Beijing’s Genocidal anti-Uyghur Campaign

Beijing’s Genocidal anti-Uyghur Campaign and Stalin’s Gulag Archipelago China’s latest attempt to disappear Xinjiang’s majority Uyghur Muslim population

BY SARAH WINTER

George Santayana, the SpanishAmerican philosopher, once famously wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (“The Life of Reason: Reason in Common Sense” [Scribner’s, 1905], p. 284). History has seen this all before: identities stripped, freedoms revoked, families separated, the eradication of entire cultures, systemic rape, abuse, starvation and torture. China’s ongoing assault on Xinjiang’s majority-Uyghur Muslim population is so heinous that it seems unduplicatable, and yet it brings another relatively recent situation to mind — Stalin’s forced labor camps in the Soviet Union from the 1930s to the 1950s. Beijing’s current campaign features some eerily similar tactics: hiding the camps from the public, portraying them as opportunities for “learning” and “reform” and silencing and eliminating opposition by ensuring the masses are living in fear. Similarities through censorship, denial, strategy and eradicating entire populations to gain more control over a state connect these two harrowing situations. Such a reality reminds us that understanding the past is necessary to comprehending the present and constructing a more egalitarian future.

Chinese president Xi Jinping claims that the Xinjiang internment camps are necessary to fight “Islamic extremism” and contain what he recognizes as a “contagion” that is bound to spread beyond Xinjiang if let go. The New York Times has revisited Xi’s past regarding the management of Uyghur Muslims and how he has formerly “called on the party to unleash the tools of ‘dictatorship’ to eradicate radical Islam in Xinjiang” (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html). The alarming report further stated, “There are also references to plans to extend restrictions on Islam to other parts of China” (ibid.), and continues to unintentionally draw striking comparisons of Xi to Stalin by detailing the elimination of party opponents and the numerous human rights lawyers who have disappeared (ibid.). All of this demonstrates Xi’s ability and willingness to establish extreme measures and destroy anyone standing in his way. Given the adamant denial of these accusations, along with the censorship and media manipulation that have become commonplace in China, it is not far-fetched to believe that horrible crimes are being committed behind these internment camps’ closed doors.

The draconian policies Stalin employed to operate his Gulag parallel how Beijing is operating its internment camps, which are reportedly holding over 1 million Uyghur Muslims as prisoners. Throughout the history of Stalin’s ruthless camp system, he and his top officials, much like Beijing, claimed that its purpose was to protect society from dangerous criminals who threatened national security (Golfo Alexopoulos, “Illness and Inhumanity in Stalin’s Gulag” [Yale University Press, 2017], p.3). The reality is the vast majority of these “criminals” were poor, uneducated citizens who were wrongfully and maximally punished for minimal crimes. The most minimal of crimes could result in 25 years of imprisonment, a virtual death sentence.

In her monograph, Alexopoulos explains, “Moreover, the illiterate, the semiliterate, and individuals with only an elementary school education made up that vast majority of gulag prisoners, as many as 80 percent before the war” (p.275). This supposed institution of reeducation and protection was, in reality, a grandiose and complex torture system that exploited civilians for economic purposes. An estimated 1 million people died in Stalin’s Gulag, and “In addition, there is the currently unknown number of those who died shortly after being released from the Gulag” (http://www.jstor. org/stable/826310). Survivor testimonies at this point are incredibly rare, yet vital to investigations. One survivor, Tursunay Ziawudun, courageously chose to speak out and recollect her experiences in a rare interview with BBC during February 2021. Her experience reveals a torturous existence in which rape and abuse are commonplace and many nights are filled with the sounds of screaming victims as camp guards ripped them from their cells after dark (https://www.bbc.com/news/ world-asia-china-55794071). The BBC article shares an additional report of another former

detainee who corroborated tales of sexual abuse, detailing her role to restrain women after removing their above-the-waist clothing for the camp guards (ibid.).

Similarly, much of what we know about Stalin’s Gulag and its horrible conditions come from survivor recollections as well (Alexopoulos, p.274). The conditions were inconceivable, and there was never enough medicine, clothing, hygiene products, food and other items commonly used during daily life to go around. Prisoners were chosen to live or die based on their ability to give back to the state through labor. The many innocent people who suffered inside the walls were expendable pawns used to benefit the economy, often working 12-16 hours per day (ibid., p.209).

