Cultural Genocide in Xinjiang, China

Main Resources

• Cultural Genocide
  • What is genocide
  • China uses similar language as European colonizers to describe cultural genocide
  • Washing away Uyghur Race and Culture
    • By changing demographics (settler colonialism):
      • China promotes Han-Uyghur intermarriage
      • The War on Uyghurs, Ch 1. Colonialism 1759-2001
      • Uyghurs fear Han Chinese are replacing them
      • DOI 10.1080 02634937.2021.1946483
    • By restricting religious practice
      • China deems normal Muslim practices and beliefs as extremism
      • Restrictions on Ramadan fasting in Xinjiang
      • China forbids minors in Xinjiang from practicing religion
        • China forbids minors from going to mosques
      • Khatmas as illegal religious gatherings
      • China bans headscarve in public institutions
      • China forbids detainees from practicing religion
      • China encourages Muslim women to take off their headscarve
      • Cannot speak of Halal in Xinjiang beyond food
      • Who can go to the mosque in Xinjiang
      • Uyghur cadres have to be atheist
      • China tries to separate Muslim identity from Uyghur identity
      • Further reading on religious restrictions^[https://studylib.net/doc/10438684/that—extremism—is—on—the-…-adical—islam—constitut…]
    • Language and culture
      • Uyghur intellectuals and professionals are put in re-education camps
      • Crackdown on Uyghur textbooks for their content
      • Xinjiang University stopped teaching in Uyghur in 2002
    • By driving a wedge between generations
      • Projects to “integrate” Uyghurs in the 2000s. Sauce
      • Encouraging children to report religious behavior of their parents. Sauce
      • 2015 Counterterrorism law targeted parents for parenting Sauce
      • Some believed that China changed the Uyghur language’s script several times to deliberately divide generations from each other.
      • Boarding schools for Uyghur children are meant to assimilate and indoctrinate them
    • Removing Uyghur markers from space
      • Private spaces
        • Kashgar Uyghurs have to replace traditional items at home with modern furniture
      • Public spaces
        • “Territorialization” develop
        • By destroying Uyghur sites
          • (2010) Old city of Kashgar destroyed for SETA development. Sauce
    • Destroying Uyghurs’ social capital
      • New housing by PAP projects replaced traditional neighborhoods. Sauce
  • Making minorities live in fear
    • Protests and demonstrations are not allowed in Xinjiang
    • Mass detention
      • over 533,000 people were imprisoned in Xinjiang between 2017-2020
      • Reasons for detainment in Xinjiang are vague by design
      • Uyghur intellectuals and professionals are put in re-education camps
        • Related: Crackdown on Uyghur textbooks for their content
    • Mass Surveilance
      • Xinjiang is a police state
      • China turns televisions and mobile phones in villages into surveillance terminals
• Parallels with Western Orientalism/Islamophobia
  • China uses similar language as European colonizers to describe cultural genocide
  • Islamophobia is tolerated on Chinese social media
  • Folklorization of Uyghurs
  • Chinese orientalism towards Xinjiang
  • Parallels between CCP shills and Hasbara trolls

Refuting Counter-Arguments

• “Aren’t the camps good? They’re learning trades and skills.”
  • The CCP is arbitrarily detaining and interning minorities
  • There is little learning going on in ‘re-education camps’
  • Xinjiang detainees are encouraged to renounce their religion
• “You can’t make a judgment without visiting Xinjiang.”
  • You don’t become an expert on a region by visiting it
  • Other people visited. guanguan
• “It’s fake news by the USA/CIA, read my propaganda instead.”
  • The US supporting Uyghurs does not mean it’s fake news by the USA
  • Radio Free Asia may be more trustworthy than I thought
  • Problems with pro-Chinese sources
    • Is the Grayzone trustworthy
    • Chinese officials lie about Xinjiang
    • Chinese Media is untrustworthy
  • However there is Fake Anti-China Uyghur Genocide propaganda
• “Why don’t Uyghurs just cross the border if they are oppressed?”/“Why don’t we see more Uyghur refugees?”
  • It is very hard for Uyghurs to escape China
• “Why don’t they go to America?”
  • Sure. A 60-year-old Kazakh lady can just go to the US consulate, pick up a visa just like that, and then move to a country where she has no connections, no job, does not know the language, and where the cost of living is 5 times of Kazakhstan.^[https://twitter.com/shahitbiz/status/1441839132729282561]
• “But there were some Uyghurs who did terror attacks or joined ISIS”
  • Ch 3 Myths and realities of the alleged ‘terrorist threat’ associated with Uyghurs
• “But ==There are 20k mosques in Xinjiang==”
  • develop
• “But Uyghurs get 10 ==extra points on the gaokao==”^[further reading: Barry Sautman, Preferential Policies for Ethnic Minorities in China: The Case of Xinjiang. This paper asserts affirmative action helped Uyghurs enormously.]
  • https://twitter.com/yerbol_yezhen/status/1457430036424712194
  • When speaking to racially-conscious Americans, ask whether affirmative action means African Americans are not systematically oppressed anymore.
• “Those are Sinophobic lies”
  • Is criticizing Israel antisemitic?
• “Only western countries criticize China while Muslim countries support China.”
  • Many Muslim countries also normalized ties with Israel in recent years.
• “Look at these pretty Uyghur girls on Youtube/Tiktok”
  • Dumbass coomer
  • Chinese Media is untrustworthy
• “The CIA is funding Uyghur separatists”
  • The NED does not fund separatist organizations