The piece in question is "There
is now more evidence than ever that China is imprisoning Uighurs". I share
my investigation with others because this article was shared with me and I
wanted to show how the typical news article holds up to honest and earnest
inquiry. Keep in mind that the title claims there is more evidence than ever when trying to follow the links provided for actual evidence.
The first thing I noticed is the writer is not a journalist working for The Guardian but a researcher for Australian Strategic Policy Institute. So whatever he writes is going to be in accord with the agenda of the think tank that employs him and the people who finance him. I am guessing you will not find any article coming from the ASPI that in any significant way contradicts the opinions of Nathan Ruser. I’m willing to bet the opinion of Nathan Ruser was not sought out by the Guardian but was sent to them as a press release which they saw fit to publish, their full reasoning I do not wish to speculate on.
Whenever I research a think tank, I try to find their funding sources because that tells a lot about what their findings will be. The funding list is somewhat obscure but it is undeniable that it is mainly funded by the military. 17% of their funding is coming from foreign governments. They do not admit to which ones, but I suspect China is not one and the U.S. and perhaps Britain are.
Researching ASPI further, I came upon this article from Counter Punch, by Binoy Kampmark. While not going too deeply into his background, Kampmark is an Australian professor and lecturer. As far as I know he has no ties to or funding from China and seems a pretty independent thinker. Let me provide you with a few quotes from his article, all of which is worthy of a read:
“In conducting this exercise, accuracy can become the logical casualty. The security think tank often acts as an operational mercenary. The funders want advice that confirms and affirms a position; the advising think tank wants continued funding. Such a match is a poison for contrarian assessments. The think tank thereby operates in circles more reminiscent of astrology, seeing patterns where there are none, and impressing their funders that a threat exists on a scale not previously thought possible. This ensures more funding and future projects.”
The amazing thing cyber journalism offers that print journalism never did is hyperlinks. I am impressed by the ability of independent journalists to use this to great effect. Read a Caitlin Johnstone piece sometime and see how she is able to bolster her case by providing indisputable evidence through hyperlinks. I am likewise disappointed at the poor manner in which corporate journalism tends to use them. More often, they lead me on a wild goose chase that goes nowhere.
Case in point: The first hyperlink Ruser uses is attached to the words “about 10%”, as in “By most estimates, about 10% of Uighurs and other Muslim nationalities in Xinjiang have found themselves arbitrarily detained in these camps.” So I clicked on the link in order to find the source of the estimates, because I like to think my overriding agenda is to know the truth and I want to know where he got that figure. It links to this article. The article itself provides little more information on the assertion. What little it does provide is this sentence, along with another hyperlink: “Around 10% of the Uighur population is locked up, according to the U.S. Government and human rights organizations.” A pretty cheap and misleading use of a hyperlink, if you ask me, but undoubtedly effective for the majority who trust what they read from corporate journalism. Nevertheless, in a desire to be fair and follow the trail to its end, I clicked on the provided hyperlink.
I read through the article and came upon this statement: “Up to 1 million ethnic Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslims are held in Xinjiang’s camps, according to a U.N. report released in August.” (Here I wish to relate to you that this was not as I saw it earlier in the day, where there was no hyperlink and I remember it being phrased differently. This could be due to the fact that I was looking at it on my Kindle rather than my computer and the fact that I remembered wrong, but it could also be due to the fact that, unlike print articles, cyber articles can be and often are changed to fit an evolving narrative).
So, having read the entirety of the 7000+ word document proposed to show that “Up to 1 million ethnic Uighurs” and others are held in Xinjiang’s camps, below is what I’ve found to be of any interest. By the way, the fact that I, a blue collar worker not being paid for my efforts, am doing the work paid journalists should have been doing if they were interested in informing the readers, is an indictment of the journalist community as a whole. Because not one person but many people have failed in providing you with useful information that was easily accessible. I’m pretty sure that’s what journalists are paid to do.
Below is the UN document used as evidence of the figure of one million Uyghurs in camps. I have omitted many aspects of it that relate to other regions of China, such as Hong Kong and Macao. I fully expect you to skip over all but the bits I have highlighted, but I have included the rest in case you doubt my thoroughness or my intent. In fact, I recommend you skip this section entirely, because there is no relevant information in it, but I wanted to show you I took the time to read through it and comment where appropriate, even pointing out a couple of spelling errors.