In both situations we have needed to rely on survivor testimonies to reveal these camps’ true nature; however, most survivors are understandably too terrified or traumatized to share their experiences and thus live in silence.

To reduce their numbers, Uyghur women are currently being subjected to forced sterilization procedures. Reports of forced abortions have also circulated, with the BBC explaining that “The birth rate in Xinjiang has plummeted in the past few years, according to independent research — and effect analysts have described as “demographic genocide” (www.bbc.com/news/worldasia-china-55794071). One intimidation tactic, the threat of families being ripped apart and sent to camps as punishment for reproducing, is also used to control those who are not incarcerated. In addition, hightech facial recognition software is also being used to locate and isolate Uyghurs in public. It has recently been discovered that more advanced, emotion-detecting technologies are being tested on Uyghurs who have been rounded up by police for no apparent reason (https://www.bbc.com/news/ technology-57101248).

Ironically, while the U.S. often chides China over Xinjiang “excesses,” it looks the other way when its own high-tech companies benefit from supplying the Chinese with such technology (https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-tech-companies-prop-up-chinasvast-surveillance-network-11574786846). For instance, Mara Hvistendahl reported that Oracle, in order to sell the CIA-backed Endeca software to Beijing, touted its use in Chicago for predictive policing (theintercept.com/2021/05/25/oracle-social-media-surveillance-protests-endeca/).

Another notable similarity between these two situations is media coverage. Even decades after the Gulag’s closure, the atrocities committed therein remained relatively unknown outside the former Soviet Union. As historians have placed it under the shadow of Hitler’s concentration camps, to some extent these horrors have been forgotten over time. Similarly, the ongoing genocide of Uyghur Muslims has only recently been extensively broadcast — a very disconcerting reality, considering the power that the media holds today.

The intense censorship and uncooperative demeanor of Chinese officials has made it incredibly difficult to investigate and broadcast these crimes to the world. China has continuously manipulated the media and blurred reality to fit its own narrative. As Hastings writes, “the Chinese government has incentives to represent the nature of Uyghur unrest in the harshest possible light, picks and chooses which incidents

to report, and often attributes separatist motives to seemingly unrelated violence” (http://www. jstor.org/stable/41447781). This genocide has been going on for years, and yet it has only been seriously acknowledged within the last year or so. Yet another instance of history repeating itself is misinterpreting Islamic culture — stereotypes and unfounded fears of violent uprisings and anarchy, scapegoating Muslims and characterizing Islam as a problem to manage or THE DRACONIAN POLICIES STALIN a culture to control — to justify its adherents’ merciless persecu-

EMPLOYED TO OPERATE HIS tion and oppression. Ye Xiaowen

GULAG PARALLEL HOW BEIJING (director, State Administration for Religious Affairs in China)

IS OPERATING ITS INTERNMENT explains that “Islam is a peace-lovCAMPS, WHICH ARE BELIEVED TO BE ing religion. Chinese-Muslims love peace, oppose turmoil and HOLDING OVER 1 MILLION UYGHUR separatism, advocate tolerance MUSLIMS AS PRISONERS. and harmony, and treasure unity and stability” (http://www.jstor. org/stable/27821503). But despite his and many other logical interpretations of Islam, Islam continues to be presented as an enemy and a threatening culture centered around violence. Many past leaders have used this stereotype to target and frame Muslims’ cultures and turn the masses against them. The assault on Uyghur Muslims is the most recent example of this. However, there is one incredibly important difference between these two situations: the atrocities of Stalin’s labor camps were not widely known or well understood while he was alive. Today, the increasing international level of awareness regarding the internment camps in Xinjiang can help us stop history from repeating itself. Living in the 21st century means that we have more power to make a difference than ever before. There’s no excuse for what is happening to the Uyghurs. If history is truly repeating itself, looking the other way will only make their situation worse. As this is a humanitarian, as opposed to a political, issue, it’s time to make China understand that its current campaign will engender actual consequences instead of just more empty rhetoric. ih Sarah Winter, a junior majoring in history and minoring in public history, is a Women’s Studies research assistant at Niagara University, Lewiston, N.Y.