The manipulation of Uyghur women in the Han ethnic domination organized by the Chinese government

Temps de lecture : 10 minutes

The manipulation of Uyghur women in the Han ethnic domination organized by the Chinese government

05.08.2020

Written by Mathilde Vo
Translated by Axelle Apostoly

The Uyghur is a muslim minority located in the autonomous region of Xinjiang in North-west China. They are targeted by a discrimatory and oppressive system implemented by the Chinese government to, according to Marc Julienne, researcher at the Asian Center of the French International Relations Institute (IFRI), “fight against terrorism and radicalization^[1]C.Causit, “L’article à lire sur la répression des Ouïghours en Chine”, July 2020, France info, available at : … Continue reading ». The first discriminatory laws against Islam were brought in during the Cultural Revolution^[2]The Cultrual Revolution (1966 – 1976) was to restore the authority of the Communist Party of China. When the revolution broke out, the policy of religious freedom turned into a religious … Continue reading, but the terrorist attacks organized in China by an Uyghur extremist group, called ETIM, are what the Chinese government needed to harden the coercive policy against the entire Uyghur community.

The Chinese government uses fear to justify the acculturation of Uyghurs and to impose upon them the Han culture, the dominant ethnicity, by the creation of “conversion by education camps”. The Xin Jinping’s administration fully endorses those camps where more than 1 million person, according to the latest estimates^[3]S.Nebehay, “1.5 million Muslims could be detained in China’s Xinjiang : academic”, March 2019, Reuters, available at : … Continue reading, are being forcefully held captive. The ambition is to control every aspects the persecuted population’s life. As stated by the Newcastle University Professor Joanne Smith Finley, the Chinese government is inflicting a “slow and painful genocide^[4]B.Sikouk, “La Chine réduit de force la natalité des Ouïghours”, june 2020, Slate. Available at: … Continue reading » to the Uyghurs. Moreover, testimonies confirmed many crimes against the Uyghurs in those “rehabilitation camps”. Omir Bekali^[5]Franceinfo with AFP, “Chine : un rescapé des centres de « rééducation » pour musulmans raconte”, 22 March, 2019, Franceinfo. Available at : … Continue reading, a survivor, explains that first thing in the morning, they had to recite patriotic songs over and over for 30 minutes. He continues “We chanted […] facing a wall” and even if he managed to leave the camp, the songs still ring in his head. This practice is a forced cultural assimilation. According to the sociologist Christophe Bertossi, this assimilation is “used in societies where different is seen as dangerous. It’s imposing the hosting society’s world view to the people considered alien. This process implies the obliteration of the identity background of the newcomers^[6]A.Chemin, « Intégration ou assimilation, une histoire de nuances », Le Monde, 11 November, 2011. Available at : … Continue reading ». In psychology, this practice is not unlike mental manipulation, a method used to “make someone change their ideas and their behavior^[7]UNADFI, La manipulation mentale en psychologie sociale, UNADFI, 22 August, 2014. Available at : … Continue reading ». By making the prisoners repeat mechanically patriotic songs, the Chinese government aims to weaken the Uyghur culture for the benefit of the Han culture. The young survivor also states that they are forced to eat pork, though it’s prohibited in Islam, forced to speak Chinese, and are forbidden to pray or speak another language^[8]UNADFI, La manipulation mentale en psychologie sociale, UNADFI, 22 August, 2014. Available at : … Continue reading. However, this is not where the violence stops, the Uyghurs there are victims of inhuman treatment like gang rapes, torture, forced sterilization or food deprivation^[9]D.Stavrou, Témoignage d’une enseignante dans un camp chinois au pays ouïghour, 10 November, 2019, Mediapart. Available at :  … Continue reading…

Chinese government population control strategies over the Uyghur: pecuniary pressures, forced sterilization, forced interethnic marriage.

