Uyghur Genocide in China: What the UK and its Allies Must Do to Confront the Mass Atrocities
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China’s technologically sophisticated slavery and genocide have pervaded our industries. The UK government can no longer downplay it.

The UK recently enacted the Global Human Rights Sanctions regime announcing the designation of “49 people and organisations for responsibility in some the worst human rights abuses in recent memory.” Notably absent from this list were those individuals responsible for one of the gravest human catastrophes of our time— the Uyghur genocide.

When the Foreign Secretary addressed the Uyghur cause, he used watered-down language, referring to “gross human rights abuses”, and undermining the severity and urgency of the situation. The mass enslavement, systematic forced sterilisation of Uyghur women, kidnapping of Uyghur children, internment and torture of Uyghur men, deserves an urgent response in its own right. The Chinese government is perpetrating genocide as defined under international law, so it deserves a formal declaration as such.

Evidence of genocide is in plain sight, and can be found in Chinese government documents, political speeches, and pronouncements. In 2019, the Chinese government planned to sterilise 80% of child-bearing Uyghur women in Southern Xinjiang with sufficient funding for hundreds and thousands of forced sterilisations.

In a recent interview with BBC’s Andrew Marr, China’s Ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, failed to refute the existence of the concentration camps, or so-called “re-education centres”, a term that now dominates public discourse due to his government’s disinformation campaign. The term “re-education” obfuscates the true nature and stated goals of the camps. The highest levels of the Chinese government repeatedly ordered officials to “break their [Uyghur] lineage”, systematically prevent Uyghur births, and “round up everyone who should be rounded up”, including Ekpar Asat (brother of one of the authors here, Rayhan Asat). It defies logic that a model citizen like Ekpar, who was so well-integrated into Chinese society and even extolled by the Chinese government for his achievements, would require so-called “re-education”. The term is nothing but a euphemism for the physical and mental destruction of the Uyghur people as a whole.

Shown drone footage of Uyghurs blindfolded, shaven, shackled and herded onto trains, Ambassador Liu could not deny its authenticity, but instead, stammering, he sought to downplay the footage as a standard prison transfer. The real motives behind these transfers are far more sinister. Uyghur detainees are taken to new distant concentration camps or forced labour factories in a predominantly Han Chinese environment, further uprooting them from their communities and forcing them to accept their fate. These transfers also allow the Chinese government to destroy evidence of camps where they were previously detained. Therefore, dispatching a UN-led fact-finding mission to preserve evidence of genocide becomes evermore critical.

Powerful business giants, from Wall Street to Dubai’s Financial Hub, and nearly the entire apparel industry, are profiting from the use of Uyghur slavery in their supply chains.

No one should sit idle in the face of genocide, let alone be complicit. Powerful business giants, from Wall Street to Dubai’s Financial Hub, and nearly the entire apparel industry, are profiting from the use of Uyghur slavery in their supply chains. According to the latest research, more than 20% of the world’s entire cotton supply comes from Xinjiang, almost certainly produced by forced Uyghur labour.

Some tech companies even directly provided surveillance technology to sustain what has become the world’s most technologically sophisticated genocide. Huawei, whose network of surveillance extends to foreign markets, including the UK, is a prime example. The UK rightly imposed a freeze on the use of Huawei’s equipment in its 5G networks, although this freeze only takes place in December of this year and existing infrastructure will remain intact for another seven years. This is hardly a practical timeline to counteract technology that “presents a real cybersecurity risk” as emphasised by Robert Hannigan, former head of the British digital surveillance agency, GCHQ.

The partial removal of Huawei is a start, given the clear national security concerns. But the UK must take further steps to respond to the ongoing genocide in Xinjiang.

First, the UK should formally declare that these collective mass atrocities amount to genocide. The government should also form a coalition of concerned countries to dispatch an independent fact-finding mission to Xinjiang to preserve evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Second, the Foreign Office should designate the architects of the genocide for human rights sanctions. These designations will send a message to the Chinese government and influence other countries to impose similar human rights sanctions to secure a measure of accountability for the victims and survivors.

Third, UK enforcement agencies should expand their slavery investigations into investments and businesses originating in China. Nearly every industry may be tainted by Uyghur forced labour due to China’s vast trading network.

Fourth, the UK should appoint a Special Envoy to Xinjiang to monitor the developing genocide, collect evidence, pursue international mechanisms of justice and coordinate a humanitarian response.

Finally, the UK and its allies should consider boycotting the Beijing-hosted 2022 Olympics. A government that is committing genocide should never be allowed to host the community of nations at an event whose purported mission is to build a better world for us all.

Yonah Diamond is legal counsel at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights & Rayhan Asat is a lawyer and the president of the American Turkic International Lawyers Association, and sister of Ekpar Asat.

 

Featured Image: Ekpar Asat
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