As Beijing hosts the 2022 Winter Olympics, China's alleged pattern of human rights abuses
has cast a shadow over the games – particularly regarding the nation's treatment of the Uyghur
people.
Beginning in 2014, human-rights advocates began raising concerns about China and its
treatment of the Uyghurs, an ethnic community in the country's far northwest.
According to Human Rights Watch, the Chinese have forcibly detained as many as 1 million
Uyghurs and forced them into "political education" camps.
There, allegations have emerged that the detainees have been tortured, sexually abused, and trafficked
into forced labor, among other abuses.
Meanwhile, outside of the prison camps, Uyghurs are allegedly subject to mass surveillance,
random detainments and "disappearances," forced sterilizations, and systematic erasure of
their religion and culture.
According to BBC News, there are about 12 million Uyghurs living in China's Xinjiang
region, where East Asia gives way to Central Asia.
Like the majority of people in Central and West Asia, the Uyghurs are Muslims.
They have more in common culturally and ethnically with Turks than they do with the Eastern Chinese.
The Uyghurs have been in their part of China since the sixth century, and by the 11th century,
they and other groups in the region were almost uniformly Muslim.
The region was a collection of Islamist city-states, ruled by Caliphs, until the middle 1700s.
At this point, they faced opposition from the Qing dynasty, which took power and began
ruling over the Muslim population.
The Uyghurs would face opposition from their Chinese rulers over the centuries, with the
Chinese putting down revolts in the region in the 1800s.
The Uyghur population in Xinjiang has declined since the People's Republic of China annexed
the region in 1949.
The National Library of Australia puts the group at 76% of the area's population in 1949.
Now, the National Bureau of Statistics of China claims that Uyghurs make up only 42
percent of the population.
The reason for the decline is allegedly dilution due to the immigration of Han people to Xinjiang.
In addition to a dilution of the Uyghur people, the Chinese Communist Party continues to clash
with Uyghurs in regards to Xinjiang's status as a colony.
While Muslim portions of the region continued to stand for independence and recognize the
area as separate from China, the Chinese Communist Party rejects such notions and treats such
pushback as a danger to China as a whole.
Indeed, Beijing's official position is that Xinjiang and its population is part of China,
despite the previously mentioned dilution of the Muslim population and allegations of
abuse against Uyghur people.
A reckoning of sorts came following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
During this period, predominantly-Muslim Central Asian republics that had once been part of
the USSR — such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan — became independent nations, and the Uyghurs
were left behind.
Some Uyghur militant groups offered resistance, spurring the Chinese to invoke "Document No.
7," effectively a "strike hard" declaration against the group.
The declaration and subsequent pressure applied to the Uyghurs paved the way for the current
climate.
This campaign is responsible for the detaining of Uyghur people for "'illegal religious activities"
and being sympathetic to separatists without trial.
Although the Uyghurs fought back, it often led to bloodshed, and they were never able
to overpower the opposing Chinese state.
National boundaries often have little to do with the cultural, ethnic, or religious makeup
of the peoples that live within those boundaries.
This is especially true of nomadic groups that don't stay in one place for any significant
length of time, such as the Uyghurs.
Though they live in China and in a semi-autonomous region of the country, they have very little
to do with the majority of the Chinese people, who live hundreds if not thousands of miles
to the southeast.
The Uyghurs being Muslim sets them apart from the largely Buddhist Chinese, and this Muslim-Buddhist
conflict has been a thorn in the side of Uyghur-Chinese relations for centuries.
Further, the Uyghurs have their own unique forms of dress, food, language, and other
cultural markers that distinguish them from the Chinese and make them more similar to
their Central and West Asian neighbors.
According to The UN Refugee Agency, men often have beards, women typically wear longer dresses
(regardless of their religion), and both wear cotton clothing.
In addition, their language is more rooted in Uzbek and Turkish than it is in Chinese.
As for customs, they differ from other Muslim traditions in their love for musical ensembles
and dance and the fact that women typically don't cover their faces.
Though the Uyghurs and the Chinese had been at odds for centuries, the persecution against
the group ramped up in earnest in 2012, when General Secretary of the Chinese Communist
Party Xi Jinping began asserting power.
Specifically, Xi began emphasizing uniformity and conformity across China and occupied Tibet,
and as such, he introduced measures the publication called "draconian" in order to repress dissent.
By 2016, those measures had reportedly evolved into mass surveillance and, as it applies
to the Uyghurs, crackdowns on religious activity.
By some reports, the Chinese have destroyed mosques and shrines in the region.
By 2017, prison camps in the region reportedly began to grow, according to the Council on
Foreign Relations.
By March 2021, the think tank estimates that 800,000 to 2 million Uyghurs and members of
other Muslim ethnic minority groups — such as the Uzbeks and Kazakhs — had been sent
to such camps.
Meanwhile, the Chinese have allegedly targeted billions of dollars towards the maintenance
and expansion of the facilities.
Speaking to NPR, Ramtin Arablouei said,
"The CCP started a campaign in Xinjiang against what they called the three evils.
... Terrorism, extremism, and separatism."
Arablouei noted that "separatism" also includes what he describes as "ideological separatism,"
which has allowed the government to consider the expression of Uyghur culture itself as
a separatist act.
The allegations of abuse directed against the Chinese, coming from both the Uyghurs
themselves and from international observers, are shocking.
Uyghurs claim they're subject to mass surveillance and random detentions on the flimsiest of
pretexts.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, detainees sent to "reeducation camps" are
forced to pledge loyalty to the Chinese governing party, renounce Islam, and learn Mandarin.
"How often are you able to pray here?"
"China's laws define schools as public places.
And in public spaces, religious activities are not allowed."
Further, allegations have emerged that detainees have been tortured and sleep-deprived, while
women have shared stories of sexual abuse.
Further, Uyghurs have been reportedly forced into labor, including working at garment factories.
In February 2022, as BuzzFeed News reported, fashion house Hugo Boss was forced to distance
itself from a Chinese manufacturer after allegations emerged that it was benefitting from forced
Uyghur labor.
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