{"id":123486,"date":"2018-12-10T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T12:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=123486"},"modified":"2018-12-17T09:48:27","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T09:48:27","slug":"there-are-no-people-chinas-crackdown-in-the-uyghur-heartland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/12\/there-are-no-people-chinas-crackdown-in-the-uyghur-heartland\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018There Are No People\u2019: China\u2019s Crackdown in the Uyghur Heartland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ann Scott Tyson found reporting especially challenging in the western region of Xinjiang, where she went to witness the impact of China\u2019s forced \u2018reeducation\u2019 of its Uyghur minority. But that work produced a rare and nuanced look at the project\u2019s effect.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Uyghur men. Kevin Frayer\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

A Village in Hotan, Xinjiang, China<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

19 Nov 2018 – <\/em>Winter is coming, and farmers in this Uyghur village are busy cutting branches pruned from walnut trees for firewood. The wood is fuel for small metal stoves that heat their mud-and-brick homes.<\/p>\n

Other villagers are washing the coarse wool rugs they use to cover their floors and hang on walls as insulation against the cold. Much work remains to be done. There are red dates to harvest, and maize to dry and store. But as chilly winds sweep this dusty village of some 400 households on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert in China\u2019s far western region of Xinjiang, a noticeable shortage of hands is causing many families to struggle.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy older brother is in training prison,\u201d one villager says, watching her toddler play under a grape trellis in the courtyard of her traditional Uyghur home. \u201cMy sister is in a training prison, too,\u201d she adds quietly, as sheep bleat in the adjacent manger.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very difficult for us,\u201d she says. With her older siblings gone, her elderly father took a job as a security guard at a local factory to support the remaining eight family members, including her disabled mother, with an income of about 1,500 yuan ($216) a month.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s situation is disturbingly common. An informal survey of two dozen families in the village reveals a chilling fact: Half of them are missing a family member \u2013 usually the head of household \u2013 who has been detained, indefinitely, in what the villagers here refer to as \u201ctraining prison,\u201d or simply \u201ctraining.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A policeman checks the identity card of a man in Kashgar, a predominantly Uyghur city in Xinjiang. THOMAS PETER\/REUTERS<\/p><\/div>\n

The high ratio of detentions uncovered in the village, while only one data point, offers further firsthand confirmation that China\u2019s program of mass incarceration of ethnic Uyghurs in political education camps in Xinjiang has swept up vast numbers of people in recent years. Experts and human rights groups estimate that as many as 1 million of the total Uyghur population of 11 million have been forced to undergo \u201creeducation\u201d in the most serious assault by Chinese authorities on Muslim minorities since the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s ruling Communist Party since 2016 has intensified a \u201cstrike hard operation\u201d against what it views as religious extremism, terrorism, and separatist tendencies among Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic groups in Xinjiang, a strategic frontier with Central Asia. Sporadic violence has erupted between Uyghurs and ethnic Han Chinese in Xinjiang, and some Uyghurs want greater autonomy or even independence from Beijing. But experts view the root cause of unrest as China\u2019s decades of repression and discriminatory treatment of Uyghurs.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s arbitrary confinement of Uyghurs \u2013 taking parents away from their children and able-bodied workers away from their families \u2013 is tearing at the fabric of rural life in southern Xinjiang, where the Uyghur population is concentrated. Authorities are also waging a highly invasive campaign to monitor and indoctrinate family members who remain at home, conversations with dozens of villagers over several days reveal.<\/p>\n

In this village on the outskirts of the ancient oasis town of Hotan, the detention of an estimated 200 of the village\u2019s 1,500 people closely matches findings in villages around Kashgar and other parts of southern Xinjiang by human rights groups, which condemn the detentions as illegal under Chinese and international law.<\/p>\n

Streets here appear desolate, even on the traditional Sunday market day. Many adults seem subdued and wary. The large, engraved wooden doors on several houses are padlocked, and some have been recently sealed with white strips of paper by cadres from the village Communist Party branch \u2013 a sign that the inhabitant was accused of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Local Communist Party cadres have sealed some doors of Uyghur homes with white strips of paper in villages in Xinjiang \u2013 a sign that the inhabitant was accused of wrongdoing. ANN SCOTT TYSON<\/p><\/div>\n

