In the world of make-believe play, young children hide in plain sight pretending no one can see what they are doing. The communist regime in China acted in such a childish manner for years in an attempt to cover up its horrific human rights record by simply pretending that no one saw anything. It came to an end this week when the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) released a major 48-page report detailing abuses the Chinese government perpetuated on the Uyghur people in western China.
Increasing allegations by civil society groups that members of the Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minority communities were missing or had disappeared in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China began arriving at the office of the UNHCR five years ago. Four years ago, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances reported a “dramatic” increase in cases from western China “with the introduction of ‘re-education’ camps in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region by the Government of China.”
Claims of family separations and enforced disappearances were among the first indicators of concern about the situation, it notes, with large numbers of people alleged to be “forcibly disappeared” or “missing” The UNHCR says that approximately two-thirds of the 152 outstanding cases on China of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances pertain to the Uyghur people occurred over the period 2017-2022. It is an ongoing issue with China continuing to threaten and intimate former detainees and disappear those who fail to comply. Some western human rights groups consider China guilty of committing genocide.
“Numerous research and investigative reports published since that time by a diverse range of non-governmental organizations, think-tanks and media outlets – as well as public accounts by victims – have alleged arbitrary detention on a broad scale in so-called “camps”, as well as claims of torture and other ill-treatment, including sexual violence, and forced labour, among others,” according to this week’s report.
At first Beijing labeled the camps vocational training centers that existed for people who had committed minor offenses. In later policy papers, it presented the detention centers as part of its strategies to counter terrorism and to prevent or counter “extremism” in the region, while at the same time claiming they contributed to development, job creation and poverty alleviation. The UN requested and looked at official documents, interviewed individuals, and then shared the results with the Chinese government to allow it to respond. The report noted China defiantly responded saying Beijing “…asserted that China’s laws are ‘powerful legal instruments to contain and combat terrorism and extremism’ and that it is upholding ‘the principles of protecting lawful activities, curbing illegal actions, containing extremism, resisting infiltration, and preventing and punishing crimes.’”
The UNHCR pointed out that China’s definitions of terrorists and terrorist activities is vague and that its claims of “social panic” and “serious social harm” caused by those living in western China are not clearly defined and might potentially encompass a wide range of acts that do not have a “sufficient threshold of seriousness and demonstrable intent to engage in terrorist conduct.” The reports concludes that Beijing committed serious human rights violations in the context of the Government’s application of counter-terrorism and counter-“extremism” strategies. The implementation of these strategies, and associated policies in Xinjiang, it says, have led to interlocking patterns of severe and undue restrictions on a wide range of human rights. “These patterns of restrictions are characterized by a discriminatory component, as the underlying acts often directly or indirectly affect Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim communities.” The UNHCR report makes 13 recommendations. Among them the report suggests China locate the people who have disappeared, release arbitrarily held prisoners, review the country’s legal framework surrounding its national security, investigate human rights abuses and allegations of torture in western China, and provide reparations to the victims. Xi Jinping, and the CCP leadership, have no intention of recognizing the legitimacy of the UNHCR findings or adhering to its recommendations. Perhaps, the Chinese are not the only ones playing a make-believe game?
Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.