THE WISDOM FUND: News & Views
August 13, 2018
The Intercept

One Million Muslim Uighurs Have Been Detained by China, the U.N. Says. Where's the Global Outrage?

How is this not anything other than one of the biggest, and most underreported, human rights crises in the world today?

by Mehdi Hasan

IT WAS ON September 16, 2001, five days after the 9/11 attacks, that President George W. Bush declared his now-infamous "war on terrorism." Other governments around the world followed suit -- but few matched the speed, intensity, and sheer cynicism with which the autocrats in Beijing aligned themselves with the Bush administration.

Dogged by protests and revolts from a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority called the Uighurs in the vast and autonomous Central Asian border region of Xinjiang -- or East Turkestan, as it is historically referred to by the Uighurs -- the Chinese spotted an opportunity. In the weeks and months after 9/11, Beijing began submitting documents to the United Nations alleging that the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM -- a group that few people had ever heard of, or could even confirm the existence of -- was a "major component of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden" and "an important part of his terrorist forces." By September 2002, both the U.N. and the United States had listed ETIM as a "terrorist organization" -- throwing the Uighurs under the geopolitical bus.

One. Million. People. There are around 11 million Uighurs living in Xinjiang, which means that almost one in 10 of them has been detained.

Fast forward 17 years: On Friday, a panel of U.N. human rights experts said Uighurs in Xinjiang were being treated as "enemies of the state" and announced that it had received credible reports about the "arbitrary and mass detention of almost 1 million Uighurs" in "counter-extremism centers."

One. Million. People. It's an astonishingly high number. In the context of the Uighur population as a whole, it's even more shocking: There are around 11 million Uighurs living in Xinjiang, which means that almost one in 10 of them has been detained, according to the U.N. How is this not anything other than one of the biggest, and most underreported, human rights crises in the world today? . . .

FULL TEXT



Jian Junbo, "Ghost of Marx Haunts China's Riots," Asia Times, July 8, 2009

"China's problems with the Uyghurs," wocomoDOCS, February 15, 2018

[Media outlets from Reuters to The Intercept falsely claimed the UN had condemned China for holding a million Uighurs in camps. The claim is based on unsourced allegations by two independent commission members, US-funded outfits and a shadowy opposition group.--Ben Norton and Ajit Singh, "No, the UN Did Not Report China Has 'Massive Internment Camps' for Uighur Muslims," grayzoneproject.com, August 23, 2018

Tom Embury-Dennis, "China installing QR codes on Uyghur Muslim homes as part of mass security crackdown," independent.co.uk, September 11, 2018

"Xinjiang top official defends Uighur 'internment camps'," bbc.com, October 16, 2018

"China's Hidden Camps," bbc.com, October xx, 2018

[China has detained an estimated one million Uighur Muslims in concentration camps, where they are undergoing re-education programmes allegedly intended to combat extremism.--"Saudi crown prince defends China's right to put Uighur Muslims in concentration camps," telegraph.co.uk, February 22, 2019]

John Sudworth, "China Muslims: Xinjiang schools used to separate children from families," bbc.com, July 4, 2019

Annie Kelly, "'Virtually entire' fashion industry complicit in Uighur forced labour, say rights groups," theguardian.com, July 23, 2019

What's China's 're-education camp' in Xinjiang really about? CGTN, December 29, 2019

Xinjiang: From the eyes of an Australian British who cycled across China, CGTN, August 12, 2020

How China is trying to destroy Islam and Muslims, The Deen Show, August 14, 2020

VIDEO: "China defends detention of Uighur model," BBC News, August 18, 2020

Annie Kelly, "China Secretly Built A Vast New Infrastructure To Imprison Muslims," buzzfeednews.com, August 27, 2020

Helen Davidson, "Thousands of Xinjiang mosques destroyed or damaged, report finds," theguardian.com, September 25, 2020

Ana Swanson, "Nike and Coca-Cola Lobby Against Xinjiang Forced Labor Bill," nytimes.com, November 29, 2020

Ben Norton, "NY Times' pseudo-expert accusing China of genocide worked for far-right cult Falun Gong's publicity arm," thegrayzone.com, January 28, 2021

"Fact Check: Lies on Xinjiang-related issues versus the truth," Xinhua, February 5, 2021

How China Turned the Desert into Green Forests, Innovative Techs, February 27, 2021

US Col. exposes truth on Uyghur Chinese, numuves, March 14, 2021

Fareed Zakaria, "The Pentagon is using China as an excuse for huge new budgets," fareedzakaria.com, March 18, 2021

[The so-called "Xinjiang Uygur question," is nothing but a strategic US plot to destabilize China from the inside, as former US senior official Lawrence Wilkerson has admitted--"Time to end US 'drama' over Xinjiang rumors: Chinese FM," globaltimes.cn, March 26, 2021]

Max Blumenthal debunks US accusation of China's 'genocide' against Uighurs, The Grayzone, March 30, 2021

What is the essence of issues related to Xinjiang? CGTN March 30, 2021

What do three ambassadors talk about Xinjiang with Liu Xin? CGTN, April 27, 2021

US bamboozling reporters about Uyghur truth, RT America, May 14, 2021

George Galloway and Li Jingjing, Xinjiang and West's anti-China Propaganda, RT America, August 4, 2021

Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid on Uyghur Muslims, October 2021

SLOTH-Seventh deadly sin of Western mainstream media, CGTN, June 9, 2022

Alison Killing, How Data-Driven Journalism Illuminates Patterns of Injustice, TED, July 1, 2022 [U.S. seeks justice for Muslims?]

Facts Tell: China's regional ethnic autonomy explained, CGTN, March 19, 2023

Plight of Uyghur Muslims Grows as China Cracks Down on Ramzan Fasting, Vantage with Palki Sharma, April 14, 2023

How China eradicated terrorism and protects Islam, Li Jingjing, July 2, 2023

China Just Did Something CRAZY to Uyghur Muslims, Cyrus Janssen, October 29, 2023

The U.S. wants to ban travel to Xinjiang to stop you seeing the truth, Reports on China, Maarch 13, 2024

back button