{"id":281205,"date":"2024-12-16T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=281205"},"modified":"2024-11-24T06:48:04","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T06:48:04","slug":"report-from-the-nordic-delegation-to-chinas-xinjiang-province-7-15-sep-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/12\/report-from-the-nordic-delegation-to-chinas-xinjiang-province-7-15-sep-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Report from the Nordic Delegation to China\u2019s Xinjiang Province, 7-15 Sep 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

I. Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

16 Nov 2024\u00a0<\/em>– The initiative for the \u201cNordic Delegation to China, September 7-15, 2024\u201d was taken from the Norwegian side. Journalist and former editor Arild Vollan<\/em> wanted to investigate claims in the media about an ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs in the autonomous region of Xinjiang in western China. Vollan selected an independent, cross-disciplinary and cross-political delegation group consisting of people who have worked with China and who wanted to get personal impressions of the conditions described in the previous section.<\/p>\n

The delegation consisted of:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Remi Strand<\/em>, lawyer.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Thore Vestby,<\/em> a former member of parliament (H) and former mayor of Frogn.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Arild Vollan<\/em> (head of delegation), journalist and former editor.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jan \u00d8berg,<\/em> PhD sociology, director of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, TFF, in Lund, Sweden. (1)<\/p>\n

The delegation itself developed the project\u2019s mandate. Following an excursion to Xinjiang province, the delegation\u2019s mandate was to clarify whether observations made during the trip substantiated claims in the media that there is an ongoing genocide in Xinjiang today.<\/p>\n

Arild Vollan prepared the excursion program in dialogue with Thore Vestby, who has previously visited the province. The logistics were set up in dialogue with the Chinese Embassy in Oslo.<\/p>\n

The delegation participants covered their own travel costs back and forth to China\/Xinjiang and accommodation expenses ahead of the excursion in Xinjiang. The regional Chinese authorities arranged transportation, accommodation, and translators in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n

In Xinjiang, the delegation members could talk to anyone they wanted. Elements of the program were conducted without participants from local or regional governments. Information was gathered through meeting people and observing cultural expressions both inside and outside local institutions, through talking to representatives from various cultural minorities, and through open sources on the internet.<\/p>\n

In essence, the delegation has seen what it was offered to see. The report, therefore, describes a here-and-now impression within the framework that was set. The information gathered is summarized in this report.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

II. Norm basis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Genocide (2) is often defined as either:<\/p>\n

\u201cKilling members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

The above definition guided the delegation in gathering information. The definition has also guided the delegation\u2019s assessment of the allegations of an ongoing genocide in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n

III. Travel route, observations, etc.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The delegation gathered in Beijing<\/em> on September 6, 2024. Internal planning meetings were held before the delegation flew to Kashgar<\/em> (3) on the morning of September 7. The delegation went to a hotel and then on an excursion around town.<\/p>\n

Fifty-six ethnic minorities are registered in China. Forty of these minority groups live in the Xinjiang province.<\/p>\n

The first impression was that the architecture in Kashgar reflects a mix of different cultures living together in the area. Street signs, for example, had both Chinese and Arabic text.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The buildings included both mosques for the Muslims and buildings with a more secular design. The delegation visited the Id Kah Mosque<\/em> in Kashgar and was shown around by an imam.<\/p>\n

The imam talked about the mosque\u2019s operation, with full houses on Fridays and during holidays. Different ethnic minorities used the mosque at various times throughout the year, but the same minority groups celebrated the major holidays together in the mosque. One couple got married in the mosque area when we were there. In response to a direct question, the imam replied that the Chinese authorities do not interfere in the running of the mosque.<\/p>\n

TO CONTINUE READING AND SEE PHOTOS Go to Original – transnational.live<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FEATURED RESEARCH PAPER<\/em> STAYS POSTED FOR 2 WEEKS BEFORE BEING ARCHIVED<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16 Nov 2024\u00a0– The initiative for the \u201cNordic Delegation to China\u201d was from the Norwegians. Journalist Arild Vollan wanted to investigate claims in the media about an ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs in the autonomous region of Xinjiang in western China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":166625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[241],"tags":[244,1778,865,260,1678,634,234,335,611,1314],"class_list":["post-281205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paper-of-the-week","tag-china","tag-conflict-analysis","tag-genocide","tag-history","tag-investigative-journalism","tag-islam","tag-media","tag-muslims","tag-tourism","tag-uyghur"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281205","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=281205"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281211,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281205\/revisions\/281211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}