The Xi Jinping government plan to eradicate Uyghurs primarily target women. Adrian Zenz^[10]A.Zenz, Sterilizations, Forced Abortions and Madatory Birth Control. The CCP’s Campain to Suppress Uyghur Birthrates in Xinjiang, The Jamestown Foundation, June 2020. Available at : … Continue reading, German anthropologist specialist on the issue, attests in his recent report the use of forced sterilization and forced abortion on Uyghur women. The region of Xinjiang runs a strict birth control campaign for several years now. In 2017, the Chinese government lift the policy of “only one child” for the Han population in order to incite demographic growth. For the Uyghur, it was different, they didn’t have to comply with that law, they could have up to 2 children in urban areas and up to 3 children in rural areas. Before 2015, Uyghurs families who had more children than allowed were penalized by a fine^[11]A.Zenz, Sterilizations, Forced Abortions and Madatory Birth Control. The CCP’s Campain to Suppress Uyghur Birthrates in Xinjiang, The Jamestown Foundation, June 2020. Available at : … Continue reading. But recent studies proved that they couldn’t get more than 2 children even if they lived in a rural area. In fact, the lift of the ban harden the sanction on the Muslim community, women who didn’t respect the quotas are sentenced to a “long-term effectiveness birth control^[12]A.Zenz, Sterilizations, Forced Abortions and Madatory Birth Control. The CCP’s Campain to Suppress Uyghur Birthrates in Xinjiang, The Jamestown Foundation, June 2020. Available at : … Continue reading » which corresponds to a sterilization procedure like an IUD insertion, a tubal ligation^[13]The tubal ligation is a permanent medical procedure preventing eggs and sperm from reaching the Fallopian tubes. or an education measure, so an internment in a rehabilitation camp^[14]A.Zenz, Sterilizations, Forced Abortions and Madatory Birth Control. The CCP’s Campain to Suppress Uyghur Birthrates in Xinjiang, The Jamestown Foundation, June 2020. Available at : … Continue reading. These procedures are forced on Uyghurs women under pain of internment in a camp.

A report published by The Associated Press^[15]The Associated Press,”Chine cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization”, 29 June, 2020, The Associated Press. Available at : https://apnews.com/269b3de1af34e17c1941a514f78d764cwith the test
imony of Gulnar Omirzakh, a Uyghur woman of Kzak origin, the use of these practices. She said “After my third child, the Xinjiang government ordered me to get an IUD^[16]The Associated Press,”Chine cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization”, 29 June, 2020, The Associated Press. Available at : https://apnews.com/269b3de1af34e17c1941a514f78d764c. Two years later, 4 soldiers knocked on my door, imposing me three days to pay 2 685$ for having more than 2 children^[17]The Associated Press,”Chine cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization”, 29 June, 2020, The Associated Press. Available at : https://apnews.com/269b3de1af34e17c1941a514f78d764c. They want to exterminate us”^[18]The Associated Press,”Chine cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization”, 29 June, 2020, The Associated Press. Available at : https://apnews.com/269b3de1af34e17c1941a514f78d764c ». This birth control campaign seems to be working as their number plummeted since 2016 in the cities of Hotan and Kashgar, mainly inhabited by Uyghurs. The Associated Press certifies that between 2015 and 2018, the number of births dropped by 60% in these two cities

