The Article below was published in Vol. 136, Issue 5 of the Lake Forest College Stentor on February 19, 2021.
By Maryam Javed ’21
Opinions Editor
The United States has declared that China’s repression of the Uighur people is genocide, however, Chinese officials disagree. The Uighurs are an ethnic Turkish Muslim group, primarily inhabiting the Xinjiang region in northwestern China, and have been living there for centuries.
In the last decade, Xinjiang has been the battleground for ethnic tensions between the ethnic Uighur Muslims and the majority, the Han Chinese. Chinese officials believe that the Uighurs are promoting Islamic extremism and ethnic separatism. As a result, the Chinese government has detained one million people, placing them in “re-education” programs, which the government has presented as joyous training centers to counter terrorism and extremist behavior.
In these “re-education” programs, Uighur individuals are being erased of their identity. They are also subjected to numerous human rights abuses including sexual assault, sterilization efforts, and torture. Chinese officials truly believe that the Uighurs pose a threat because their beliefs go against the republic. The Chinese government desires all people of China to share the same values, and it seems as though they are so desperate to obtain this ideal, that they continue to attempt this by force. Xinjiang is also a region that is rich in natural gas and oil, a fact that has likely led Chinese officials to feel a greater need to assert their control and influence of the region.
Uighurs are not only being sent to concentration camps, but they are also subjected to heavy surveillance. The Chinese government has stripped them from having a voice to speak out against the suffering and injustice they continue to face.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, “I believe this genocide is ongoing, and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uighurs by the Chinese party-state. The Chinese engaged in the forced assimilation and eventual erasure of a vulnerable ethnic and religious minority group.” Pompeo’s statement illustrates that the Chinese repression of the Uighurs is indeed a genocide.
According to the late Italian jurist and international law scholar Antonio Cassese, “genocide is the intentional killing, destruction, or extermination of groups or members of a group.” It is evident that in the case of the Uighurs that they are intentionally being killed and are being stripped of both their cultural and religious identity. Thirty-nine countries have already condemned the treatment of Uighurs in China, including the United States. However, there is no general consensus among international state actors that China is committing genocide against the Uighur Muslims.
