Rights group: China imprisons greater than 449,000 Uyghurs in Xinjiang

WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) — As Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up his journey to China, a human rights group launched a report calculating that China at the moment imprisons greater than 449,000 Uyghurs in Xinjiang, about one in 17.

In keeping with the Uyghur Human Rights Mission, a Washington-based analysis and advocacy group, 1 in 26 Uyghurs and non-Han folks within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Area in northwest China have been incarcerated in 2022.

The group’s evaluation of leaked Chinese language information, launched Thursday, additionally estimated that 1 in 17 Uyghur adults within the area have been imprisoned for actions that may be protected in a democracy, similar to studying the Quran.

Whereas the Uyghur, a minority Muslim group, and non-Han inhabitants in Xinjiang made up only one% of China’s general inhabitants, the report indicated, the ethnic minority within the Uyghur Area account for 34% of the nation’s estimated jail inhabitants.

Blinken mentioned Friday he raised issues about “human rights abuses in Xinjiang” and different instances in his assembly with Chinese language Overseas Minister Wang Yi and China’s Minister of Public Safety Wang Xiaohong.

Nevertheless, Beijing criticized Blinken for interfering in China’s home affairs.

“We ask the U.S. to not put fingers on home affairs, together with these related to Tibet and Xinjiang,” an official of the Chinese language Overseas Ministry mentioned in an announcement Friday. “Don’t use human rights as excuses to intervene.”

China’s official report on Chinese language President Xi’s summit with Blinken, which was printed by the official Xinhua information company, didn’t point out human rights.

Earlier than Blinken’s journey to China, the State Division printed its 2023 Nation Experiences on Human Rights Practices on Monday. Within the chapter that covers China, the State Division reported that genocide and crimes towards humanity occurred in 2023 towards Muslim Uyghurs and members of different ethnic and spiritual minority teams in Xinjiang.

The U.S. annual report additional indicated that the circumstances in penal establishments, together with these for political prisoners, typically have been harsh and infrequently life-threatening or degrading.

“Prisoners typically reported sleeping on the ground as a result of there have been no beds or bedding,” the report mentioned, “In lots of instances air flow, heating, lighting, and entry to potable water have been insufficient.”

Commenting on the State Division’s report, Blinken mentioned Monday that it documented “atrocities harking back to humanity’s darkest moments” and that america would proceed to lift deep issues “instantly with the governments accountable.”

Henryk Szadziewski, the director of analysis on the Uyghur Human Rights Mission, instructed Medill Information Service that “the Uyghur subject has turn out to be core to U.S. human rights dialogue with China.”

Szadziewski mentioned he anticipated Blinken to lift human rights in a “performative” manner, however he didn’t count on a lot dialogue of human rights throughout the go to. “There are points the China aspect will carry and there are points that the U.S. aspect will carry — then, there’s the enterprise.”

He mentioned the jail system advantages the Chinese language economic system. Some corporations constructed factories close to prisons to reap the benefits of jail labor.

“Prisoners work in these factories, and naturally, the labor prices are subsequent to none,” he mentioned.

Szadziewski mentioned that some imprisoned Uyghurs have been coerced into applications by which they’re domestically sourced to numerous factories as a result of authorities incentives exist for companies to relocate to Xinjiang.

He mentioned because the variety of imprisoned minorities had grown, so had China’s pressured labor pool.

“What we’re seeing now’s elevated imprisonment, China’s promotion of a story of stability in Xinjiang and we’re seeing this continued use of coercive labor,” he mentioned.

The report additionally mentions a number of instances primarily based on leaked paperwork of Uyghurs being imprisoned for studying the Quran.

In a single case, Aytial Rozi studied the Quran taught it to a gaggle of girls from 2009 to 2011 and was sentenced to jail for 20 years. In one other case, Ezizgul Memet studied the Quran for 3 days in 1976, for which she was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2017.

Zhou Fengsuo, the chief director of Human Rights in China, mentioned that Blinken wasn’t forceful sufficient in elevating human rights to Chinese language officers. Relatively than demanding motion, he struck a “pleading tone, which isn’t that sturdy,” Zhou mentioned, “He’s positively not placing human rights as a precedence on this journey.”

The New York-based group Human Rights in China was among the many 46 teams that urged Blinken to name for the discharge of all political prisoners, together with these in Xinjiang.

Zhou was one of many scholar leaders imprisoned after the protest in Tiananmen Sq. in Beijing in 1989. He mentioned that the human rights state of affairs in China grew to become worse since then.

“The U.S. has made errors up to now by ignoring the human rights state of affairs for too lengthy,” Zhou instructed Medill Information Service.

Ma Ju, a Chinese language Muslim group chief in america, mentioned that what the nation can do is proscribed. “I respect what the U.S. authorities has accomplished for Uyghurs’ human rights, however the U.S. has exhausted its efforts,” Ma mentioned.

China’s oppression of the minority group has continued.

“What the Chinese language regime did was oppress the minority to satisfy the bulk, forming a populist rhetoric,” Ma mentioned, “Chinese language President Xi Jinping used Islamophobia and social Darwinism to concrete the populism regime.”

As a Muslim, Ma mentioned that america’ ethical authority is compromised due to the excessive dying toll of Palestinians in Gaza.

“What occurred to Uyghurs and Palestinians was comparable,” Ma mentioned, “I really feel indignant about America’s double requirements between Uyghurs and Palestinians.”

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