In depth: Who are Uighurs, and why is China keeping them in camps?
For years now, people have been reporting mistreatment of Uighurs by Chinese government but over the past few months the international concerns and focus have grown due to reports of illegal imprisonment of this ethnic group. Before we talk about the issue, let’s know who Uighurs are.
Who are Uighurs?
Unlike most of the Chinese, the Uighurs (also spelled as Uyghers) are Muslims, speak a language close to Turkish, and are culturally and ethnically closer to Central Asia than the rest of China, which is Hans Chinese. The Uighurs live in Xinjiang, the largest and most western of China’s administrative regions, which is surrounded by Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
Uighurs and Hans Chinese
China’s 92% population is Hans Chinese or Han (derived from descendants of Hans) but it also has 55 ethnic minorities which comprise the rest 8%. Hans mostly look similar in features and speak the same language. Uighurs are one of these ethnic minority communities. Uighurs are staunch believers of God and practise Islam. China, on the other hand, doesn’t believe in God and doesn’t promote religion. No doubt, the Chinese government wants the Uighurs to give up their religion and speak Mandarin and not Turkish.
Until the 1970s, the Uighurs were a majority in Xinjiang — almost 70% of the population was Uighurs and only 6% was Hans Chinese. But over the years, the Chinese government encouraged Hans to relocate to Xinjiang. So much so that now more than 40% of the population is Hans and only 45% id Uighurs.
Forcing them into camps
Around a million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other Muslims have been bundled into internment camps, where they are allegedly being schooled into giving up their identity, and assimilate better in the communist country dominated by the Han Chinese. There have emerged several satellite photos of camps where these people from ethnicity minorities are kept in prison and forced to give up their identity.
It’s not that there are no protests for the Uighurs. Several organisations around the world are pressing for more humane treatment of these Chinese minority citizens but China has always been able to crush such movements and ignore any requests. Many activists have even compared the Chinese detention centres with the Nazi Jew camps.
China, however, keeps denying all such allegations and claims the camps are ‘educational centres’ where the Uighurs are being cured of “extremist thoughts” and radicalisation, and learning vocational skills!
This is not a lone incident where China is trying to displace locals from their territory and capturing the land. Tibet has been fighting for its freedom for years now. China not only disrupted this peaceful land but also forced its religious leader the Dalai Lama to flee and take refuge in Dharamshala, India. Over the years, the Tibetans have been spreading their protests against China all over the world but little outcome has come. The Chinese government uses force on local farmers to join military-style training camps and turn them into factory workers, and move them to other parts of Tibet or China.