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The Chinese Government’s Genocide of the Uyghurs

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State Responses to Crimes of Genocide

Part of the book series: Rethinking Political Violence ((RPV))

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Abstract

Through the nineteenth-century Opium Wars to the Rape of Nanking and the horrors of Mao Zedong, China has itself suffered gross human rights violations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See for example, WPQ UIN HL10450, tabled on 9 October 2018.

  2. 2.

    Ibid.

  3. 3.

    See for example, WPQ UIN HC185636, tabled on 5 November 2018.

  4. 4.

    See: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/6624/documents/71430/default/.

  5. 5.

    See: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/7214/documents/75842/default/.

  6. 6.

    House of Lords Deb, 10 January 2008, c1026.

  7. 7.

    Ibid.

  8. 8.

    Ibid.

  9. 9.

    Yuan Wei, ‘Party Ideology Replaces Quran in Xining’s Dongguan Mosque’ Bitter Winter (26 July 2019). Available at: https://bitterwinter.org/party-ideology-replaces-quran-in-xinings-dongguan-mosque/.

  10. 10.

    Tom Williams, ‘China Destroys Domes of Famous Mosques in Bid to Suppress Islam’ Metro (2 November 2020). Available at: https://metro.co.uk/2020/11/02/china-destroys-domes-of-famous-mosques-in-bid-to-suppress-islam-13519937/?ito=cbshare.

  11. 11.

    All Party China Group, ‘Tibet: Breaking the Deadlock’ (2009). Available at: http://jubileecampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/final-pdf_tibet_report.pdf.

  12. 12.

    Ibid.

  13. 13.

    Ibid., 12.

  14. 14.

    Benjamin Haas, ‘China Church Demolition Sparks Fears of Campaign Against Christians’ The Guardian (11 January 2018). Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/11/china-church-demolition-sparks-fears-of-campaign-against-christians.

  15. 15.

    See for example: China Tribunal, Judgment (2019).

  16. 16.

    Gerry Shih and Dake Kang, ‘Muslims Forced to Drink Alcohol and Eat Pork in China’s ‘Re-Education’ Camps, Former Inmate Claims’ Independent (19 May 2019). Available at:

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-re-education-muslims-ramadan-xinjiang-eat-pork-alcohol-communist-xi-jinping-a8357966.html

  17. 17.

    Congressional Executive Commission on China, ‘Chairs Urge Ambassador Branstad to Prioritize Mass Detention of Uyghurs, Including Family Members of Radio Free Asia Employees’ (3 April 2018). Available at: https://www.cecc.gov/media-center/press-releases/chairs-urge-ambassador-branstad-to-prioritize-mass-detention-of-uyghurs.

  18. 18.

    CSW, ‘China: Mass Arbitrary Detentions in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR)’ (October 2018).

  19. 19.

    David Stavrou, ‘A Million People Are Jailed at China’s Gulags. I Managed to Escape. Here’s What Really Goes on Inside’ Haaretz (17 October 2019). Available at: https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-a-million-people-are-jailed-at-china-s-gulags-i-escaped-here-s-what-goes-on-inside-1.7994216.

  20. 20.

    Ibid.

  21. 21.

    Ibid.

  22. 22.

    Ibid.

  23. 23.

    Ibid.

  24. 24.

    Ibid.

  25. 25.

    Ted Regencia, ‘Uyghurs Forced to Eat Pork as China Expands Xinjiang Pig Farms’ Aljazeera (4 December 2020). Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/4/holdUyghurs-forced-to-eat-pork-as-hog-farming-in-xinjiang-expands.

  26. 26.

    Matthew Walther, ‘America’s Consumer Paradise Means Hell on Earth for Chinese Muslims’ The Week (23 October 2019). Available at: https://theweek.com/articles/873455/americas-consumer-paradise-means-hell-earth-chinese-muslims?utm_source=links&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=facebook.

  27. 27.

    Ibid.

  28. 28.

    Ibid.

  29. 29.

