The other
day while I was scrolling the home
page of YouTube, I came across a video
that struck me. It was about some facilities discovered in China thanks to
satellite images. The surprising thing is that from above you can see the
shadows of fences , a surrounding wall and some watchtowers . But what are
exactly these facilities? To understand it we have to know first the history of the Uyghurs .
The Uyghurs
are a Turkic ethnic minority which lives mainly in Xingjian province of
northwestern China.They are closer to the capital of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan
than to Beijing. They are also closer culturally to those Turkic groups than
they are to the Han ( China's ethnic majority ) .
China has
been concerned for decades about the possibility of Uighur separatism. It
happened twice:
In 1933 Uyghurs
established the Islamic Republic of East
Turkistan with its capital in Kashgar but after a while it was taken over by
Chinese forces.
In 1944 Uyghurs
established the East Turkestan Republic with the help of Soviet Union, but when
China became communist in 1949 the Soviet Union helped them restore their power
.
But ... why is China so concerned ?
As China's
economy grew so did its need for energy and in Xinjiang there are 40% of
China's coal reserves , 20 % of their oil and gas reserves and 20% of China's
potential for wind energy. That's why
China really wants to have a solid sense of control over that area .
In 1950 China
saw an opportunity to dilute the influence of potentially rebellious Uyghurs
and started encouraging the migration of Han chinese into Xinjiang . In 1945
82,7 % of the population were Uyghurs and only 6,2 were Han chinese ; in 2008
46,1 % of the population were Uyghurs and 39,2 were Han Chinese. Uyghurs were
left behind , they had ( and still have
) mostly low wage jobs in agriculture
while the Han held higher paying jobs. So
in 2009 a protest erupted in violence and after that the Chinese really started
to crack down harder on the Uyghurs .
In 2013 an
initiative named "Belt and Road"
was started, which consists in the
construction of fiber optic cables, train lines and gas pipelines to boost the country's economic
and political influence around the world by making it easier to trade with
China. And if we see the project a lot of them pass through Xinjiang.
So Xinjiang was turned into an hi tech police
state: cameras were installed everywhere,
police checkpoints were increased , QR codes were placed outside homes ( with all the information about
their residents ) and the facilities I mentioned before were built.
At first China
denied the existence of these camps till journalists , academics and others
started to amass a body of evidences
that was so convincing that China couldn't deny it anymore. So they
said they were re-education camps for "potential
criminals or terrorists" .
The testimonies of ex detainees are terrible: they
were forced to memorize and recite communist party propaganda every day , to criticize
their own Islamic beliefs and to criticize the beliefs of their fellows detainees
, there are also testimonies of death and torture .
Chinese want
to make sure Xinjiang is an area of the country that they have total control
over. And, if that comes with a high
human cost and even a reputational blow on the international stage, China so far seems willing to do that anyway .
GIORDANO C.
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