China’s authoritarian treatment of its Uyghur Muslims portends its terrifying imperial plans
Washington Examiner, 25 August 2018
By Washington Examiner — It’s no secret that China has imperial designs. Gross human rights abuses occurring within China’s borders, however, show the depredations we can expect inside China’s sphere of influence.
Normally, when it comes to countries that abuse and mistreat its people, forceful intervention by the U.S. and the West causes more problems than it solves. See Libya and Somalia, for instance.
China is different, precisely because of its credible ambitions to dominate parts of the globe. Vis-a-vis China, the U.S. must exhibit leadership on the world stage and act as a role model.
Beijing’s power is buttressed by a massive infrastructure and investment initiative they call “One Belt, One Road.” That project alone aims to connect more than 68 countries that currently have 65 percent of the world’s population and account for 40 percent of global GDP. This isn’t philanthropic development aid. This is an effort to give Xi Jinping access to, and at least partial control over, vast areas of land, markets, and networks.
Beijing is also exercising increased control over countries already within its sphere of influence — often treating them as quasi-colonies. For a cash-strapped leader deeply in debt to China, it’s hard to say no to Xi. Moreover, even in countries where China does not or cannot exercise its economic might, it has offered itself as a model of state-led economic development that is inseparable from the authoritarian political institutions that facilitate its success.
And being under the thumb of China’s regime is not a good thing, as demonstrated by the country’s record at home, where human rights are little more than a pesky international buzzword, especially if they get in the way of state-building or party control.
Here is an excerpt of the text of an Official Chinese Communist Party broadcast in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, (a region autonomous in name only), that is home to most of the country’s Muslim Uyghur population. The recording, obtained by Radio Free Asia, reads like dystopian fiction — perhaps straight out of 1984 or A Clockwork Orange. It’s not.
“Members of the public who have been chosen for re-education have been infected by an ideological illness … In order to provide treatment to people who are infected with ideological illnesses and to ensure the effectiveness of the treatment, the Autonomous Regional Party Committee decided to set up re-education camps in all regions, organizing special staff to teach state and provincial laws, regulations, the party’s ethical and religious policies, and various other guidelines.”
“Families of those who have been taken for re-education may have concerns … those worries are unnecessary … If the trainees fail to achieve the desired results, they will continue classes free of charge until they are qualified and fit to leave. Citizens, please remain calm and relax.”
“At the end of re-education, the infected members of the public return to a healthy ideological state of mind, which guarantees them the ability to live a beautiful and happy life with their families.”
This chilling reality of re-education camps, of course, has not alleviated anyone’s anxiety as about 1 million Chinese Uyghurs, including students, professors, professionals, and others, have disappeared behind the walls of secretive camps. In some places, officers reportedly predict that about 40 percent of the population, and almost all men between the ages 20 and 50, are expected to be sent to one of the camps. Children with interned parents are also reportedly being sent to newly constructed orphanages where they will only learn Chinese and, presumably, to renounce religion and profess loyalty to the CCP.
The goal of the re-education centers is to address “religious extremism,” separatism, and to ensure loyalty to the party through self-criticism, chanting slogans and renouncing religion. Essentially, beating or brainwashing loyalty into a minority that has been repeatedly mistreated under the Chinese Communist Party.
Xinjiang, which literally means “new frontier” in Chinese and was a recent addition to the Chinese empire in 1759, has been the site of a series of rebellions and (short-lived) declarations of independence. Interestingly, the Communist Party was bent on retaining control over Xinjiang even if the population did not want Beijing’s rule because of its natural resources. To justify this control, the party trotted out narratives of national unity and ethnic harmony. In 1956, however, Chairman Mao made his intention clear, “When we say China has a vast land, rich resources, and a huge population what that actually means is that the Han nationally has a huge population and ethnic minorities have a vast land and rich resources.” Even with “keeping China together” it was never about national unity but exploiting resources.
There’s an eerie echo of that sentiment visible in China’s posture toward countries that are increasingly under Beijing’s economic power and where Beijing also looks to capitalize on natural resources. As the CCP again champions unity, this time with the language of “win-win cooperation,” it is easy to see how friendly agreements could turn into manipulation or worse.
This is not an idle fear as already there are reports that China may be engaged in cyberattacks against Malaysia, which has moved to pull out of Belt and Road deals, indicating that China has few qualms about taking extra-legal measures against countries it seeks to influence. Additionally, Chinese-linked actors have tried to influence elections in Cambodia to “ensure its most loyal ally in Southeast Asia” won the election. China has also exported its repressive approach to the Internet to other countries under its influence as well.
Beyond these direct efforts, the influence of a rising China on human rights is evident through what is not said — both with regards to abuses within China and countries that might fall to China if pushed too hard by the U.S. and its allies.
Already, China’s influence and power have made the U.S. reluctant to intervene in Myanmar where gross human rights abuses, including ethnic cleansing, have occurred out of fear of pushing that country closer to China.
Most abhorrent, however, is silence on the ongoing abuses in Xinjiang itself. Even though a United Nations official has criticized the abuses, few countries have confronted China. As it has become an economic powerhouse, countries hungry for better relationships with Beijing, especially as the U.S. pushes its trade war, are willing to turn a blind eye to even the worst abuses. That sends a message to Beijing that as long as it has money, it can do what it likes — both within its borders and beyond. So far, the U.S. has done little to prove otherwise.