    Nathan Ruser, ‘Exploring Xinjiang’s Detention System’ (2020). Available at: https://xjdp.aspi.org.au/explainers/exploring-xinjiangs-detention-facilities/.

  30. 30.

    FCDO, Human rights violations in Xinjiang and the government’s response: Foreign Secretary’s statement (12 January 2021). Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/foreign-secretary-on-the-situation-in-xinjiang-and-the-governments-response.

  31. 31.

    RFA, ‘Xinjiang Rapidly Building Crematoria to Extinguish Uyghur Funeral Traditions’ RFA (26 June 2018). Available at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/crematoriums-06262018151126.html.

  32. 32.

    Ephraim Mirvis, ‘As Chief Rabbi, I Can No Longer Remain Silent about the Plight of the Uyghurs’ The Guardian (15 December 2020). Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/15/chief-rabbi-silent-plight-Uyghurs-atrocity-china.

  33. 33.

    Uyghur Human Rights Project, ‘Detained and Disappeared: Intellectuals Under Assault in the Uyghur Homeland’ (March 2019) 22.

  34. 34.

    Ibid.

  35. 35.

    Shepherd, Christian, ‘Fear and Oppression in Xinjiang: China’s War on Uighur Culture’ Financial Times (12 September 2019).

  36. 36.

    Newlines Institute, ‘The Uyghur Genocide: An Examination of China’s Breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention’ (March 2021) 40.

  37. 37.

    Matthew Hill, David Campanale and Joel Gunter, ‘“Their Goal Is to Destroy Everyone”: Uighur Camp Detainees Allege Systematic Rape’ BBC News (2 February 2021). Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55794071.

  38. 38.

    David Stavrou, ‘A Million People Are Jailed at China’s Gulags. I Managed to Escape. Here’s What Really Goes on Inside’ Haaretz (17 October 2019). Available at: https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-a-million-people-are-jailed-at-china-s-gulags-i-escaped-here-s-what-goes-on-inside-1.7994216.

  39. 39.

    Ibid.

  40. 40.

    Ibid.

  41. 41.

    Matthew Hill, David Campanale and Joel Gunter, ‘Their Goal Is to Destroy Everyone’: Uighur Camp Detainees Allege Systematic Rape’ BBC (2 February 2021). Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55794071.

  42. 42.

    Ibid.

  43. 43.

    Ibid.

  44. 44.

    Amie Ferris-Rotman, ‘Abortions, IUDs and Sexual Humiliation: Muslim Women Who Fled China for Kazakhstan Recount Ordeals’ Washington Post (5 October 2019). Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/abortions-iuds-and-sexual-humiliation-muslim-women-who-fled-china-for-kazakhstan-recount-ordeals/2019/10/04/551c2658-cfd2-11e9-a620-0a91656d7db6_story.html.

  45. 45.

    Ibid.

  46. 46.

    Adrian Zenz, ‘Sterilisations, IUDs, and Mandatory Birth Control: The CCP’s Campaign to Suppress Uyghur Birthrates in Xinjiang’ (2020). Available at: https://jamestown.org/product/sterilizations-iuds-and-mandatory-birth-control-the-ccps-campaign-to-suppress-uyghur-birthrates-in-xinjiang/.

  47. 47.

    Ibid.

  48. 48.

    WPQ UIN HL8355, tabled on 22 September 2020.

  49. 49.

    See, for example: Ben Mauk, ‘Weather Reports: Voices from Xinjiang’ The New York Times (1 October 2019).

  50. 50.

    Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place (Hodder & Stoughton, 2004).

  51. 51.

    Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, Danielle Cave, Dr James Leibold, Kelsey Munro and Nathan Ruser, ‘Uyghurs for Sale’ (2020). Available at: https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale.

  52. 52.

    Ibid.

  53. 53.

    Cited in The Telegraph, ‘Human rights, Uighurs, and Huawei: It’s Time for Helsinki with Chinese Characteristics’ The Telegraph (28 June 2020). Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/06/28/human-rights-uighurs-huawei-time-helsinki-chinese-characteristics/.

