Solitary confinement, handcuffed and forced to stand in a 2×2 meters, or a 13-square-foot, cell for 24 hours. News is trickling out from Xinjiang, a province in northwest China, of human rights violations against the Uighurs, a largely Muslim ethnic minority.
In a 117-page report released on Monday and entitled Eradicating Ideological Viruses: China’s Campaign of Repression Against Xinjiang’s Muslims, Human Rights Watch has called for the international community to impose sanctions on the world’s second-largest economy.
Up to one million Muslims have reportedly been detained, according to estimates from the non-governmental organization based in New York, the United Nations and United States government officials.
“I resisted their measures,” Nur, a former detainee in a political education camp, told Human Rights Watch.
“They put me in a small solitary confinement cell … In a space of about 2×2 meters, I was not given any food or drink, my hands were handcuffed [behind my] back, and I had to stand for 24 hours without sleep,” Nur, which is not the person’s real name because of fears of reprisals, added.
Four years ago, the Chinese government launched its “Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Extremism” in Xinjiang, Human Rights Watch reported.
But the level of “repression increased dramatically” after the Tibet Autonomous Region Communist Party Secretary, Chen Quanguo, moved to take control of Xinjiang in 2016, it claimed.
These allegations have been denied by Beijing.
‘Completely untrue’
“The argument that one million Uighurs are detained in re-education centers is completely untrue,” Hu Lianhe, a senior official of China’s Communist Party, told the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. “There are no such things as re-education centers.”
Still, Human Rights Watch and the UN point to mounting evidence of a sprawling network of extrajudicial internment camps, where prisoners are subject to political and cultural indoctrination.
Security outside the restricted areas in Xinjiang has also tightened and now bears “a striking resemblance to those inside,” Maya Wang, a researcher for the NGO in Hong Kong, confirmed from interviews with former residents now living abroad.
“The Chinese government is committing human rights abuses on a scale unseen in the country in decades,” Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch, said.
In response, Beijing has insisted that Xinjiang faces a serious threat from Islamist militants and separatists.
Last month, Kaiser Abdukerim, a member of the Chinese delegation and president of Xinjiang Medical University, told the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination that “social stability in the region” was paramount.
During the same two-day meeting in Geneva, Gay McDougall, who sits on the committee, cited harrowing reports before voicing concerns that Beijing had “turned the Uighur autonomous region into something that resembles a massive internment camp.”
Former inmates have painted a grim picture of human rights abuse.
Many faced months of indoctrination, and were forced to renounce Islam, criticize their own beliefs and recite Communist Party propaganda songs for hours each day.
‘Mass incarceration’
The US Congressional-Executive Commission on China has even described the situation as “the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today.”
“They give a signal, that even if you’re in a foreign country, they can ‘manage’ you … I’m scared … I [have never belonged to a] terrorist [group] or any organization against China,” Murat, 37, a student living outside China and whose sister is in a political re-education camp, told Human Rights Watch.
“I didn’t join any demonstrations. I didn’t carry an East Turkestan flag. I have no criminal record in China … Why are they doing stuff like that [to me]?” Murat, which is not his real name because of the threat of reprisals, added.
To combat what many have described as a ‘lockdown’ of the Xinjiang autonomous region, Human Rights Watch would like to see “targeted sanctions” rolled out.
Indeed, Michelle Bachelet, the new head of the UN Human Rights Council, has called on China to allow monitors into the country following “deeply disturbing” allegations.
Yet it is unlikely that Beijing will be opening up “2×2-meter” cells to the rest of the world any time soon.
Joe Wong how’s the food at the PLA canteen today? ????
WuKong Sun But Chinese are smaller, you can fit more in.
Small fry compared to over a billion in the worlds largest prison camp, China.
So you are big in something.
China is installing QR codes on the homes of the Uighur Muslim community in order to get instant access to the personal details of people living there, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
It comes as part of a mass security crackdown on minorities in Xinjiang province, the charity said; one which includes arbitrary detentions, daily restrictions on religious practice and “forced political indoctrination”.
Officials reportedly scan the “smart” doorplates with mobile devices before entering homes to monitor the inhabitants.
China is installing QR codes on the homes of the Uighur Muslim community in order to get instant access to the personal details of people living there, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
It comes as part of a mass security crackdown on minorities in Xinjiang province, the charity said; one which includes arbitrary detentions, daily restrictions on religious practice and “forced political indoctrination”.
Officials reportedly scan the “smart” doorplates with mobile devices before entering homes to monitor the inhabitants.
Richard Truong, you should live in China. Yes, China uses win-win co-operation as leverage. But China takes what not belongs to them, then negotiates, back one step when it hits the wall gaining one step. China used this tactic, and it seems working for them while the west still argues among themselves. You look at the SCS scenarios. Paracel and Spratly Islands are now in the hands of Xi Jen-ping for good. You’re Vietnamese, you should know about this and more with the ambition of assimilation of the whole country by the Thanh Do conference in 1990. You need to look at the way out if you’re still sleeping. It may be too late for you, Truong! On the subject of co-operation leverage, China has been used the bad-book tactic of lending with high interest that the under-development countries can’t pay back. Then the only way is to hand that infrastructure projects to the bank. Who owns the banks in China? Probably PLA. Eventually, China will have more influences on the countries along the "New Silk Road" on land, "Belt and Road Initiative" along the coast lines of the globe! Watch out everybody. Go to Djibouti, Maldives, Gwadar, northern Laos, Cambodia coasts, Burma, Vietnam with the Van Don, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc with the 99 years Exclusive Economic Zone, Vanuatu, and other places like the port on the northern Australia. Chinese are coming with about 1.38 billions people!!! The west has to deal with the Emperor Xi Jen-ping for life from now on. I hope President Trump is not too busy to deal with the turmoil in DC with OP-ED situation. God bless America!