In the nearby market area, several shops are closed. One woman, a farmer, stands looking at wood stoves for sale, wondering how she will make ends meet because her husband, too, is \u201cin training.\u201d (The names and other identifying details of all Hotan residents described or quoted in this article are being withheld for their protection.)<\/p>\n

Outside one family-run fabric shop, a gray-haired worker, his hands rough and his coat worn, fumbles with threads to form tassels on a garment. Asked how his trade is faring, the shopkeeper frowns and shakes his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cBusiness is bad, worse than before,\u201d he says. Asked why, his answer is stark: \u201cThere are no people.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

After darkness falls\u00a0on the village, the rhythmic clacking of wooden silk looms sounds late into the night. One village weaver, her arms and back tired from the work, has little choice but to toil long hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband is in the training prison, and I am the only one supporting my family now,\u201d says the weaver, who makes about 1,000 yuan ($145) a month. \u201cI don\u2019t know when he will get out,\u201d she says with a despondent look.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s government until recently denied the widespread detention of Uyghurs in Xinjiang camps. But with evidence and international pressure mounting \u2013 a United Nations panel in August voiced concern that China had turned Xinjiang into a \u201cmassive internment camp\u201d \u2013 it changed course in October, saying the facilities were part of a program to \u201cget rid of extremism.\u201d Under the program, authorities say, Xinjiang residents \u201csuspected\u201d of minor offenses and \u201cmistakes\u201d in connection with religious extremism are sent to \u201cvocational training institutions\u201d and \u201cboarding schools.\u201d There, they are rehabilitated and \u201csaved,\u201d said Shohrat Zakir, the chairman of Xinjiang\u2019s regional government, in an interview with the official Xinhua News Service.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Uyghurs make scarves in a village near the oasis town of Hotan, Xinjiang. Local shops have felt the impact of the government\u2019s mass detention of Uyghurs.
ANN SCOTT TYSON<\/p><\/div>\n

The government\u2019s goal, Mr. Zakir said, is to \u201celiminate the environment and soil that breeds terrorism and religious extremism,\u201d especially in southern Xinjiang, where he said residents\u2019 lack of Chinese language ability, job skills, and legal knowledge make them \u201cvulnerable to the instigation and coercion of extremism.\u201d Trainees must engage in \u201cdeep self-examination of their mistakes\u201d and meet \u201crequired standards\u201d to complete their training, he said, indicating the time frame is indefinite.<\/p>\n

In November, Chinese officials again vigorously defended the program as terrorism prevention at a UN Human Rights Council review of China\u2019s record in Geneva, rejecting calls from several countries to end the illegal detentions and reveal how many people have been held against their will, for how long, and why. \u201cWe cannot wait until they have become terrorists,\u201d said Le Yucheng, China\u2019s delegation head. Another delegation member, \u00dcr\u00fcmqi Mayor Yasim Sadiq, claimed \u201cattendees\u201d of the \u201ctraining centers\u201d welcomed the chance to purge themselves of extremist views, adding, \u201cthey never thought life could be so colorful.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for Uyghur villagers here who have seared in their minds the dates authorities took away their loved ones \u2013 months ago, a year ago, or even longer \u2013 such official statements cannot dispel the reality of the \u201ctraining prison.\u201d Uyghur residents in Hotan say people can be arbitrarily detained or questioned by police for even hints of Islamic faith \u2013 such as wearing a beard or covering the face with a scarf, observing Muslim restrictions on smoking and drinking alcohol, or attending a religious service.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who practices Islam is being detained,\u201d says one Uyghur man. \u201cThey are all gone,\u201d he says, holding his arms out straight with his wrists touching as if in handcuffs. Family members of those deemed \u201cuntrustworthy\u201d are often detained as well, in a form of collective punishment, human rights advocates say.<\/p>\n

Inside the camps, detainees are required to learn Chinese, sing patriotic songs and Communist Party paeans, and study anti-extremism and anti-terrorism rules. They have also been subjected to torture, solitary confinement, and other forms of physical and psychological mistreatment, according to interviews by human rights groups with former detainees.<\/p>\n

The camps are often located in former schools or factories that have been fortified with barbed wire and guard towers, according to researchers who have used satellite imagery and procurement records to track the development and expansion of the incarceration system. While dozens of camps have been identified throughout Xinjiang, they are concentrated in the four southwestern prefectures of Kashgar, Hotan, Kizilsu, and Aksu, where the majority of the Uyghur population lives.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A prison sprawls across the landscape in Hotan, a predominantly Uyghur prefecture in southern Xinjiang. Xinjiang\u2019s total spending on domestic security, including prisons and detention centers, doubled in 2017.
ANN SCOTT TYSON<\/p><\/div>\n