  54. 54.

    Cited in Oscar Williams, ‘The Issue Ministers Are Avoiding When It Comes to Huawei’ New Statesman (22 January 2020). Available at: https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/2020/01/issue-ministers-are-avoiding-when-it-comes-huawei.

  55. 55.

    Ibid.

  56. 56.

    WPQ, UIN HL2408, tabled on 24 March 2020.

  57. 57.

    Official Report, House of Commons, Westminster Hall, 11 March 2020, c149-50WH.

  58. 58.

    Annie Kelly, ‘‘Virtually Entire’ Fashion Industry Complicit in Uighur Forced Labour, Say Rights Groups’ The Guardian (23 July 2020). Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jul/23/virtually-entire-fashion-industry-complicit-in-uighur-forced-labour-say-rights-groups-china.

  59. 59.

    Raisa Patel and Rosemary Barton, ‘Bob Rae Calls on UN to Investigate Evidence of Genocide Against China’s Uighur Minority’ CBC (15 November 2020). Available at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/bob-rae-genocide-investigation-uighur-minority-1.5802920.

  60. 60.

    FCDO, Human Rights Violations in Xinjiang and the Government’s Response: Foreign Secretary’s Statement (12 January 2021). Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/foreign-secretary-on-the-situation-in-xinjiang-and-the-governments-response.

  61. 61.

    Ibid.

  62. 62.

    Ibid.

  63. 63.

    Rebecca Wright, Ivan Watson and Isaac Yee, ‘‘Black Gold’ How Global Demand for Hair Products Is Linked to Forced Labor in Xinjiang’ CNN (October 2020). Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2020/10/asia/black-gold-hair-products-forced-labor-xinjiang/.

  64. 64.

    Venus Upadhayaya, ‘Seized Human Hair Products from Xinjiang Provide Evidence of Persecution’ The Epoch Times (2 August 2020). Available at: https://www.citizensjournal.us/seized-human-hair-products-from-xinjiang-provide-evidence-of-persecution/.

  65. 65.

    Available at: https://jamestown.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Coercive-Labor-and-Forced-Displacement-in-Xinjiangs-Cross-Regional-Labor-Transfers-A-Process-Oriented-Evaluation.pdf?x46096.

  66. 66.

    Ibid., 26.

  67. 67.

    WPQ, UIN HL17192, tabled on 16 July 2019.

  68. 68.

    WPQ, UIN HL2408, tabled on 10 March 2020.

  69. 69.

    Nathan Ruser, Dr James Leibold, Kelsey Munro and Tilla Hoja, ‘Cultural Erasure’ (2020). Available at: https://www.aspi.org.au/report/cultural-erasure.

  70. 70.

    Ibid. Edward Wong, ‘China Arrests Activist Amid a Clampdown’ The New York Times (6 January 2015). Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/07/world/asia/guo-yushan-arrest-china-chen-guangcheng.html.

  71. 71.

    Ibid.

  72. 72.

    Ibid.

  73. 73.

    Ibid.

  74. 74.

    Ibid.

  75. 75.

    China Tribunal, Judgment. Available at: https://chinatribunal.com/final-judgment/.

  76. 76.

    China Tribunal, Judgment. Available at: https://chinatribunal.com/final-judgment/.

  77. 77.

    Report on China. Available at: https://www.opendoorsuk.org/persecution/countries/china/.

  78. 78.

    Radio Free Asia, ‘Chinese Christians Held in Secretive Brainwashing Camps: Sources’ Radio Free Asia (1 April 2021). Available at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/christians-camps-04012021081013.html.

  79. 79.

    Austin Ramzy and Chris Buckley, ‘‘Absolutely No Mercy’: Leaked Files Expose How China Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims’ The New York Times (16 November 2016). Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html.

  80. 80.

