BY PHILIP DE GROOT
When protestors took to the streets in Hong Kong last year to protest anti-democratic restrictions, the world watched on the edge of its seat. News channels broadcasted images of clashes with armed police and social media exploded in support of protesters in the city. At the same time, and for years prior, another, quieter crackdown on human rights was taking place on the other side of China. It made less news, prompted fewer social media posts, and attracted less attention. The Chinese government denied its very existence, and still maintains that nothing serious is happening.
The evidence, however, says otherwise. Already in 2017, Human Rights Watch first reported unlawful internment camps in Northwest China: re-education centers that detained individuals who had committed no crime except being “politically unreliable.” In the same year, reports claimed that the Chinese government demanded deportations of Uyghurs back to China, banned some Muslim names, restricted use of the Uyghur and Kazakh languages in schools, and forcibly aborted Uyghur children. Tragically, you may have never heard.
China now holds over one million people—primarily Uyghurs—across over 380 camps, where inmates are subject to egregious human rights violations. After four years, these atrocities show no signs of stopping.
THE UYGHUR GENOCIDE
Native to Xinjiang, an autonomous region in northwest China, the predominantly Islamic Uyghur people are an ethnic and religious minority in the Han Chinese-dominated country. Tensions between Uyghurs and the Chinese government have increased in recent decades, as many Uyghurs support independence for Xinjiang — which they term East Turkestan. This movement is likely fueled in part by state discrimination against Uyghurs in favor of Han Chinese. The conflict exploded in 2009 with violent rioting, followed by sporadic separatist violence that China has condemned as radical terrorism.
Though China defends their subsequent crackdown in Xinjiang as a necessary anti-terrorism campaign, their response is characterized by indiscriminate abuse against the entire Uyghur population. The whole region is subject to extreme surveillance and restrictions on travel and communication. Moreover, the Chinese method of reducing extremism entails cultural erasure and criminalization of Islamic practice. Mosques have been destroyed and long beards and veils are forbidden in the region. Most notably, over one million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other minorities have involuntarily been placed in internment camps: prisons set up to erase their identity. Their children are frequently taken to state-run boarding schools for cultural assimilation, where they are unable to contact family. At the re-education camps, detainees are subject to propaganda and forced to pledge allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The Muslim Uyghurs are forced to eat pork, a violation of Islamic law, and many have reported incidents of rape, sleep deprivation, and physical torture such as waterboarding.
Inmates are also subject to forced labor, marking the Chinese government as one of 11 governments “with a documented ‘policy or pattern’ of human trafficking” according to the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report. Further, Uyghur women routinely undergo pregnancy checks, and China employs forced abortion and sterilization to curb the Uyghur population.
Many western governments have begun to speak out. In January, the Trump administration denounced Beijing’s policy towards Xinjiang as genocide — a stance confirmed by the Biden administration.The United Kingdom, Canada, and others have followed suit. Genocide, as defined by Article II of the UN Genocide Convention, is:
Any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such.
Killing 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
The United States has also established sanctions against China, most notably by stopping shipments of some products from Xinjiang and blacklisting certain Chinese companies. In addition, proposed legislation such as the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which passed the Senate and now awaits a vote in the house, seeks to strictly monitor supply chains with links to Xinjiang to prevent labor trafficking.
Tragically, abuses in Xinjiang continue. Despite the strong rhetoric from many nations, international cooperation in support of the Uyghurs remains lacking, and many nations have stopped at verbal denunciation. But words alone will not end slave labor in global supply chains, cultural destruction, or violations of human rights. In the words of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “It would be easy for China…to shrug off what any one country, including just the United States alone, says.
One of the most striking marks of the world’s indifference? Despite China’s egregious record of human rights abuses, Beijing is still scheduled to host the 2022 Olympic Games. The U.S. plans to participate, though calls for a boycott have escalated.
CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY
Before espousing specific responses, American citizens and public officials must consider why the United States should respond at all. After all, although the Uyghur genocide violates even the most basic standards of justice, aren’t those violations Chinese domestic issues?
On the contrary, responsible Christian citizenship demands international engagement. Ultimately, the Christian call to responsible citizenship derives from creation itself, where God gives Adam and Eve the mandate to steward all of creation and act creatively within the world. Since this command, given to the whole human race and applied to the entire globe, constitutes the establishment of the first political community, we should understand our citizenship — at least in part — as global. Further, since a primary God-given task of the political sphere is to enact public justice, and since the political community created by God transcends national boundaries, responsible citizens must pursue justice globally. The human rights violations in Xinjiang are some of the most deplorable injustices happening today. Human trafficking, forced abortion, cultural erasure, and gratuitous mass incarceration are each violations of human dignity, shameful transgressions of international and moral law, and an affront to God’s command to do justice and love mercy. If pursuit of global justice is a God-given command, then we cannot be silent.
