Boarding schools are being built almost as fast as the re-education camps in China’s Xinjiang region
While Uighur children are being separated from their parents and forced to attend re-education camps, the international community has kept quiet for fear of damaging trade relations with China.
Boarding schools are being built almost as fast as the re-education camps in China’s Xinjiang region, BBC reports.
China’s Uighur Muslim population make up its largest ethnic group in Xinjiang. They been the target of a systemic campaign of repression, aimed at stamping out their culture, language, and religion.
China has invested $1.2 billion to built these schools in southern Xinjiang alone, where dormitories can house hundreds of children. Many parents have not heard from their children in several years and only saw their pictures or videos on Facebook. One man, the BBC interviewed, saw his four-year-old child speaking Mandarin, while another woman saw her daughter wearing traditional Chinese clothing.
Uighurs have been targeted for ‘almost any expression of identity or faith’, including speaking their language and praying. While there has been evidence to suggest that adults were being put in ‘political re-education camps’ for years, it is for the first time that suggestion of a parallel campaign to remove Uighur children from their culture and religion has been made.
Why has the international community kept quiet
In February, Turkey had condemned China’s treatment of the Uighurs, calling it a “systematic assimilation policy” and an “embarrassment for humanity”. However, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) defended China’s right to conduct ‘anti-terrorism’ and ‘de-extremism’ measures later that month, and in March the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) commended China for “providing care to its Muslim citizens” and emphasised that they would like to see further cooperation with China.
China is Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner, including being an important ally for trade and diplomatic relations across the Middle East. Many Muslim-majority countries have also not been vocal on the issue because they don’t want to draw attention to their own human rights records.
The Trump administration has been openly critical about the repression, but in the wake of US-China trade war it is yet to impose sanctions. Trump is focused on ending US’ trade deficit with China and any sanction now will be difficult to pass while trade negotiations are ongoing.
‘Religious extremism’
In 2009, riots erupted in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi after Uighurs protested against the Chinese government – 200 people were killed, mostly Han Chinese. China later called it an “ethnically-motivated violence”.
Until recently, China had denied any action against the Uighurs but after clear evidence about the camps surfaced – including satellite imagery – the country acknowledged their existence but called them schools to stop ‘religious extremists’. China has also claimed that the Uighurs have links to Islamic extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda.
While some attacks by separatists have occurred in recent years, there is no evidence to suggest that there is a coordinated separatist movement.