Some villagers say they are allowed to visit their detained relatives once a month, while others have not seen them at all, even after more than a year\u2019s absence. Some of the detained villagers are being held as far away as the cities of Aksu or \u00dcr\u00fcmqi, Xinjiang\u2019s capital, several hours away, while others are nearby in Hotan. International criticism of the camps is rising, and in mid-November 15 Western envoys in Beijing asked to meet Xinjiang Communist Party chief Chen Quanguo for an explanation of the alleged rights abuses.<\/p>\n

Yet no end is in sight for the crackdown on the Uyghur heartland, statements by Xinjiang authorities suggest. Xinjiang leader Zakir said some \u201ctrainees\u201d may return home at the end of this year, but he stressed that \u201ccleaning up the evil legacy of terrorism and religious extremism in southern Xinjiang is still a very formidable task.\u201d<\/p>\n

Down the road from the village is one camp identified by online researchers \u2013 a tall, sand-colored building surrounded by barbed wire near the banks of the Yurungkash River. Two blocks away is a huge, six-lane police checkpoint where passengers and vehicles from Uyghur villages are searched before crossing a bridge into downtown Hotan.<\/p>\n

Police wielding anti-personnel spears with dagger-like tips, riot shotguns, and long clubs spiked with four-inch nails man the checkpoint, one of hundreds built as part of a population-control grid imposed on Hotan. They scan government-issued IDs and question and photograph Uyghur travelers inside a station equipped with two large detention cells.<\/p>\n

One day recently, a middle-aged Uyghur man wearing a four-cornered skullcap, or doppa, stands inside one of the holding cells. His hands grasp the metal bars as he looks out with a plaintive expression. All the travelers at the station are at the mercy of the police, so no one can do anything but make eye contact and nod in his direction.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

At a village stand\u00a0<\/strong>piled with local melons, grapes, and other fruits and vegetables, a young Han Chinese woman rides up on a scooter and buys some oranges. She says she arrived about a month ago from Gansu province, and moved into the village kindergarten, where she teaches Uyghur children Chinese.<\/p>\n

Even as Uyghur families have watched their relatives taken away, they have had to accept a large and intrusive influx of Han Chinese, some born in Xinjiang and others from what is referred to locally as\u00a0neidi<\/em>, the overwhelmingly Han \u201cinland,\u201d or China proper. Teams composed mainly of Hans are dispatched by the government to live in Uyghur homes for days, weeks, or longer to monitor and instruct them.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of Han cadres are here living in the farmers\u2019 homes. One cadre may be assigned to three Uyghur families, so he rotates and spends one night in each of the homes,\u201d says a Han resident of Hotan who is familiar with the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are here to change the Uyghurs\u2019 thinking,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The human engineering project is just one example of the intrusive government controls on the daily lives of Uyghurs who are not in detention \u2013 controls that strongly parallel the treatment of Uyghurs inside the camps.<\/p>\n

Under the mandatory Xinjiang program, initiated in 2014 but expanded dramatically in 2017, some 1 million mainly Han officials have been sent into Uyghur households for homestays, focusing on families of Uyghurs who have been detained. During the stays, they monitor Uyghurs for any signs of observing Islam, contacts with foreigners or outsiders, the number of household knives, among other things \u2013 and report their findings to authorities. Suspicious activity reported by the Han visitors can lead to more detentions.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, they teach the families Chinese language and culture, and spread Communist Party propaganda such as President Xi Jinping\u2019s vision for China.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Chinese socialist art, such as this set of statues in Hotan, is intended to depict progress and unity among ethnic groups. ANN SCOTT TYSON<\/p><\/div>\n

Several Uyghur villagers described having Hans living with them, observing their daily life, requiring them to speak Chinese, and \u2013 in some cases \u2013 giving them health checkups. It was not clear whether the health checks involved taking blood samples, part of a reported government plan to collect residents\u2019 DNA.<\/p>\n

Villagers say they are also expected to attend nightly political study sessions at the village Communist Party branch office, which they call the\u00a0dadui<\/em>, an old term from the Maoist era meaning commune production brigade. There, they say, they study more Chinese and sometimes sing patriotic songs.<\/p>\n