    US State Department, ‘Determination of the Secretary of State on Atrocities in Xinjiang’ (19 January 2021). Available at: https://2017-2021.state.gov/determination-of-the-secretary-of-state-on-atrocities-in-xinjiang//index.html.

  81. 81.

    BBC News, ‘US: China ‘Committed Genocide Against Uyghurs’ BBC (20 January 2021). Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55723522.

  82. 82.

    Canadian Parliament 23 February 2021; Dutch Parliament 25 February 2021.

  83. 83.

    Joanne Smith Finley, Newcastle University, cited in AP, ‘China Cuts Uyghur Births with IUDs, Abortion, Sterilization’ AP (29 June 2020). Available at: https://apnews.com/article/269b3de1af34e17c1941a514f78d764c.

  84. 84.

    UN HRC, ‘UN Experts Call for Decisive Measures to Protect Fundamental Freedoms in China’ (26 June 2020). Available at: https://ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26006&LangID=E.

  85. 85.

    Julia Lovell, Maoism: A Global History (Vintage, 2019).

  86. 86.

    Frank Dikötter, Mao’s Great Famine, The Tragedy of Liberation, The Cultural Revolution (Bloomsbury, 2019).

  87. 87.

    Letter signed by 22 states. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/supporting_resources/190708_joint_statement_xinjiang.pdf.

  88. 88.

    Tom Miles, ‘Saudi Arabia and Russia Among 37 States Backing China’s Xinjiang Policy’ Reuters (12 July 2019). Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-xinjiang-rights-idUSKCN1U721X.

  89. 89.

    US State Department, ‘The United States Imposes Sanctions and Visa Restrictions in Response to the Ongoing Human Rights Violations and Abuses in Xinjiang’ (9 July 2020). Available at: https://2017-2021.state.gov/the-united-states-imposes-sanctions-and-visa-restrictions-in-response-to-the-ongoing-human-rights-violations-and-abuses-in-xinjiang/index.html.

  90. 90.

    US State Department, ‘On Sanctioning Human Rights Abusers in Xinjiang, China’ (31 July 2020). Available at: https://2017-2021.state.gov/on-sanctioning-human-rights-abusers-in-xinjiang-china/index.html.

  91. 91.

    FCDO, ‘UK Sanctions Perpetrators of Gross Human Rights Violations in Xinjiang, Alongside EU, Canada and US’ (22 March 2021). Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-sanctions-perpetrators-of-gross-human-rights-violations-in-xinjiang-alongside-eu-canada-and-us.

  92. 92.

    ICC, ‘Decision on the Prosecution’s Request for a Ruling on Jurisdiction under Article 19(3) of the Statute’, ICC-RoC46(3)-01/18-37, 6 September 2018. Available at: https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/record.aspx?docNo=ICC-RoC46(3)-01/18-37.

  93. 93.

    ICC, ‘Report on Preliminary Examination Activities’ (2020). Available at: https://www.icc-cpi.int/itemsDocuments/2020-PE/2020-pe-report-eng.pdf.

  94. 94.

    Ibid.

  95. 95.

    Ibid.

  96. 96.

    Russell Tribunal on Vietnam (1966–1967).

  97. 97.

    Russell Tribunal on Latin America (1973–1976).

  98. 98.

    Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (1979-now). See more at: http://permanentpeoplestribunal.org/?lang=en.

  99. 99.

    Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal, Verdict of the Tribunal (16 April 1984). See: https://www.armenian-genocide.org/Affirmation.66/current_category.5/affirmation_detail.html.

  100. 100.

    See: https://uyghurtribunal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Uyghur-Tribunal-Summary-Judgment-9th-Dec-21.pdf.

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  1. IBAHRI, London, UK

    Ewelina U. Ochab

  2. Parliament of United Kingdom, London, UK

    David Alton

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  1. Ewelina U. Ochab
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Ochab, E.U., Alton, D. (2022). The Chinese Government’s Genocide of the Uyghurs. In: State Responses to Crimes of Genocide. Rethinking Political Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99162-3_3

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