The Uyghur Human Rights Project, an organization created by the Uyghur American Association, published, in February 2020, a report based on leaked Xinjiang official documents released in the New York Times in November 2019. This report ^[19]UHRP, “Uyghur Human Rights Project,”Ideological transformation” : records of mass detention from Qaraqash”, Hotan, february 2020, UHRP deals with the rehabilitation camps of the Qaraqash administration in Xinxiang and count the numbers of prisoners and the organization. The statistics show that 91% of the captive are man, so 9% are women. Adrien Zenz states that the women are more likely to be sent in forced labors companies. With these stats and research, we can conclude that the internment in the camps is gendered, the Uyghur women are perceived differently than men Uyghur men. For the 9%, torture and inhuman treatments are part of their daily life. Sayragul Sauytbay, a teacher in political asylum in Sweden, exposes^[20]D.Stavrou, “Témoignage d’une enseignante dans un camp chinois au pays ouïghour”, 10 november, 2019, Mediapart. Available at : … Continue reading the violence in the Xinjiang’s camps. She talks about a “black room”, named like this by the prisoners because they’re not allowed to talk about it explicitly. In it, women and men are tortured for not learning Chinese properly or for refusing to chant the patriotic songs. Women are gang raped, other detained are there watching, if they close their eyes or look away, they get punished. She states that these people “were taken and that they were never seen again^[21]D.Stavrou, “Témoignage d’une enseignante dans un camp chinois au pays ouïghour”, 10 november, 2019, Mediapart. Available at : … Continue reading”. Furthermore, medical procedures are performed on the prisoners, forced to take pills, women stopped having their period and “men became sterile^[22]D.Stavrou, “Témoignage d’une enseignante dans un camp chinois au pays ouïghour”, 10 november, 2019, Mediapart. Available at : … Continue reading”. Ruqiye Perhat, another Uyghur woman exiled in Turkey, explains that she has been raped by guards several times and that “she got pregnant two times, the pregnancies were terminated by force^[23]D.Stavrou, “Témoignage d’une enseignante dans un camp chinois au pays ouïghour”, 10 november, 2019, Mediapart. Available at : … Continue reading”. These testimonies prove the abuses committed in the camps by the Chines government on the Uyghur population.

Outside or inside the camps, the forced sterilizations prove that the Uyghur women are seen as a demographic weapon. They are seen as life-giving and so as the ones who increase the Uyghur’s population, whereas the men are seen as potential terrorists. That’s because of this view that the women are mainly targeted to progressively eliminate the ethnic minority. In addition of the practices mentioned above, the Xinjiang government promote the interethnic marriage between Uyghur women and Han men. They could get monetary reward out of it, or the promise “of the release of detained parents^[24]Asia Times, “Beijing accused of forcing Uyghur han intermarriages”, 29 may, 2018, Asia Times. Available at : … Continue reading”. These marriages are forced, if a Han man proposes to a Uyghur woman, she can’t say no, otherwise she would suffer the consequences, for instance she would be sent to a camp.

By exhorting these interethnic unions, the Chinese society almost promotes Uyghur women. A study by Dru C. Gladney^[25]D.C. Gladney, “Representing Nationality in Chine : Refiguring Majority/Minority Identities”, February 1994, The Journal of Asian Studies 53, n° 1, 92-123., anthropologist, shows that the Han culture eroticizes women from ethnic minorities. The anthropologist explains that in public places, images of naked Han women were very uncommon, but women from a minority are often represented as such^[26]D.Byler, “Uyghur love in a time of interethnic marriage”, 7 August, 2019, SupChina. Available at : … Continue reading.A Han men working for the Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), an economic and semi-military government organization specific to Xinjiang, wrote the manual “How to win the heart of a Uyghur girl ?^[27]D.Byler, “Uyghur love in a time of interethnic marriage”, 7 August, 2019, SupChina. Available at : … Continue reading ». He starts with his views on the Uyghurs women and their beauty, he then describes them as perfect brides and ideals housewives.

Furthermore, the men of the XPCC are invited to spend a week in Uyghurs homes to work and take part in the family life^[28]O.Romelot, “Des femmes ouïghoures forcées de dormir avec hommes envoyés par le régime chinois”, November 2019, Slate. Available at : … Continue reading. And so,1,1 million Chinese officials (mostly Han) were sent in Xinjiang^[29]D.Byler, “Uyghur love in a time of interethnic marriage”, 7 August, 2019, SupChina. Available at : Available at : … Continue reading. One executive attest that the men are welcomed to share the women’s bed but that “none of them complained^[30]O.Romelot, « Des femmes ouïghoures forcées de dormir avec hommes envoyés par le régime chinois », November 2019, Slate. Available at : … Continue reading ». Dokun Isa, president of the Uyghur world congress, states that this program “turned Uyghurs home into a prison that they can’t leave^[31]O.Romelot, « Des femmes ouïghoures forcées de dormir avec hommes envoyés par le régime chinois », November 2019, Slate. Available at : … Continue reading ». Thus, the Chinese government does everything to incite Han men to marry Uyghur women, so that in the long run, the Uyghur population completely disappear from the Chinese territory.

