Uyghurs staring at specter of genocide

Bit by bit, Beijing also chipped away at religious freedoms to slowly guide this assimilation into its socialist ideal, and sure enough unrest grew.

During the 1990s and prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics there were street protests held by Uyghurs. Things escalated in 2009, when Uyghur versus Han clashes in the regional capital, Urumqi, killed about 200 people according to official figures which haven’t been independently verified.

Reports followed of repeated acts of terrorism allegedly by Uyghur extremists that would lead to China’s President Xi Jinping saying no mercy was to be shown. Establishing what actually occurred during these reported terror incidents remains problematic, as foreign journalists have little access to Xinjiang or to those areas subjected to so-called attacks.

Given the nature of the reported terror attacks, it was not difficult for Xi and the Communist Party propaganda machine to paint the Uyghurs in the same light as Islamic State or similar terrorist groups.

_{Main photo: an Ethnic Uyghur man watches as an army truck full of Chinese soldiers patrols the street in Urumqi in China's far west Xinjiang province on July 8, 2009. (Photo by Peter Parks/AFP)}

Since 2017, hundreds of internment camps have been set up across Xinjiang. Most are repurposed schools or government buildings, but their sinister nature cannot be underestimated.

The system — euphemistically called Vocation Skills Education Training Centers by the Chinese government — is rife with accusations of brainwashing and brutality.

Such is the extent of this network that accurate figures are hard to come by. However, leading independent researchers estimate that at least 1 million people are confined to these centers at any one time — a figure deduced from the government’s own budget for feeding inmates — with upwards of 3 million having already passed through the system.

The Chinese government insists the camps are voluntary and for the purpose of employment training but all evidence to the contrary, even from its own civil service.

The centers are reportedly financed through a security budget, far removed from education, are fenced and gated to keep inmates secure, and policed by specially trained guards using sophisticated surveillance equipment.

Recent videos posted on social media have even shown that inmates are handcuffed to their beds.

While there is a minimal application of skills training, prisoners are routinely subjected to brainwashing for hours at a time and similarly required to learn Chinese using methodology harking back to Mao Zedong’s infamous labor camps, which has evolved to become “transformation through education”, as the Chinese government puts it.

The application of re-education depends very much on the inmate’s perceived threat to the authorities, with those deemed more extreme subject to legal education, thought education, psychological counseling and behavioral correction.

Former inmates have alleged they were made to sing songs praising Xi or recant their faith before being allowed to eat and sometimes being forced to eat pork or drink alcohol, while there are numerous instances of women alleging they were forced to take medication or substances interfering with their menstrual cycle.

_{Main photo: a photo taken during a press tour organized by the Chinese government of Uyghurs supposedly learning gardening in a re-education camp — that the Chinese label as a vocational skills training center — in Moyu County, Hotan Prefecture in Xinjiang. (shutterstock.com photo)}