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces.” An initiative to create a formal agenda at the UN to discuss the issue also failed when China and its allies spoke out against it.
A rare visit by President Xi Jinping to Xinjiang in August has once again raised concerns among activist groups and human rights organizations that the Chinese government is preparing to “reaffirm political direction” with a more positive narrative about Xinjiang.
Beijing tightens control over Xinjiang
Xi visited the region shortly after returning to China from the BRICS summit in South Africa without even making a stop in the capital Beijing. “You can see how much the Uyghur population occupied his mind,” comments Aziz Isa Elkun, an exiled Uyghur poet and research assistant at the School of Oriental and African Studies (also called SOAS University) in London.
This was Xi’s second visit to the region since the mass crackdown initiated by the Chinese government a decade ago. The first was in July 2022, a month before the release of the OHCHR report.
In Elkun’s view, China’s recent focus on Xinjiang is due to the region’s crucial role in “major conflicts with the West over the rule of law, democracy and human rights.”
Since Xi took power in 2013, Xinjiang has become a heavily militarized zone, with increasingly high-tech security tools and widespread digital surveillance. Currently, more than 1 million Uyghurs are reportedly detained in so-called “re-education camps”.
Although China justifies them as “education and vocational training centers” aimed at combating extremism and terrorism, critics argue that such places represent an attempt at genocide to erase the Uyghur identity.
“Uyghur Muslims are sent to detention centers for […] ‘wearing a veil’, growing ‘a long beard’ or violating the government’s family planning policy”, says Ayjaz Wani, researcher at the Strategic Studies Program at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
Beijing invests in tourism in the region
Amid growing global attention on Xinjiang, China has used tourism to portray the region as a “success story.” In a speech during a visit to the region in August, Xi said that Xinjiang was “no longer a remote area” and that it should open up more to domestic and foreign tourism.
“Beijing’s strategy is to manipulate perception through guided tours of Xinjiang,” explains Wani, adding that such a maneuver would aim to give an impression of “normality” in the region.
According to the AFP news agency, the Xinjiang tourism department plans to spend more than 700 million yuan (about 476 million reais) in 2023 on the construction of luxury hotels and camping areas there.
Recently, the Uyghur Human Rights Project called on Western tourism companies to stop offering travel packages through Xinjiang. However, Wani predicts “an increase in guided tours, especially from Islamic and European countries. Diplomats taking part in such visits will praise Beijing’s efforts to combat terrorism, “even though that may not be the case.”
China avoids responsibility?
Since the United Nations report was released a year ago, human rights groups have been calling for more action from world leaders. “We hope that other governments and the UN will now take follow-up measures”, emphasizes Maya Wang, associate director of the Asian division of the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW).
With all the global attention focused on Russia’s war in Ukraine, Wang points out, it is difficult for activists to keep up pressure on the Chinese government over the oppression of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Limited access to the region has also added to the challenges. “The Chinese government is an expert in information control,” and neither HRW nor the UN were allowed free access to the region to carry out fact-finding work.
Wang adds that given the lack of collective pressure from other governments, China likely believes it “can get away with serious international crimes without any consequences.”
Although the use of such camps has reduced in recent years, none of the policies underlying the widespread repression have been reversed or suspended. “For the Uyghurs who live there, life has always been burdened by repression.”
Members of the Uighur diaspora also face the risk of harassment or threats from the Chinese government when they speak out.
In 2017, for example, Beijing cut poet Elkun’s ties with his relatives in Xinjiang, in an apparent attempt to silence him. “I feel very bitter every time I think about them,” comments the Uyghur academic in exile, who still has no news about his family. However, he is aware that other Uighurs suffer even worse fates. “We will bring justice to the victims. The world will never forget,” he promises.
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