Underlying the program is the idea, voiced by several Hans encountered in the village and in Hotan, that Uyghurs are \u201cbackward,\u201d \u201cignorant,\u201d and lack ambition, and so are susceptible to religious extremism. Chinese civilization will cure this, they suggest. \u201cUyghurs just live for the day,\u201d says one Han in Hotan.<\/p>\n

On a dusty backstreet of the village, an aspiring Communist Party member from \u00dcr\u00fcmqi speaks energetically about the success that the civilian teams are having transforming the mind-sets of the Uyghur villagers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very backward area, and the religious beliefs here are very strong. That is why this area was chaotic,\u201d says the young man, currently a member of the Communist Youth League \u2013 a pathway to party membership \u2013 who attends university in \u00dcr\u00fcmqi. He says he is living in Uyghur homes and teaching villagers Chinese, while also focusing on their beliefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople here are ignorant, so they believe in religion. We are having a good impact on changing their beliefs,\u201d he says. Although Uyghur himself, he speaks flawless Mandarin. He stresses that he\u2019s spent the entirety of his young life in Chinese-language schools, and doesn\u2019t believe in God. Soon, he says, he will apply for Communist Party membership.<\/p>\n

The village party branch has organized a team of five people, led by the local party chief, with the mission of curtailing religious influence in the village, he says. While the government has long imposed religious restrictions on Uyghurs and other Muslim populations in Xinjiang, today\u2019s controls \u2013 including the threat of detention \u2013 have all but outlawed the practice of Islam in the region.<\/p>\n

North of the village, at the end of a dirt road, a path lined with poplar trees leads to a shrine, the mazar of Imam Asim, a Sufi holy man said to have led the Islamic conquest of Hotan in about 1000 AD. Until two years ago, it was a destination for thousands of Muslim pilgrims. Now the site is barred and stripped of religious symbols. A nearby street with shops that once sold food, tea kettles, and other goods is abandoned.<\/p>\n

The village mosque has been torn down, as have many in Hotan, residents say. Parents are prohibited from allowing children to participate in any religious activities. \u201cNo one dares to practice Islam openly,\u201d says one resident.<\/p>\n

Yet despite the pressure, some Uyghurs still pray in private and fast during Ramadan, residents say. And whenever elderly Uyghurs hear the universal Muslim greeting\u00a0As-salaamu alaykum<\/em>\u00a0(peace be upon you), their faces light up and they respond without hesitation:\u00a0Wa alaykumu as-salaam<\/em>\u00a0(and peace be upon you).<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

In a red date orchard\u00a0on the outskirts of the village, an elderly Uyghur farmer hoists a brittle pile of pruned branches and leaves over his head and tosses it onto a smoldering fire, sending flames leaping skyward.<\/p>\n

The annual pruning work is time consuming but needed to ensure maximum production of the dates, or jujube, a major crop in this region. The reddish-brown fruit still hangs on the branches, growing sweeter as it wrinkles in the desert air. Soon the farmer will pick them, but the crop does not belong to him.<\/p>\n

The several hundred date trees \u2013 a large orchard by village standards \u2013 are owned by a Han Chinese migrant from the inland province of Henan who moved here 10 years ago and leased the land from the government. He hires Uyghur villagers as laborers \u2013 a common practice in the area, where Han farmers manage lucrative fruit and nut orchards. Uyghurs tend to practice subsistence farming of wheat and maize while also raising sheep, cows, chickens, and pigeons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ethnic Uyghur children joke as they taunt a local police officer in the old town section of Kashgar, a city in western Xinjiang. Some 11 million Uyghurs, many of whom are Muslims, live in Xinjiang, the crossroads linking China to the rest of Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. KEVIN FRAYER\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p><\/div>\n

The underlying inequality between Hans and Uyghurs in Xinjiang has caused tension as Uyghurs have felt marginalized, experts say. China\u2019s government has for decades worked to assimilate and control Xinjiang by both mandating and encouraging Han Chinese migration to the frontier region, in part by offering jobs, land, and other incentives to new arrivals.<\/p>\n

The Han population of Xinjiang grew from 7 percent in 1949, the year of China\u2019s communist takeover, to 37 percent in 2015, while the Uyghur population has declined from 75 percent to 48 percent over the same time period. Hans tend to dominate higher-income manufacturing jobs in the urban areas, particularly in the north, as well as the oil and gas industries, while Uyghurs mainly hold lower-paid agricultural jobs and live in the countryside.<\/p>\n

