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The Genocide of Uyghurs and the Silence of Muslim-Majority Countries
When social stability trumps individual rights
BY ALI MÜCTEBA GÖKÇEK
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Uyghur Muslims have faced oppression throughout their historical relations with China. The region that the Chinese call Xinjiang only really became a constituent part of the larger China when the Qing Dynasty conquered it in the 1750s. China’s relationship with the Uyghurs has been fundamentally colonial in nature.
The Uyghur homeland served as a frontier colony, one that is held arms-length away from the mother country, and as a settler colony that has been overwhelmingly settled by the population of the colonizing country. The first modern rebellion against the Chinese was led by Yakup Beg, who unified the region as Kashgaria (1865-1877) and sought international recognition of its independent status. It further became involved in Chinese politics in the late 19th century when the Qing made the region a province of its mainland.
Later, in 1944 the Ili Rebellion – considered the start of the East Turkestan National Liberation Revolution (The Three Districts Revolution) -- against the Kuomintang rule, with Soviet support, liberated the region’s Turkic people and enabled the short-lived proclamation of the East Turkestan Republic in the region. Although the Republic made numerous efforts for diplomatic recognition, no country recognized its envoys as representatives of an independent country. The uprising concluded with a ceasefire in Oct. 1949 with the end of the Kuomintang rule. In 1955, communist-ruled China asserted its control and established the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), the country’s highest level of minority autonomous entity. Ever since then, this minority population has been under constant pressure. Starting in the late 1940s, China began sending large numbers of Han Chinese there — their portion of the population increased from approximately 7% to 40% by 2008 (https:// geog.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/ users/fan/403.pdf) — to change the region’s demographics. The sporadic anti-oppression protests since then have led to Beijing’s recent harsh response: concentration camps.
Many Uyghurs would place the “beginning of the end” on July 5, 2009, the day the Ürümqi demonstrations began. Protesting Beijing’s lack of investigation into the murder of two Uyghur men in the hands of the Han Chinese, the protesters were standing up for their basic human rights and due process. However, Beijing responded by attacking the Uyghurs and detaining around 800,000 to 2,000,000 of them in concentration camps.
With an abundance of evidence surfacing from released documents, satellite imagery and survivor testimonies (https://time. com/6048222/un-china-uyghurs/), many countries have pressured China to stop its campaigns of genocide and ethnic cleansing. On July 10, 2019, 22 Western countries — and zero Muslim-majority countries — sent a signed letter to the U.N. criticizing China’s policies and demanding their end. A few days later, 37 countries responded with a letter defending China. Almost half were Muslim-majority countries, among
them Pakistan, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, the UAE, Syria, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Five additional Muslim countries joined this list the following year: Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Palestine and Yemen.
Later in October 2020, 39 countries, including the 22 previous signees, signed another letter condemning China’s oppressive behavior. Bosnia was the sole Muslimmajority country signatory. So far, only the U.S., the U.K., Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Canada have declared that these policies constitute a genocide. Even though the Western countries may have ulterior economic and political motives for doing so, they must still be applauded and commended for starting to place pressure upon China and for taking steps intended to end their terrible conditions.
Why have 20 Muslim-majority countries openly supported this ongoing atrocity, while only one has publicly opposed it?
These countries may also have their own economic and political reasons. For example, China currently has a piece of the pie of nearly all global commerce and trade, and thus almost every country has some level of economic interest in it. The U.S., the U.K. and France are interdependent with it, meaning that economic ties aren’t the determining factor in their relationships. On the other hand, Beijing has the upper hand in its diplomatic relations with such financially dependent and smaller countries as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan.
In recent decades, extensive Chineseinitiated projects across the developing world have increased other countries’ economic dependence upon it. For example Iran, which continues to endure painful U.S. sanctions, has remained silent — perhaps unwilling to endanger the massive 25-year, $400 billion oil investment deal it signed with China during March 2021.
Although Qatar has been more neutral, it may be reluctant to speak out due to its agreements in the Belt and Road Initiative, a vast expansion of infrastructure and investments that would greatly increase China’s economic and political hegemony (www.chinatoday.com.cn/ctenglish/2018/ii/201808/ t20180811_800138032.html).
The People’s Bank of China has given Turkey two loans — $3.6 billion (2018) and $1 billion (2019). Moreover, China became its largest importer in 2020, an economic fact that has obliged President Erdogan to keep quiet and has silenced members of the
Yakub Beg was the ruler of Kashgaria (1865-77)
Uyghur diaspora living in Turkey. Similarly, Pakistan, stressed by the American embrace of its enemy, India, has and continues to push Pakistan into closer Chinese ties.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt have outwardly supported China’s policies. Although they are economically dependent on China, these nations are also aligned with China in their disdain for certain political Islamic movements. China dislikes the “‘Muslimness’ of its Islamic communities” overall, and these Muslimmajority countries dislike the type of political Islam that “challenges their legitimacy and regional standing.” This “shared” enemy mentality may have led the Saudi-UAEEgypt troika to support China’s genocide and human rights violations (https://www. washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/04/ why-do-some-muslim-majority-countries-support-chinas-crackdown-muslims/).
Another reason for the Muslim world’s muteness is its own human rights violations and authoritarian practices toward their own minority groups. The Arab Spring, a powerful example of dissent in the Middle East and North Africa, manifested, among other things, the long-standing lack of basic human rights and poverty in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other regional countries. The ensuing wave of riots, protests and revolutions pushed these governments in a more authoritarian direction. Thus, one might say that their fear of domestic protests drove them to side with China against the Uyghurs.
Additionally, Turkey’s challenges with its ethnic Kurdish minority constitute another dimension. Ankara is struggling to meet the Kurds’ demands, which encourages it to refrain from criticizing China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority. Pakistan’s oppression of its own religious minorities is yet another clear example of the lack of fundamental rights in Muslim-majority countries. As most, if not all, of them lack a strong record of treating their various minorities with respect, not to mention of adhering to democracy and protecting their citizens’ basic human rights. As a result of these failures, they clearly lack the moral ground to call out China for its human rights violations.
All of these factors enable China to continue the inhumane status quo. There needs to be widespread opposition, especially from Muslim-majority countries, in order for this genocide to end. Although there are a number of reasons why these countries aren’t supporting the Uyghurs, they have yet to understand that human life is more valuable than money or politics. In this regard, the West plays a leading role — the EU recently placed economic sanctions on China, citing the Uyghur genocide. A similar reaction from the Muslim world would push Beijing into a corner, and that might be a sufficient level of additional pressure to ameliorate the Uyghurs’ situation. ih
