As reports of China’s alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang surface, a storm of international outrage erupts. Diplomats, politicians, and human rights organisations decry the treatment of Uighurs, accusing China of systematic oppression, torture, and brainwashing. Despite the global outcry and sanctions, China remains defiant, raising questions about the UN’s ability to hold the authoritative regime accountable.
The recent reports of China attempting to sell the Xinjiang story to diplomats, politicians, and journalists from friendly nations are eliciting strong protests from various quarters. Many of these visitors have witnessed and experienced outright violations of the basic freedoms of Uighur and other ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang Province.
China is maintaining several “re-education camps” or “vocational training centres” in Xinjiang. The purpose of establishing such camps is to deradicalise the locals in response to the growing Islamophobia in the region. Additionally, the Chinese Government asserts that these centres aim to improve labour skills and alleviate poverty in the province. Local officials strongly believe that these efforts are genuinely beneficial and contribute to restoring social stability, harmony, and prosperity to Xinjiang.
However, the reality is exceedingly harsh. Uighurs are enduring pain and untold misery. China is vehemently suppressing the Uighurs in Xinjiang Province, solely aiming to curb separatist tendencies among the people in this volatile region. This is Beijing’s official explanation for the extensive security and surveillance measures imposed throughout Xinjiang. Beijing has been incarcerating millions of Uighurs in these re-education camps, subjecting them to systematic brainwashing, torture, and other degrading treatments. In 2021, Agnes Callamard, the Secretary-General of Amnesty International, accused Chinese authorities of creating “a dystopian hellscape on a staggering scale”.
The Uighurs find themselves at a cultural and historical crossroad, facing a severe test for survival under the Communist rule from Beijing. Nearly 12 million Uighurs reside in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), as it is officially known in China, located in the northwest and serving as a crossroads between Central Asia and East Asia.
Last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the far-western province and emphasised the need to maintain “hard-earned social stability” in the region. He conveyed to officials in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) that Beijing intends to persist with its counterterrorism policies there. It serves as a litmus test for China, requiring a delicate balance between its global expansion agenda and the need to ensure domestic stability throughout the mainland and its overseas territories, including Hong Kong, Macau, and the South China Sea (SCS).
The UN has already accused China of serious human rights violations in Xinjiang. A long-awaited report, published in 2022 by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the XUAR, rightly pointed out that China is engaged in “serious human rights violations against the Uighurs” and other predominantly Muslim communities in the province. Beijing vigorously attempted to prevent the release of the Xinjiang report, but it was eventually made public by the UN human rights body just before the retirement of Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet. She visited Xinjiang in May of that year, and only after her visit was the highly sensitive report brought to the public’s attention.
However, for the Communist Party apparatchiks and its top leaders, this report was dismissed as nothing more than a “farce” orchestrated by Western powers.
Global human rights agencies, such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), assert that China is committing crimes against humanity in Xinjiang. Following the release of the report, Chinese officials maintained their abusive “strike hard policies”, resulting in the suppression of fundamental freedoms for Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims. HRW strongly argues that UN member states should not remain silent in the face of such crimes against humanity. Additionally, HRW urges concerned governments to:
A. Work toward the successful adoption of a UN Resolution to investigate instances of crimes against humanity and hold those responsible accountable.
B. Improve efforts to document individuals who are detained, imprisoned, and forcibly disappeared, and make attempts to reunite families.
C. Impose targeted sanctions on Chinese officials implicated in serious abuses in Xinjiang.
D. Consider pursuing criminal cases under the concept of “universal jurisdiction,” allowing a country’s domestic judicial system to investigate and prosecute certain grave crimes, such as torture, even if they were not committed on its territory.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) also contends that the current Human Rights Commissioner, Volker Turk, should act on the recommendations of the report from his office, previously provided by his predecessor. It is time to hold accountable those responsible for committing heinous crimes against the Uighurs and other minorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
The pivotal question is whether the UN, in general, and the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in particular, have the mandate to hold China accountable for massive human rights abuses in Xinjiang over the years. It is deemed impractical for any international agency, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to compel an authoritative regime like Xi’s to cease human rights violations in Xinjiang. While sanctions have already been imposed by various nations, including the US, the UK, Canada, and the European Union (EU), on Chinese officials alleged to be involved in rights violations against the Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups in 2021, it is essential to note that this marked the first coordinated sanctions by EU Members against China since the historic Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. In response, China retaliated with almost equivalent sanctions against some EU politicians and officials.
Back in 2020, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) joined over 300 other NGOs in urging the UN to establish a specific mechanism for systematically monitoring and reporting on instances of human rights abuses by China.
Notably, this collective call was followed by a similar appeal from 50 UN experts. Both groups emphasised China’s systematic human rights abuses in Hong Kong, Tibet, and particularly in Xinjiang. They also highlighted the Communist nation’s efforts to conceal information about the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and its continued attacks on those defending human rights. The joint letter expressed deep concern about China’s global network of censorship, threats, surveillance, and blatant violations of UN processes.
Beijing, leveraging its newfound power status driven by economic clout, wolf warrior diplomacy, and growing military strength, employs tactics to deny NGOs accreditation, attack UN experts, and undermine country resolutions at the UN Human Rights Council. These actions signal the authoritative Communist regime’s attempt to establish its own system within the current West-led global governance paradigm, potentially shifting it to a China-led one in the future. This has prompted the West, especially the US, to initiate multiple confrontations with China, ranging from trade to information wars in recent times.
China perceives these sanctions as a threat to its sovereignty. Beijing dismisses such sanctions as based on lies, disinformation, disregard for facts, and distortions. Consequently, China uses these sanctions to tighten its policing and surveillance tactics, particularly in controlling the Uighur Muslims.
For the Uighurs, changing the status quo is an uphill task. The only plausible solution lies in generating global awareness through the efforts of human rights agencies, rights activists, the UN and its special organs, and concerned nations, shedding light on the atrocities committed against the Uighurs and other small Muslim groups in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
China must adhere to all international norms, allowing UN agencies to investigate the atrocities against the Uighurs. Beijing should not forget that it is an integral part of the international system and community.
Its scant regard for international norms, coupled with attempts to impose an authoritarian system over its people and allies, is disturbing.
This approach is not how China can counter the US and other emerging powers. President Xi must first set his own house in order before pointing fingers at others.
Denying basic freedoms to the Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups is unacceptable. They are Chinese people and deserve the same rights as other Chinese citizens.
Their religion should not be treated as a barrier to enjoying the universal human rights enshrined in the UN Human Rights Charter. While it is crucial to contain radical and separatist tendencies among the Uighurs, punishing the entire Uighur and Muslim groups collectively is not the solution.
(The writer is currently president of the Global Research Foundation)
