{"id":982,"date":"2018-09-03T13:36:41","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T13:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/?p=982"},"modified":"2018-09-03T13:36:41","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T13:36:41","slug":"chinas-partners-should-not-turn-a-blind-eye-to-fate-of-uighurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/?p=982","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s partners should not turn a blind eye to fate of Uighurs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/thai-uyghurs-11232017.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-984 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/thai-uyghurs-11232017.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"880\" height=\"495\" srcset=\"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/thai-uyghurs-11232017.jpg 599w, https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/thai-uyghurs-11232017-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/ddd9db26-a610-11e8-926a-7342fe5e173f\">FT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>All too often over the past century, when repressive governments have committed egregious acts, the rest of the world \u2014 because of ignorance, fear or greed \u2014 has simply shrugged.<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s treatment of its ethnic Uighur population and other Muslim minority groups should not be allowed to become one of those moments.<\/p>\n<p>In the past month, the United States congressional-executive commission on China and a United Nations committee on racial discrimination have both cited \u201cnumerous and credible reports\u201d that as many as one million\u00a0Uighurs and other Chinese Muslims are being held in extrajudicial prison camps in the western province of Xinjiang.<\/p>\n<p>The UN says another two million \u2014 roughly 20 per cent of the entire Uighur population \u2014 may have been forced into \u201cre-education camps for political and cultural indoctrination\u201d, where they are made to renounce Islam and praise the Communist party and President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"today-ad-imu ad-imu ad-bg\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-imu0\" data-google-query-id=\"CPSh1Kv5nt0CFVaLaQodT30JIg\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/4654\/Today_online\/commentary\/imu0_0__container__\">Numerous reports have emerged of torture, medical neglect and abuse as well as deaths of some detainees in the camps.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Jerome Cohen, a law professor and expert on Chinese human rights, has said the last time so many people were detained outside the formal criminal process in China was in the \u201canti-rightest\u201d campaign of the late 1950s.<\/p>\n<p>That saw the first use of China\u2019s \u201cre-education through labour\u201d gulags.<\/p>\n<p>Yet most governments have declined to criticise Beijing or even ask for more transparency about the situation in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n<p>Even many predominantly Muslim countries have remained silent, including Turkey, which shares deep ethnic, cultural and linguistic roots with the Uighur people.<\/p>\n<p>In spite of overwhelming evidence from news reports, human rights groups and Uighur exiles, the Chinese government has stuck to a policy of almost total denial.<\/p>\n<p>It describes the sprawling network of camps as \u201cvocational education and employment training centres\u201d, and insists \u201cthe people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang cherish their happy and peaceful life\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese state media have lauded the measures as necessary to save the region from \u201cmassive turmoil\u201d and from becoming \u201cChina\u2019s Syria\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Sporadic terrorist attacks have been carried out by alleged Uighur Islamic extremists in China in recent years. It is true that none has been reported since repression was ramped up in the region.<\/p>\n<p>But China\u2019s leaders would be wise to realise that the treatment of the Uighurs is likely to nurture a far greater terrorist threat in the future.<\/p>\n<p>It is also possible that the scale of the abuse in the region has been exaggerated in the vacuum created by Beijing\u2019s denials.<\/p>\n<p>If so, China\u2019s leaders have every incentive to allow open and unfettered access to the region for foreign diplomats and the world\u2019s media.<\/p>\n<p>To address concerns raised by the UN committee, Beijing should allow the UN rapporteur on the issue to visit. If not, other countries should hold it to account under international treaties.<\/p>\n<p>The sheer size of China\u2019s market makes foreign states all too willing to overlook alleged human rights abuses. But if governments will not act, there is more the corporate sector could do.<\/p>\n<p>Without transparency from Beijing, companies should at least decline to supply China\u2019s security services, and to do business in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n<p>The region is also the centrepiece of Mr Xi\u2019s signature Belt and Road Initiative to connect Asia and Europe and promote Chinese trade.<\/p>\n<p>In theory, that provides international partners with considerable leverage. Countries should not sign unless they receive credible promises that Beijing will end systematic and brutal oppression in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n<p>Source:\u00a0https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/ddd9db26-a610-11e8-926a-7342fe5e173f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FT All too often over the past century, when repressive governments have committed egregious acts, the rest of the world \u2014 because of ignorance, fear or greed \u2014 has simply shrugged. China\u2019s treatment of its ethnic Uighur population and other Muslim minority groups should not be allowed to become one of those moments. In the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uyghur-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":985,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions\/985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}