China has one again been brought before the court of global public opinion this month, as more evidence has emerged that suggests the Chinese Communist Party is in the midst of human rights abuses against its own people.
Last time was was down to their role in the COVID-19 outbreak after the WHO were alerted to accelerating infections in Wuhan, China. Cue lockdowns of almost every country in the world, as governments have tried to get to grips with a global epidemic that has now killed over 600,000 people worldwide. Since then, the Chinese Communist Party have swatted away criticism of their handling of the novel coronavirus, and rejected allegations that they acted irresponsibly by trying to cover-up the outbreak.
This time it is China’s systematic violence against the Uighur minority in the Xinjiang region of Western China which has, once again, had to be denied by the CCP. Reports emerged earlier this month citing evidence of the mass sterilisation of Uighur women. Various leaked documents have been uncovered highlighting the extent of this sterilisation. Last September drone footage showed Uighur prisoners shackled, blindfolded, with their heads shaven, as they were taken off trains and led away by Chinese authorities. US Customs officers also seized a 13 tonne shipment of human hair two weeks ago, which originated in the Xinjiang region. It is thought to have been harvested from the heads of detained Uighur’s.
Widespread detainment of the Uighur people has been known for several years, with China justified their action by citing the threat of extremism posed by the ethno-religious minority group. Yet leaked documents have confirmed that China’s “voluntary” re-education camps, are instead a network of high-security prisons. There are reportedly an estimated 1.5 million of the Uighur people being held in the "re-education" camps. China have defended their camps and dismissed the leaks as fake news. Yet these leaks have confirmed the camps to be the largest mass incarceration of an ethno-religious minority since the Second World War.
The fresh wave of criticism towards China is largely based on a report by Adrian Zanz entitled “Sterilisations, Forced Abortions, and Mandatory Birth Control: The CCP’s Campaign to Suppress Uighur Birthrates in Xinjiang”. The report is well-sourced and authoritative, and made some major findings suggesting that the CCP is indeed partaking in a campaign to suppress Uighur birthrates.
These include:
Population growth has fallen drastically in Xinjiang, and by 84% in the two largest Uighur prefectures between 2015 and 2018. One Uighur region was set a growth target of near-zero for 2020 through “family planning work”.
Documents from 2019 reveal plans for a campaign of mass female sterilisation in rural Uighur regions.
By 2019, Xinjiang planned to subject at least 80% of women of childbearing age in rural areas to IUDs (intrusive birth prevention surgeries or sterilisations). In 2018, 80% of national IUD placements were performed in Xinjiang, despite the region making up only 1.8% of China’s population.
The act of imposing measures that are intended to prevent births within a group constitutes a genocide according to the ‘Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide’, which was signed in 1948 by 39 countries, including China. So China's actions fall under the definition of a genocide… now what ?
One of the fundamental laws of history is that it is written by the winners. And China is winning. The Chinese Communist Party continues to strengthen its position across every metric: geo-politically, economically, diplomatically, and technologically. The COVID-19 epidemic has highlighted in stark terms the extent to which much if the world is reliant on China: whether it be for medicine, manufactured goods, or technology.
The last few months have made it clear that we seem to be entering a new Cold War - Cold War 2.0 so to speak. The CCP’s increasing tensions with the United States, and its allies, have been exposed throughout the coronavirus epidemic, through assignments of blame for the outbreak, and accusations flying left, right and centre. The row over Huawei and its 5G network, as well as claims over privacy concerns concerning popular Chinese owned app TikTok, are yet further examples of these increasing tensions. Could China's success and influence around the world whitewash the genocide taking place within its own borders though ? We would hope not...
A petition calling for sanctions on China over its treatment of Uighur Muslims has now received over 100,000 signatures in the UK, and will be considered for debate in Parliament as a result. Activist and radio presenter, Maajid Nawaz, went on hunger strike until the petition passed the 100,000 signatures mark, and has called out major politicians for their silence, as he continues to push for the acknowledgment of the ongoing genocide.
Andrew Marr confronted the Chinese ambassador yesterday on the BBC with the footage of shackled, blindfolded, and shaven prisoners. The images were dismissed by the ambassador as fake, while asserting that claims of mass sterilisation of the Uighur people in China were "totally against the truth".
The question becomes however, what happens when a global superpower is accused of conducting a genocide ? The answer is that we simply don’t know. But the position of strength and influence China has in the global order makes it very hard for the CCP to be held accountable in any meaningful way. Moreover, western governments could leave themselves hugely disadvantaged by trying to take on the CCP, having become so reliant on China for trade. They will likely restrain themselves from using the word genocide, and instead point to the human rights abuses in China.
Yet, this does not seem to be a question of whether it is a genocide... It is a genocide. Not yet the genocide of millions of gassed Jews in Europe, but nonetheless it is a clear attempt to ‘destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group’ through the prevention of births. The more our leaders turn a blind eye, the more complicit they will become. In the wake of the holocaust, governments told themselves and their people, that they wouldn’t allow anything of the sort to happen again. We asked what could have been done, and what should have been done, to limit or prevent the devastation and destruction of the Nazi killing machine. Have we learned from those horrors ? What can we do this time ? More to the point... what will we do ?
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