THE FAILED INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
Though our calling to advocate for justice in Xinjiang is plain, concrete solutions are less apparent. To begin with, China’s stringent restrictions on travel and communication make extracting information from Xinjiang challenging and potentially dangerous. Further, China’s political and economic power dissuades many nations from acting since solitary action would likely prove ineffective and retaliation could be severe.
Moreover, China refuses to join relevant institutions such as the International Criminal Court (ICC). Because of the foreign policy of China and other nations, the institutions set up to defend justice globally lack the international support necessary for their empowerment. Specifically, because China is not a member of the ICC, the court lacks jurisdiction to investigate or prosecute crimes in China.
In short, intervention on behalf of the global oppressed is difficult because our current world order is not set up to defend them. This is, in part, attributable to the United States’ reluctance to empower global institutions. Despite helping to plan the ICC, the United States., like China, has not become a party to the statute, instead choosing to remain independent of the international tribunal. James Skillen, founder and former president of the Center for Public Justice (CPJ), criticizes this retreat from international institutions in his 2005 book With or Against the World. His critique of President George W. Bush’s National Security Strategy (NSS) rings true today: “From the point of view of the NSS, freedom for any and all will be defined within the bounds of American military preeminence and American sovereignty.” Essentially, the NSS desired an international order that allowed the United States to extend its vision of freedom and justice throughout the globe by establishing international institutions to govern the rest of the world but not becoming signatories themselves. According to this strategy, the U.S. should dictate the world’s standard of justice without subjecting themselves to those standards. As Skillen later notes, “The message could not be more imperial.” Because of this tendency, many nations are hesitant to cooperate with the U.S. on protecting the Uyghurs out of understandable fear that the American government is using this tragedy to further American political and economic interests. They worry that American lawmakers and activists are condemning China to undermine the global power of the U.S.’s geopolitical rival and uphold American hegemony, not to bring justice to Xinjiang.
To construct a world order empowered to pursue justice, the United States must change its approach to prioritize cooperation and empower international institutions. As CPJ’s Guideline on Security and Defense states, “The United States, currently the world’s dominant military power, should take the lead in helping to strengthen international law and institutions. It should do this for its own and the world’s security, and to defend the innocent against unjust aggression, whether from terrorists or the armed forces of other countries.”
Even as the US. maintains and increases its pressure against the CCP, it must change its approach to international engagement. Given the decades of harmful precedent, it will take time to convince other countries that we are sincere about cooperation, but this hard work is necessary to bring about public justice.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Discussion of genocide, human trafficking, and reforming international instutions and U.S. foreign policy can be overwhelming, and the overwhelming can induce inaction. However, the actions of every individual are crucial to creating change. Though policy reform, especially on the international level, is only carried out by government officials, American democracy gives everyone a voice. Voting is an essential, but not exhaustive element of this engagement. Beyond the ballot box, you can write to your elected officials. Public officials listen to their constituents, but only if they make their voices heard. For example, you can express support for the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act to your representatives in the House, where the bill is currently held at the desk. The U.S. can also protect Uyghurs by welcoming refugees, increasing refugee quotas, and making their admittance easier. The Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act has been proposed in both the House and Senate, but has not yet been passed in either. Contacting your congressional representatives is especially effective if they serve on the Committee on the Judiciary in either the House or Senate, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, or the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the House.
Secondly, stay informed. China’s restrictive policy towards journalists limits information about the Uyghur genocide, making it easy to ignore. Don’t ignore it! Tell your friends and family. Help mobilize the body of Christ by informing your church. Simply reading this article likely made you more knowledgeable than most people you know — use your knowledge to advance the cause of justice.
Additionally, think critically about what you consume and who it is harming. The supply chains of many large companies remain suspected of employing Uyghur forced labor. Though no one has the time or energy to meticulously research every purchase, you can remain generally informed and act accordingly.
Advocacy is especially effective when done collectively. Collective action takes many forms, including community groups, campus clubs, or other institutions. Creating or joining these groups that advocate for justice promotes community involvement and encourages everyone involved. Likewise, numerous nonprofits campaign against this injustice, and these organizations provide valuable tools for engagement and advocacy. Whether you can give of your time, money, or simply support through prayer, involvement with these organizations provides collective support that is vital for the Uyghur cause. Especially when it comes to welcoming refugees, communities are essential actors. In addition to voicing support and forming advocacy groups, those who know refugees should practice practical neighbor love by hospitably opening their hearts and homes.
The work of justice is hard, as is mobilizing your efforts on behalf of a population living half a world away. However, those concerned with public justice cannot remain silent in the face of such oppression.
“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.”
(Psalm 82:3)
Philip De Groot is an intern with CPJ during summer 2021. He currently studies History and Economics at Wheaton College (IL).
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