As part of the Han migration, starting in 1954 demobilized Chinese troops set up vast production corps known as\u00a0bingtuan<\/em>, carving out large tracts of Xinjiang territory to build farms and factories. The semiautonomous\u00a0bingtuan<\/em>\u00a0have their own police and militia and are often strategically positioned between and around Uyghur settlements. They continue to expand, now comprising some 2.7 million residents, about 90 percent of them Han Chinese.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

SOURCE: Weidmann, Nils B., Jan Ketil R\u00f8d and Lars-Erik Cederman (2010). “Representing Ethnic Groups in Space: A New Dataset.” Journal of Peace Research | Jacob Turcotte\/Staff<\/p><\/div>\n

Today, a large\u00a0bingtuan<\/em>\u00a0built in 2004 in the desert 40 miles from Hotan boasts some of the biggest orchards for red dates and other fruits in the region, and employs Uyghur seasonal laborers to harvest them. A group of Uyghur women sit in the sun, sorting a mound of dates from large to small as their children sleep nearby in portable wooden cribs. \u201cI earn 80 yuan ($11.50) a day,\u201d says one woman, who has harvested dates for six years.<\/p>\n

Uyghur farmers from Hotan are being forced to work harvesting cotton and other crops, residents say. Such practices have fueled some resentment among Uyghurs, who feel unfairly treated by the government and disadvantaged by the Han Chinese arrivals.<\/p>\n

Back at the red date orchard, as the Han farmer oversees the pruning, two older Uyghur men approach him with a request. Can they allow their sheep to graze in the orchard and eat the date leaves after the harvest? \u201cFor 2,000 yuan ($288),\u201d the Han says.<\/p>\n

The Uyghurs seem taken aback \u2013 that is more than they earn in one month. One Uyghur wearing a black wool cap offers 500 yuan ($72) and tries to put the bills in the farmer\u2019s hand. But the farmer refuses and backs away. They haggle some more, but the Han won\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n

Finally, the Uyghurs trudge off. \u201cYou are crazy!\u201d one shouts over his shoulder.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Life in the village\u00a0goes on, with all its complex undercurrents. On an outdoor table covered with a red cloth, a village woman, her hair tied back in a scarf, shapes bread dough over a large stone and presses it onto the wall of a hot brick oven. One after another, she forms and bakes the flatbread, or\u00a0nang,<\/em>\u00a0a staple of the Uyghurs, using a metal poker to retrieve them from the blistering oven.<\/p>\n

She is noticeably sullen. Asked about their family, her school-aged daughter, who is playing nearby with friends, replies.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father is in training prison,\u201d she says, reciting the exact date he was taken away last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father is in training prison, too,\u201d her friend chimes in, also naming the date.<\/p>\n

A third girl announces that both her parents are still at home \u2013 as if bragging about something special.<\/p>\n

The mother, formerly a seamstress, started the bakery a month ago to try to make up for her husband\u2019s lost income. Her daughter wonders when she will see her father again. \u201cIt\u2019s already been more than a year and a half,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

For Uyghurs, the splitting apart of families is one of the most painful aspects of the government repression in Xinjiang. Not only are children deprived of parents, they are receiving indoctrination suggesting their father or mother \u2013 or both \u2013 did something wrong, undermining them as a trusted role model. In some cases, family members have been forced or felt compelled by authorities to denounce one another, according to human rights reports.<\/p>\n

Each night at 7:30 the daughter, a red kerchief tied around her neck, heads down the narrow village road to the\u00a0dadui,\u00a0<\/em>or party branch, to study Chinese and sing songs praising the Communist Party and \u201cmotherland.\u201d<\/p>\n

This night, she makes a wish for her father.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope he will study hard,\u201d she says, \u201cso I will see him soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 csmonitor.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ann Scott Tyson found reporting especially challenging in the western region of Xinjiang, where she went to witness the impact of China\u2019s forced \u2018reeducation\u2019 of its Uyghur minority. But that work produced a rare and nuanced look at the project\u2019s effect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":123488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[197,224,56,180,221,183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-feature","category-human-rights","category-asia-pacific","category-brics","category-indigenous-rights","category-religion-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}