UN’s Xinjiang report rattles fire-breathing dragon: Here are the key allegations against China

A child wearing mask painted hand with the colours of China's flag, during a protest in Istanbul, against what they allege is oppression by the Chinese government to Muslim Uighurs in the far-western Xinjiang province, File Photo: AP

Over the past five years, the Chinese government's mass detention campaign in Xinjiang swept an estimated 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic groups into a network of prisons and camps, which Beijing called “training centres,” but former detainees described as brutal detention centres. Beijing has since closed many of the camps, but hundreds of thousands of people continue to languish in prison on vague and secret charges.

The independent advocacy groups and journalists have been documenting concerns about human rights in Xinjiang for years. Campaigners accuse China of a litany of abuses, including mass incarceration, forced labour, compulsory sterilisation and the destruction of Uyghur cultural and religious sites.The report was drawn from interviews with former detainees at eight separate detention centres in the region. Here are the key allegations from the UN: 

• A "pattern of large-scale arbitrary detention" in Xinjiang, in which individuals suspected of terrorism are held in high-security facilities without due process and for indefinite lengths of time.
• Everything from having too many children, wearing a veil or beard, or not using one's passport are cited as behaviours that can lead authorities to identify individuals as being at risk of "extremism" and mark them for possible detention.
• More recently there have been signs of a shift toward formal jail terms "as the principal means for large-scale imprisonment and deprivation of liberty". Many have been detained without their family members being informed.
• "Credible" allegations of torture and sexual assault -- including rape – were found at detention centres in Xinjiang.
• Former detainees were beaten while immobilised in "tiger chairs" -- used by Chinese police to restrain interrogation subjects -- and being forced to receive unexplained medical treatments, as well as instances of rape and "invasive gynaecological examinations".
• "The Government's blanket denials of all allegations, as well as its gendered and humiliating attacks on those who have come forward to share their experiences... have added to the indignity and suffering of survivors"
• China has "exceptionally broad interpretations of 'extremism'" that criminalise activities "connected to the enjoyment of cultural and religious life". Activities including wearing hijabs and giving children Muslim names are flagged as signs of "religious extremism", which "can lead to serious consequences for persons so identified". There are deeply concerning" reports about the destruction of mosques and cemeteries in Xinjiang.
• Government statements that refer to transferring people from vocational centres to factories, raise questions about "the extent to which such programmes can be considered fully voluntary".
• China was not always forthcoming with information, saying requests for some specific sets of information “did not receive formal response.”
• There are indications that employment programmes in Xinjiang could "involve elements of coercion" -- echoing long-standing claims by the United States and others that forced labour was taking place in the region.

Meanwhile, according to some human rights experts, the UN report stopped short of declaring the alleged crimes a genocide -- a charge with the power to upend China's relations with much of the world.

The report's authors said that they could not confirm estimates of how many people were detained in the internment camps. But they added that based on the evidence, it is reasonable to conclude that the number held “at least between 2017 and 2019, was very significant, comprising a substantial proportion of the Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim minority populations.”

"The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups, pursuant to law and policy, in context of restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity," the report said.

Outgoing United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet / Photo: AFP

Meanwhile, China’s diplomatic mission in Geneva registered its strong opposition to the findings, which it said ignore human rights achievements in Xinjiang and the damage caused by terrorism and extremism to the population. “Based on the disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces and out of presumption of guilt, the so-called ‘assessment’ distorts China’s laws, wantonly smears and slanders China, and interferes in China’s internal affairs,” the note said in part.

Notably, even before the release of the report China maintained that it is “firmly opposed” to the report. Beijing has long insisted it is running vocational training centres in Xinjiang designed to counter extremism and contends that report is part of a Western campaign to smear China's reputation. It released a 122-page report titled “Fight Against Terrorism and Extremism in Xinjiang: Truth and Facts” that defended its record and was distributed by the U.N. with its assessment.

Indian Muslims hold placards as they protest to denounce the Chinese government's policies for Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang / File Photo: AFP

Reactions

India: "Our understanding is that the report is about serious maltreatment of minorities in Xinjiang. But this is a UNHRC report so let the UN comment on it except to note that this is about the serious maltreatment of minorities in Xinjiang," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.

UN: United Nations head Antonio Guterres urged China  "take on board the recommendations" of a UN report that found credible allegations of torture and forced labour in Xinjiang province. The report "confirms what the secretary-general has been saying on Xinjiang for quite some time, that human rights must be respected and that the Uyghurs community need to be respected," Guterres's spokesman told reporters.

US: Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that a long-awaited UN report reaffirmed the US view that China is committing "genocide" against the Uyghurs and called for Beijing to be held responsible. Blinken said that the United States "welcomes" the "important" report.

Japan: “Japan is highly concerned about human rights conditions in Xinjiang, and we believe that it is important that universal values such as freedom, basic human rights and rule of law are also guaranteed in China,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said.

Germany: China must grant everyone in Xinjiang their "full human rights" and release anyone who has been arbitrarily detained, the German foreign ministry.

EU: The European Union's top diplomat on Thursday welcomed a damning United Nations report into China's crackdown on the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang region. EU High Representative Josep Borrell said the UN report recounts rights violations in China that could amount to "crimes against humanity".

Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, said the U.N. report lays bare “China's sweeping rights abuses.” She urged the 47-member Human Rights Council, whose next session is in September, to investigate the allegations and hold those responsible to account.

"This is a game-changer for the international response to the Uyghur crisis," said Uyghur Human Rights Project executive director Omer Kanat.

Where is Xinjiang and why is it important to China?

Xinjiang is a vast but sparsely populated region of mountains, forests and deserts in far northwestern China that borders Russia, Pakistan and several Central Asian nations. The ancient Silk Road ran through parts of it and various nationalities and Chinese empires controlled its cities and oases over the centuries, with the Communist Party taking complete control following its 1949 victory in the Chinese civil war.

The region contains a wealth of natural resources, including oil, gas and rare earth minerals, but perhaps its most important value is as a strategic buffer that extends China's influence westward. While China and Russia have largely aligned their foreign policies in recent years, Xinjiang was on the front line of their Cold War rivalry and remains important as an assertion of Chinese influence in Moscow's backyard.

What prompted China's crackdown on Minorities?

Xinjiang's Uyghurs, along with the closely related Kazakh and Kyrgyz, are predominantly Turkic Muslims who are culturally, religiously and linguistically distinct from China's dominant Han ethnic group. Repression under Communist rule, particularly during the violent and xenophobic 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, stirred deep animosity in Xinjiang toward the government, aggravated further by the migration of Han to the region and their domination of political and economic life.

Uyghurs established two short-lived independent governments in Xinjiang prior to the Communist Party's seizure of power, and the desire for self-rule endured and was nurtured by resentment against heavy-handed Chinese rule. A protest movement began in the 1990s and remained at a relatively low level until simmering anger exploded in a 2009 riot in the regional capital of Urumqi that left an estimated 200 people dead. More violence followed within Xinjiang and as far away as Beijing, prompting Chinese leader Xi Jinping to order a massive crackdown starting in 2014.