The inaction of the international community in the face of inhuman and degrading treatments that the Uyghurs are enduring.

Only a handful of countr
ies spoke about the issue. The Uyghur are Sunni Muslims, so many Shiite Muslims countries stayed silent. Turkey had expressed interest in the matter but, according to Emmanuel Lincot^[32]Emmanuel Lincot, “Persécutions des Ouïghours en Chine : “Les Ouïghours sont aux avant-postes d’une politique globale de surveillance””, décembre 2019, Interview de Emmanuel Lincot. … Continue reading, expert on political and cultural history of the contemporary China, the Erdogan government backtracked following the Sino-Russian rapprochement, and the project of New Silks Roads. Only the U.S.A. took important action against China, in September 2019, the United States Senate voted the “Uyghur Act of 2019^[33]The Guardian, “US House approves Uighar Act calling for sanctions on Chine’s senior officials”, The Guardian, 2019. Available at : … Continue reading » requesting the POTUS to condemn the abuses against the Uyghur and to call for the closure of the massive detention camps in Xinjiang. In June 2020, the revised version “Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020” was passed as a law and include a plan to investigate the severe repression of the Uyghur in Xinjiang.

On July 21, 2020, in the French Assemblée Nationale, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the foreign minister, strongly condemns the repressive system against the Uyghur. He explains “We are currently asking China to allow international independent observer in the area and that the UN High Commissioner visit Xinjiang freely^[34]M.Tellier, Comprendre la répression des Ouïghours par la Chine en quatre points clés, France culture, 26 July, 2020. Available at : … Continue reading ».In spite of this declaration, for now no sanction were taken by France against China.

On the other hand, the Asian Giant government decided to deny the accusations, they know that their growing importance on the world stage makes them untouchable. Since 2011, China has the second largest GDP in the world, and is also the biggest trading power, taking the place of the USA that were in the position since the end of World War II.

From a legal point of view, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) defines a genocide as such “the intentional action to destroy a people – usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group – in whole or in part:

a) Killing members of the group;
b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction;
d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group^[35]Rome Statute, 2002, Available at : https://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/ADD16852-AEE9-4757-ABE7-9CDC7CF02886/283948/RomeStatuteFra1.pdf

According to this definition, by controlling the birth in Xinjiang, the Chinese government is carrying a genocide. However, this Statute was never ratified nor signed by any Chinese government, so the ICC lacks jurisdiction over these crimes. The only way to sentence China and end this genocide would be to refer the case to the United Nations Security Council that would then take the matter to the ICC, the Security Council having the power to judge the crimes of a non-Rome Statute state^[36]Article 13, Rome Statute, 2002. But again, it’s unlikely this particular organ of the UN take action since China is a member and has a right of veto.

Faced with these difficulties to invoke the international justice, many intellectuals criticize the inaction and try to convince the governments to act. In January 2020^[37]R. Glucksmann, Ouïghours : l’effacement d’un peuple, jaguar 2020, Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L98ZQ3Cn8UY [1], in front of the European Parliament, the MEP Raphaël Glucksmann called for awareness from the EU states. Also, Dilnur Reyhan, president of the European Uyghur Institute and teacher at l’INALCO, recently launched a call for the solidarity of feminists against the inhuman treatment that are inflicted to Uyghur women. She says “I’m still waiting on the feminist’s solidarity with the Uyghur women^[38]D.Reyhan, « J’attends toujours la solidarité des féministes envers les femmes ouïgoures », 23 July, 2020, Le Monde. Available at : … Continue reading ». With these public stances, we yet have to see if France, or more broadly the international community, are going to take real action to end this genocide.

To quote this article : Mathilde VO, “The manipulation of Uyghur women in the Han ethnic domination organized by the Chinese government”, 05.08.2020, Gender in Geopolitics Institute.