Post by Logan on Dec 22, 2019 18:38:52 GMT -6
America can help end religious repression and family separation in western China
Religious freedom, family separations, state use of surveillance technology: these are issues that fuel many Americans’ political engagement. But they are also key aspects of the Chinese government’s repression of 13 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in the northwest region of Xinjiang.
Chinese authorities have long regarded this community’s distinct culture, language, and religion as a threat, invoking the U.S. War on Terror to insist that China faced a major terrorist threat. Over the past decade, Beijing adopted policies ranging from restrictions on whether men could wear long beards to banning certain names that might “exaggerate religious fervor.”
Unlike most governments, which are content to let refugees flee, China increasingly hunted down and pressed other countries to return Uyghurs to Xinjiang, where they faced severe persecution. In response to a number of acts of violence -- no evidence suggests they are linked to organized terrorist groups outside the country -- Beijing has instead opted to punish an entire ethnic group.
In May 2014, China launched its “Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Terrorism” in Xinjiang. In late 2016 it moved a hardline Chinese Communist Party official, Chen Quanguo, from Tibet, where he had introduced a series of repressive policies on another group whose religious beliefs irk the government, to Xinjiang. We now know from New York Times reporting on leaked Chinese government documents that authorities at the national and local level were already under way with a plan to reeducate people across the region. At the time what we could see was the pain and fear of diaspora Turkic Muslim communities around the world, suddenly unable to contact family members inside Xinjiang.
Read more: www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2019/12/22/america-can-help-end-religious-repression-and-family-separation-in-western-china/
Religious freedom, family separations, state use of surveillance technology: these are issues that fuel many Americans’ political engagement. But they are also key aspects of the Chinese government’s repression of 13 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in the northwest region of Xinjiang.
Chinese authorities have long regarded this community’s distinct culture, language, and religion as a threat, invoking the U.S. War on Terror to insist that China faced a major terrorist threat. Over the past decade, Beijing adopted policies ranging from restrictions on whether men could wear long beards to banning certain names that might “exaggerate religious fervor.”
Unlike most governments, which are content to let refugees flee, China increasingly hunted down and pressed other countries to return Uyghurs to Xinjiang, where they faced severe persecution. In response to a number of acts of violence -- no evidence suggests they are linked to organized terrorist groups outside the country -- Beijing has instead opted to punish an entire ethnic group.
In May 2014, China launched its “Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Terrorism” in Xinjiang. In late 2016 it moved a hardline Chinese Communist Party official, Chen Quanguo, from Tibet, where he had introduced a series of repressive policies on another group whose religious beliefs irk the government, to Xinjiang. We now know from New York Times reporting on leaked Chinese government documents that authorities at the national and local level were already under way with a plan to reeducate people across the region. At the time what we could see was the pain and fear of diaspora Turkic Muslim communities around the world, suddenly unable to contact family members inside Xinjiang.
Read more: www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2019/12/22/america-can-help-end-religious-repression-and-family-separation-in-western-china/