China's Rights abuses in Xinjiang: US Congress listens to Uyghur women's harrowing ordeals

Today, two women who claim to have been imprisoned in Chinese "re-education camps" provided firsthand accounts to members of the US Congress, sharing harrowing details and urging Americans not to ignore what the US has deemed a continuing genocide of Muslim ethnic minorities. Speaking before a special House committee at the start of Ramadan, Gulbahar Haitiwaji, an Uyghur woman, stated that during her nearly three years in internment camps and police stations, prisoners were forced to endure 11 hours of "brainwashing education" daily, which included singing patriotic songs and praising the Chinese government before and after meals.

According to Gulbahar Haitiwaji, detainees in Chinese "re-education camps" were punished for speaking in their native Uyghur language and underwent routine interrogations, during which they were hooded and shackled to their chairs. Haitiwaji reported enduring nearly three years of internment. She reported that female prisoners were told they would receive vaccinations, but instead were being sterilised. Haitiwaji added that cameras monitored every move made in the camp, leaving her with a feeling of losing her sense of self and the ability to remember the faces of her family members, after her head was shaved.

A look at what life in "re-education" camps is like

During the same hearing, Qelbinur Sidik, a member of China’s ethnic Uzbek minority and now a human rights activist living in the Netherlands, recounted being coerced by Chinese authorities into teaching classes at one of China’s internment camps. She described the detention facilities, translated from her words, as “like a war zone”, complete with razor wire fencing and armed guards. Sidik also recalled hearing the “horrible screaming sounds” of Uyghur prisoners as they were tortured. Like Haitiwaji, Sidik has lost contact with her family and is unsure whether her husband is still alive.

Republican chair of the House committee, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, stated in opening the hearing that one of the panel’s key objectives was to bring attention to the human rights abuses being carried out by a world superpower. “The least we can do on this committee is to make sure that in 50 years – when the Xinjiang genocide is remembered as one of the abominations of the 21st century … no corporate executive, no policymaker, no investor, no university president can look their grandchildren in the eye and claim they didn’t know," he said, as per a report from the Guardian. 

How CCP took control of Xinjiang

The region of Xinjiang in northwest China has a long and complex history, with a diverse population of various ethnic groups including Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Tibetans. However, since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has gradually gained control over Xinjiang, a process that has involved the suppression of local autonomy, political repression, and even violence.

The CCP's efforts to gain control over Xinjiang can be traced back to the 1940s, when the region was part of the Republic of China. At that time, Xinjiang was governed by a local warlord named Sheng Shicai, who had declared his allegiance to the Soviet Union. The CCP saw an opportunity to expand its influence in the region and sent agents to establish Communist cells among the local Uyghur population.

In 1949, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil War and established the People's Republic of China. The new government quickly moved to assert its control over Xinjiang, and in 1955, it created the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) as a means of appeasing local ethnic groups. However, the XUAR remained under strict CCP control, with the CCP-appointed regional government wielding ultimate authority over the region's political, economic, and social affairs.

The CCP's control over Xinjiang intensified during the Cultural Revolution, a decade-long period of political turmoil and violence that began in 1966. In Xinjiang, as in other parts of China, the CCP launched a campaign to eradicate so-called "class enemies" and "counter-revolutionaries." This campaign resulted in the imprisonment, torture, and execution of thousands of Xinjiang residents, many of whom were Uyghurs.

In the 1980s, the CCP began implementing policies aimed at promoting economic development in Xinjiang, with the goal of integrating the region more fully into the Chinese economy. However, this process was often accompanied by the suppression of local culture and the marginalisation of ethnic minorities. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, tensions between the Uyghur population and the Chinese government boiled over into violence, with a series of bombings, riots, and other acts of unrest taking place in Xinjiang.

In response to these incidents, the CCP intensified its efforts to maintain control over Xinjiang. In 2009, it launched the "Strike Hard" campaign, which aimed to crack down on what it deemed to be separatist activities in the region. This campaign involved mass arrests, the deployment of tens of thousands of paramilitary troops to the region, and the establishment of a vast network of surveillance cameras and other surveillance technologies.

The most recent and most controversial phase of the CCP's efforts to gain control over Xinjiang began in 2014, with the launch of the "People's War on Terror." This campaign was launched in response to a series of violent attacks carried out by Uyghur separatists, and involved the mass detention of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in internment camps. According to reports from human rights organisations and former detainees, these camps are characterised by overcrowding, poor sanitation, and the use of torture and other forms of abuse.

There are also reports which suggest that China has been using Uyghurs as a source of free labour. The US has imposed restrictions on Chinese goods, which at any point in the supply chain, included contribution from forced labour. However, it isn't clear how effective these restrictions are, as China has sought to bypass these restrictions by hiding the role of forced labour. It is hard for American officials to detect which products interacted with forced labour in the supply chain and which products did not. Xinjiang is not the only reason that has paid the price of Han nationalism. Tibet has paid a similar price.