By Austin Maho PhD
Xinjiang for some reasons is always in radar the of western media outfits for the wrong reasons.
In recent weeks after a long lull, it was the airing of satellite images of what analyst described as a leak detailing what was described as documentary evidence of Beijing’s role in an internment camp in western Xinjiang that gained media spotlight.
Two purportedly leaked internal Chinese Communist party documents allegedly showed how the Communist party rounded up a large proportion of Uighur, Kazakh and other mostly Muslim minorities in the western region of Xinjiang and sent them to transformation-through-education camps that were set up to prevent escape.
The files which have doubtful origins once again shows the determination by some western media who have launched a smear campaign against China on the handling of its volatile Xinjiang region.
Worrying is the deliberate attempt to stir the debate to human rights issues while ignoring the substantive issues of security and sovereignty of the Chinese state to deal with its own internal security challenges.
To the credit of the Chinese government it has substantially crafted a home grown solution to separatism and violent extremism that has defied solutions in most parts of the world.
It is on record that from 2012 to 2016 China probably experienced the worst form of violent extremism and separatism in its recent history. Incidentally, virtually all the cases were linked to the Uyghurs of Xinjiang region of China, who are also the largest ethic Muslim in China.
Violent attacks, by Muslim extremist was a dominant feature of China from 2012 to 2016, with about 542 deaths and 682 injured.
This was the tipping point, the Chinese government’s war on ethic separatists, and Islamists in Xinjiang province with its “strike hard” campaign was designed to use soft power rather than hard power to deal with the problem of terrorism.
It is a policy of carrot and stick which focuses on mobilising the strength of the citizens in countering extremism.
As part of the comprehensive approach to the problem, the Chinese government had set up vocational training centres across Xinjiang region, with the primary objective of skill acquisition, de-radicalisation and re-integration into the Chinese society.
These training facilities has however been denounced by the West, especially critics in the United States who describe these camps as concentration camps and accuses the Chinese government of human rights violation. They view these camps as holding facilities for indoctrination where the occupants are denied of all rights.
In the face of Western propaganda against its policy in Xinjiang province, China has undertaken a lot of push back as a way of countering the narrative. Earlier this year, the Chinese government invited Vladimir Voronkov, the United Nations under-secretary general for counter terrorism, to Xinjiang on an assessment visit. He is the highest UN official to have visited the region.
Aside the UN top Chief, China has also opened its doors to journalists and other foreign officials, to demonstrate that it has nothing to hide. They have been invited into Xingjiang’s training camps and many of them have expressed satisfaction with condition irrespective of concerns raised by some western nations.
It is noteworthy that there have been no violent attacks in China since the setting up of these camps. The training camps have become a workable solution to an indigenous problem, which can become a model to other parts of the world who are facing problem of extremism and terrorism. Besides China has always insisted that these facilities are purely for skill acquisition, and reintegration into society. The participants are not held against their will as they are free to go in and out as they please during the cause of their study.
The logic to this philosophy is simple, rather than use the enormous power of state to crush violent extremism and dissidents, why not engage a policy of ideological reorientation and in the process equip the Uyghurs, with life skill, integrate them into the mainstream of Chinese society and make them valuable to themselves and others.
How can the West question this approach which has shown itself to be a practical solution to one that has remained intractable in other parts of the world? If the Chinese government has confronted the problem with its full military might the West would have had more grounds to criticise the Chinese government. China has chosen to use soft power instead to deal with the problem and the outcome is self-evident.
Ironically the US that criticises the Chinese model has built immigration detention facilities across the United States, where immigrants are held in captivity against their will. Under the current U.S. administration, immigration issues have been rapidly politicized, and thousands of migrant children have been held in custody and forcefully separated from their parents.
There are inherent contradictions within the United States that the Trump administration chooses to ignore but rather focuses on the internal dynamics of other nations.
Interestingly while legislating on the internal affairs of other countries, like the recent case of Hong Kong, it has repeatedly resisted the supervision and investigation of the United Nations (UN) and other international organizations on its inhumane immigration policies and practices.
Only recently, Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a statement criticising the inhuman conditions of U.S. detention facilities for illegal immigrants, which amounted to a breach of UN convention.
Regrettably, this statement and several others condemning the appalling conditions of U.S illegal immigrant facilities has not drawn the ire of the international community neither has it drawn the attention of the international media. When it concerns the United States there is always an eerie silence that is almost a conspiracy.
Long before the US immigration detention facilities there was the scandalous “Guantanamo Bay”; an island outside US law where terrorism suspects could be detained without process and interrogated without restraint.
A prison camp that has become a symbol of injustice, abuse, and disregard for the rule of law and human rights.
Since the prison camp opened in 2002, almost 800 men have passed through its cells. In addition to unlawful detention, many were subjected to torture and other brutal treatment. It is estimated that as at today, 41 men are still held in the facility, nearly all held without charge or trial.
While the world is yet to fully come to grasp with the atrocities of US service men in Guantanamo, President Donald Trump has ordered that Guantanamo Bay military prison should remain open indefinitely: Is this decision born out of the need to protect human rights or to suppress human rights?
The United States war on Terrorism and Islamist, puts a blight on its human rights records and shows its penchant for double standards on global affairs. When it concern the US and its allies every thing goes but when it concerns others new set or rules are applied.
Unfortunately, the global media always play to the gallery and slant its editorial policies to favour the US and western hegemony while ignoring damning cases of human rights violation within the US.
The U.S., has always chanted human rights slogans and criticized other countries for violating human rights, but turn a deaf ear to human rights tragedies which are the direct result of its own action or inaction
As of March this year, the UN special rapporteurs on human rights reportedly filed as many as 22 documents of formal inquiries into the various human rights issues in the U.S., according to the reports by the Guardian and other media. The U.S., is yet to respond to any of them.
Besides, the UN experts on human rights have made repeated requests to visit the U.S.-Mexico border after the inhumane treatment of immigrants there attracted worldwide attention, but such requests haven’t been granted by the Trump administration, such vault face is consistent with US policy.
What is worrisome is the attempt by the US administration to put on a sanctimonious façade when dealing with human rights issues in other countries as its obsession with Hong Kong and events in Xinjiang has demonstrated.
The media especially the western media should be circumspect in shouting wolf where none really exist. The Chinese government has long ago conceded to the fact that it was building training and vocational facilities in Xingjiang as a way of deradicalising ethic Uyghurs who have taken to radical Islam, as a step towards reorientation and reintegration into society. If the plan is working as it seems to be, so be it, but trying to frame the issue as one of human rights violation is clearly mischievous. The so called Xinjiang, leaks offer no new information other than that already in the public domain
