Xinjiang, China: What You Need to Know About US Sanctioning Chinese Officials for Alleged Uyghur Abuse

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The US State Department estimates that up to 2 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities have gone through an extensive network of detention centers throughout the region, where former detainees claim to have been subjected to intense political indoctrination, forced labor, torture and even sexual abuse.

Human rights groups and overseas Uighur activists have also accused the Chinese government of forced cultural assimilation and imposed birth control and sterilization against Uighurs.

The former Trump administration has officially established that China commits genocide and crimes against humanity against Uighur Muslims.

China vehemently denies allegations of human rights abuses, insisting that the camps are voluntary “training centers” designed to eliminate religious extremism and terrorism.

This week, the United States, along with the European Union, Canada and the United Kingdom, announced sanctions against Chinese officials for human rights violations in Xinjiang. In a joint statement, the group condemned the alleged “use of forced labor by China, mass detention in internment camps, forced sterilization and the concerted destruction of Uyghur heritage.”

China responded almost immediately by imposing tit-for-tat sanctions, travel and business bans on 10 EU politicians and four entities. Both sides have doubled, with European leaders accusing China of “confrontation” and Beijing accusing the EU of “seriously interfering” in its internal affairs.

Here’s what you need to know about Xinjiang and the allegations of atrocities.

Where is Xinjiang and who lives there?

Xinjiang, officially the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, is a vast and remote region in the far west of China. It stretches 1.6 million square kilometers (640,000 square miles) from the southeastern Tibetan plateau to Kazakhstan, on its northwestern border, is by far China’s largest administrative region, but one of the largest. less populated.

An ethnically diverse region, it hosts a variety of ethnic minority groups, including Hui, Kazakhs and the largest group, the Uighurs, who speak a language closely related to Turkish and have their own distinct culture.

Beijing's crackdown on Xinjiang has separated thousands of children from their parents, a new report says. CNN found two of them

Xinjiang is rich in natural resources, especially oil and natural gas. The central government has made a concerted effort to develop the region’s economy – leading to a large influx of China’s ethnic-majority Han population in recent decades.

Historically, the Uighurs have been the majority in the region. Now, they make up just under half of Xinjiang’s total population of 22 million, and many of them live in the southern, rural part of Xinjiang.

The region is geographically strategic for Beijing. Xinjiang is China’s gateway to Central Asia, on the border with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, as well as Mongolia and Russia in the north and Pakistan and India in the south.

What led to the repression?

Minority groups in Xinjiang have long felt marginalized and left out of the economic boom, advocating widespread discrimination in the workforce in state-controlled industries that have dominated the local economy.

Government-imposed restrictions on religious practices and customs, which have been essential to their Islamic identity since the 1990s, have also served to provoke interethnic tensions and occasional violence.

In recent years, Beijing has tightened control over the region. A turning point came in 2009, when ethnic riots in the regional capital, Urumqi, killed at least one person. 197 people, which led to a government downgrade that saw widespread and lasting restrictions on Muslim minority groups.

The government also linked the Uyghurs to attacks in Xinjiang and other parts of China. Beijing has blamed Islamist militants and separatists for the violence, although it is disputed how many of these incidents are linked to or led by overseas militant groups.

In recent years, Beijing has stepped up restrictions on Islam in the name of fighting terrorism. The crackdown includes banning veils, long beards and Islamic names, cracking down on Koranic study groups and preventing Muslim officials from fasting for Ramadan.

The reduction increased even more after Chen Quanguo, the Communist Party’s tough partner, took over Xinjiang in 2016. Chen, the former party leader in neighboring Tibet Autonomous Region, launched a series of security measures by installing a network of equipped checkpoints and intelligent intelligence surveillance cameras powered to track people’s daily routine. Authorities also collected biometric data from residents and conducted on-site checks on their phones to search for content deemed problematic or suspicious.

What are detention camps?

The biggest step China has taken in its crackdown is its network of detention camps in the region. The former detainees described facing political indoctrination and abuse inside the camps, such as lack of food and sleep, forced injections, forced sterilizations, abortions and gang rape.

They were imprisoned and forced to live in poor conditions; one detainee said she was placed in a cell with 20 other women and was allowed to use the toilet only once a day for three to five minutes. Those who lasted longer were electrocuted with shock sticks, she said.
Accusations of students in handcuffs and gang rape in Chinese detention camps
In a report released in March, Amnesty International estimated that there could be thousands of Uighur children who have been separated from their parents for years as a result of the government’s tight grip on Xinjiang.

Initially, Beijing categorically denied the existence of the camps. But he later argued that the facilities are voluntary “vocational training centers” where people learn work skills, Chinese and law. The government now insists that camps are needed to prevent religious extremism and terrorism.

The leaked Chinese government documents, however, revealed that people could be sent to a detention unit for simply “wearing a veil” or raising a “long beard”. Those missing in the camps also include Uyghur intellectuals and artists – people who would not need training, as claimed by the Chinese government.

The documents, along with other first-hand reports, present an alarming picture of what appears to be a strategic campaign by Beijing to reveal to Uighurs their cultural and religious identity and suppress behavior considered unpatriotic.

The Chinese government disputed the authenticity of the disclosed records.

How did the world react?

The treatment of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang has been widely condemned by the international community. In July 2019, 22 countries signed a letter calling on China to end “its arbitrary mass detentions and related violations” and called on Beijing to allow UN experts to access the region.

But many Muslim-majority countries have remained silent about China’s crackdown on Xinjiang, and some have even voiced support for Beijing. Just four days after the letter condemning China’s policies in Xinjiang was sent to the United Nations, 37 countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Russia and North Korea, wrote to the UN and praised China for “achievements Its outstanding achievements in the field of human rights “in Xinjiang.

In January this year, the United States officially established that China was committing genocide and crimes against humanity against the Uighurs. A month later, the Dutch and Canadian parliaments passed similar motions, despite opposition from their leaders.

The United States has also banned imports of cotton and tomato products produced in Xinjiang because of concerns about forced labor.

US and allies announce sanctions on Chinese officials for
In March, a non-governmental organization undertook an independent legal review of allegations of genocide for the first time – and what responsibility Beijing may have -. The report, compiled by more than 50 global experts, concluded that the Chinese government’s alleged actions violated every provision of the United Nations Convention on Genocide.

A few days before the report was released, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the allegations of genocide “could not be more absurd.” The Chinese government has repeatedly defended its actions in Xinjiang, saying that citizens now enjoy a high standard of living and call the allegations a campaign to defeat foreign forces.

The sanctions declared this week are some of the strongest and most unified actions taken in protest of the treatment of the Uighurs, which are meant to isolate and pressure Beijing.

The United States targeted Wang Junzheng, secretary of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Party Committee, and Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau. Meanwhile, the EU has sanctioned Zhu Hailun, the former head of the Uyghur Autonomous Region in Xinjiang, and three other high-ranking officials for overseeing the detention and indoctrination program.

But none of the sanctions have so far mentioned Xi Jinping, China’s strongest leader in decades, who called his Xinjiang government’s policy “completely correct.”

CNN’s Ben Westcott contributed to this report.

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