China must take all of the Uighurs into confidence, trust them and bring them to the main stream day to day affairs of the country. There’s no reason that any outsider can use them as tool against China.
I think the anti-China forces converging on a point to pave way for their own supported terrorists to stir up chaos in China, for good obvious reasons– to contain China’s economic and military rise. Again a small Muslim population of China will be made scape goat, although the perpetrators would be operated by some outside forces backing them to destabilize China. Very similar to Syria, where big powers are backing some groups to bring regime change.
Can’t easily accept such a thing from Chins.its an absolute propaganda against China.
Richard Truong , excellently put
Again Watts writes propaganda BS. Watts constantly repeats that the United Nations "point to mounting evidence of a sprawling network of extrajudicial internment camps,…"
This is a blatant lie. The UN did not issue an official report on the allegations. The allegations were made by Gay McDougall, the US representative sitting on an UN Committee. It is her views and is not representative of the UN.
Human Rights Watch want countries to impose sanctions on China. This is malicious political intent because HRW has never been independent and is strongly influenced by the US government and remains its tool.
In May 2014 an open letter was published criticising Human Rights Watch for what were described as its close ties to the government of the United States. The letter was signed by Nobel Peace Laureates Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Mairead Corrigan, former UN Assistant Secretary-General Hans von Sponeck, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Richard A. Falk, and over 100 scholars and cultural figures. The letter highlighted a number of Human Rights Watch officials who had been involved in foreign policy roles in the US government, including Washington advocacy director Tom Malinowski, formerly a speechwriter for Madeleine Albright and a special adviser to Bill Clinton, and subsequently Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor to John Kerry, and HRW Americas advisory committee members Myles Frechette (a former United States Ambassador to Colombia) and Michael Shifter (former Latin America director for the US government-funded National Endowment for Democracy).
So, we can all conclude that Watt’s article is BS and part of the US spectrum attack on China.
Robert Nguyen
I am not arguing in favor of China. This article is blatant lies and propaganda.
In a bigger picture, the West has been launching a psychological warfare against China and the rest of Asia for centuries. It is the civilization clash, maybe you heard of it.
Communism or not, it does not matter. Wake up, dude!
Shakil
There is pretty much nothing China should correct because it’s all propaganda. China treats every religion the same: Loyal to the nation first and practice your religion at home as you wish.
So if someone wants to use religion to make political gain, then this person should be punished by his/her religion because he/she is abusing it.
The US failed to stir up the separatists back then, it will fail again more terribly now. This piece of propaganda is like the US trying to feed people the microwaved old food that nobody wanted.
Terry Kerr well as we’re just making up numbers because it’s just about China, why won’t we just say a trillion? There, does everyone feel better? The highest number in published literature is 50 million and that number has no evidence behind it. It’s just an estimation based on spotty history of the Great Famine. As is standard practice, the western historians usually take the standard tactic of doubling the official numbers provided by the PRC.
And if you’re trying to count all the deaths that Mao is directly and indirectly "responsible" for, then you have to count those poor Japanese imperialists that were raping and slaughtering their way across the country. And those poor Republicans who were willing to slaughter other Chinese rather than fight the Japanese with their much larger army (to start with, until the peasants, who were sick of getting stepped on, joined the PLA and fought back). Apparently fighting wars to protect your fellow citizens makes you a horrible person because you kill your enemies…? I have no idea what you are trying to say here…
""I was not given any food or drink, my hands were handcuffed [behind my] back, and I had to stand for 24 hours without sleep,"
CCP geezers really have gone soft. They must be re-toughen by watching Guantanamo tapes or at least watch Jackie Chan’s Foreigner!!i ahhahaha
"up to one million people"
hehehehe. That’s more people than most USA cities except the top 10 and would take 43,000,000 square ft or 600 city blocks. or two story building still 300 blocks. hahahaha
GORDON WATTS you are a piece of KKK white supremacist SYHT. Why don’t you condemn Amerikkkan imperialism in the earth, the Saudi Arabia despotic regime and the apartheid regime in Israel? You dirty Zionist A$$ kisser…
" 2×2 meters, or a 13-square-foot, cell "
hahahaha… dumb fvxk can’t even convert simple area units. It’s 43square ft moron!
Good laughs so far….
https://www.google.com/search?q=4+square+meters+to+feet&oq=4+square+m
I need an honest answer from any of the persons who argued in favor of China. Have all of you lived under Communist Regime yet or you just recite what you have been indoctronated by someone??? I don’t like politic. I just wander at thi site, saw some of the most ignorant comments of my life. Just ask over billions of people of China and 90 millions of Vietnamese people? There is a say after Communist North took over the South: IF THE ELECTRIC POLE HAS LEGS, IT WOULD GO TO THE OCEANTOO!!! Please be civilized!