On 13 October 2020 China was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council – the 47 state body responsible for the protection of human rights globally. Since that election day the International Observatory of Human Rights has documented the human rights violations that have occurred in the run up to China’s representative taking their seat on the council on 1 January 2021.
China has faced world condemnation for their persecution of religious groups, in particular Uyghur muslims. In October, German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen represented 39 countries at the UN calling on China,
“to respect human rights, particularly the rights of persons belonging to religious and ethnic minorities, especially in Xinjiang and Tibet,”
British envoy Jonathan Allen again highlighted China was still ignoring U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s long-standing request to visit Xinjiang to see the situation of the Uyghurs.
Valerie Peay, Director of the International Observatory of Human Rights spoke at a protest outside the Chinese Embassy in London earlier in the year on the plight of the Uyghurs
“China cannot continue to deny the use of internment camps, unprecedented surveillance, cultural eradication and various legal constrictions used to suppress the Uyghur people. If we saw this type of human rights violations at this scale elsewhere in the world we would be levying strict sanctions and ceasing all contact. Instead we welcome China, its money and trade with open arms”.
Religious persecution
Following its election to the UN Human Rights Council, the PRC has intensified its repressive and systematic campaign against the Uyghur minority.
The Uyghur population, native to the region of Xinjiang, has suffered persecution on an unprecedented scale; with the Chinese government engaging and endorsing attacks on Uyghurs, claiming they hold extremist and separatist ideas.
The Chinese government’s attacks on religious freedoms have dramatically increased, with the CCP justifying these blatant human rights violations on the basis of alleged Islamist extremism in the region.
The continuation of PRC’s “Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Terrorism”, which is used to legitimise attacks on the religious and beliefs and freedoms of the Uyghur minority has continued; resulting in the number of arrests in Xinjiang increasing dramatically.
Changes to the way in which extremism is characterised have also had detrimental effects on the way in which the Uyghur population has been treated. The introduction of regulation in 2017, which clearly persecute the Uyghur population, allow anyone to be labelled an extremist for reasons such as refusing to watch state television, having an “abnormal” beard, wearing a veil or headscarf, regular prayer, fasting or avoidance of alcohol.
German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen underlined the Uyghur treatment in China:
“There are severe restrictions on freedom of religion or belief and the freedoms of movement, association, and expression as well as on Uyghur culture, widespread surveillance disproportionately continues to target Uyghurs and other minorities, and more reports are emerging of forced labor and forced birth control, including sterilisation.”
The most recent example of the Chinese government’s attacks on the religious freedoms of the Uyghur population is the banning of private Hajj pilgrimages, requiring citizens to “prove that they are patriotic and law-abiding before they are allowed to undertake the hajj”. The new regulations, enacted in October 2020, mean that all pilgrims will be subjected to a vetting and “education” process and accompanied by Chinese officials to Saudi Arabia.
Internment camps
There are currently around 400 internment camps situated in the Xinjiang region where the fundamental rights to freedom of expression, religion, and privacy, and protection from torture and unfair trials are violated.
The number of camps in the region has increased dramatically, with more than 60 sites built between July 2019 and July 2020, with another 14 currently being constructed, according to a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).
Nathan Ruser, a researcher at ASPI and author of a report documenting the abuse suffered by Uyghurs at these internment camps, said that:
“many extrajudicial detainees in Xinjiang’s vast “re-education” network are now being formally charged and locked up in higher security facilities, including newly built or expanded prisons, or sent to walled factory compounds for coerced labour assignments.”
The vast network of camps, in which around 1 million are incarcerated, are supposedly constructed to tackle poverty and religious extremism in Xinjiang. In a series of secret speeches in 2014, Xi Jinping further substantiated claims that Chinese authorities’ attacks on the Uyghur minority are indefinite, stating:
“There must be effective educational remoulding and transformation of criminals. And even after these people are released, their education and transformation must continue”
Surveillance of Uyghurs
The extensive surveillance of Uyghurs has continued to increase at an exponential rate, further intensifying the persecution faced by the group. In a country with over 626 million security cameras, the states’ use of surveillance to oppress vulnerable groups is particularly concerning.
In December 2020, a list of more than 2,000 ethnic Uyghur detainees in Xinjiang revealed that Chinese authorities were using intrusive data collection to arbitrarily detain Uyghurs in the region. The list documents the reasons for the detention of Uyghurs, including studying the Koran, wearing religious clothing or travelling internationally
Maya Wang, Senior China Researcher at Human Rights Watch stating that the list:
“provides further insights into how China’s brutal repression of Xinjiang’s Turkic Muslims is being turbocharged by technology”
Additionally, the use of facial technology to target Uyghurs has increased recently – the largest Chinese video surveillance manufacturers, Uniview, Dahua and Hikvision all offer software that tracks Uyghurs. Huawei and Megvii have also tested repressive technologies, with The Washington Post finding that:
“Huawei tested AI software that could recognise Uyghur minorities and alert police”
Alibaba, often referred to as the “Amazon of China”, is the latest Chinese tech giant to introduce software that targets Uyghurs, offering ethnic minority recognition as a feature, according to IPVM.
It is clear that the Chinese government is showing no sign of slowing its campaign of persecution against its Uyghur population. Widespread restrictions on Uyghur culture have materialised as invasive surveillance and repressive “re-education” camps. More must be done by the international community to end this flagrant abuse of human rights, especially now that there is a PRC representative at the UN Human Rights Council.
Call on China to cease this persecution before they take their seat at the Human Rights Council table