Committee Experts, in the dialogue that followed,
congratulated China for creating extraordinary prosperity and lifting hundreds
of millions of people out of poverty, including in the eight multi-ethnic
provinces and regions, but remained concerned over the growing inequality,
particularly for ethnic minorities who continued to disproportionally
experience poverty. China was lacking an anti-racial discrimination
law and a national human rights institution in line with the Paris Principles,
while the recent Foreign Non-Governmental Organization Management Law and the
Charity Law imposed restrictions on the funding and operations of domestic
non-governmental organizations. A great source of concern was racial
discrimination in the context of laws fighting terrorism, separatism and
extremism, particularly against Tibetans, Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.
In the name of combatting “religious extremism” and maintaining “social
stability”, an Expert said citing “credible sources”, China had turned the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region into something that resembled a massive
internment camp shrouded in secrecy, a “no rights zone”, while members of the
Xinjiang Uyghur minority, along with others who were identified as Muslim, were
being treated as enemies of the State based on nothing more than their
ethno-religious identity. Experts recognized China’s vigorous efforts to
promote education among ethnic minorities, and in this context raised
concerns about the quality of and access to education in ethnic minority areas
and the provision of bilingual education for ethnic minorities, which was
sometimes at the detriment of ethnic languages.
In conclusion, Yu Jianhua, Permanent Representative of China to the United
Nations at Geneva, said that eliminating racial discrimination was a daunting
task facing the international community, and reiterated China’s commitment to
ethnic equality and solidarity and to conscientious implementation of the
Convention.
Report
The Committee has before it the combined fourteenth to seventeenth periodic
report of China CERD/C/CHN/14-17.
Presentation of the Report
YU JIANHUA, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations Office at
Geneva, said that since its last review by this Committee in 2009, China had
made great progress and had entered a new phase in its development. A
strong sense of community for the Chinese nation guided China’s work in the new
era, said Mr. Yu, noting that Han and the other 55 ethnic groups made up one
Chinese nation. The March 2018 changes to the Constitution reflected more
fully the features of ethnic policy whose most important features were ethnic
equality and solidarity, and inter-ethnic mutual assistance and harmony for
common prosperity and the realization of the Chinese dream on national
rejuvenation. China continued to steadfastly develop the system of
regional ethnic autonomy, and the ethnic legal framework had taken shape, underpinned
by the Constitution and supplemented by the Law on Regional National Autonomy.
Law-based governance had been pursued vigorously since 2012 to protect
the legitimate rights and interests of people of all ethnic groups, and over 20
laws and administrative regulations had been adopted which provided for the
prohibition of ethnic discrimination or hatred and the promotion of ethnic
equality. Autonomous ethnic regions had enacted or amended over 20
regulations on the exercise of autonomy, thus further improving the legal
framework on ethnic affairs, while 14.7 per cent of the deputes to the National
People’s Congress were ethnic minorities, higher than the proportion of ethnic
minorities in the overall population.
In recent years, the Government had made great efforts to bridge the
developmental gap between ethnic and other areas and the Thirteenth Five-Year
Plan of Economic and Social Development 2016-2020 included sections on the
promotion of the healthy development of ethnic areas and the development and
opening of border regions. In 2017, in five autonomous regions - Inner
Mongolia, Guangxi, Tibet, Ningxia and Xinjiang – and three multi-ethnic
provinces – Guizhou, Yunnan and Qinghai – the economy had made significant
progress and people’s living standards continued to rise. The population
living in poverty went down from 31 million in 2012 to 10 million, and the
poverty rate dropped from 34 per cent to six per cent. Supported by
economic growth, health, education, cultural and ecological preservation
programmes had also made headway, and the Government remained committed to
protecting and promoting the cultures of ethnic minorities. Some ethnic
areas were still lagging behind, said Mr. Yu, adding that China was at a
crucial phase of poverty eradication and that it needed to further address
livelihood, health, education, protect the environment, and improve the legal
framework for ethnic autonomy. The implementation of the Convention on
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was a major contributing factor to the
realization of the Chinese dream through the united effort of all the ethnic
groups in China, and China stood ready to enhance the cooperation with the
Committee.
(Refers to Hong Kong and is therefore irrelevant to the
article)
CHEUNG DOI-CHING, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China, said that
there were some 250,000 ethnic minority members in Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region of China. In order to strengthen their adaptation
and social integration, sometimes difficult due to language and cultural
differences, a steering committee had been set up in 2018 to coordinate and
review the support for ethnic minorities, and Hong Kong $ 500 million had been
earmarked for support services in the 2018-19 budget. Chinese was being
taught as a second language in primary and secondary schools since the 2014/15
academic year to help non-Chinese speakers and facilitate their joining to
mainstream Chinese language classes as early as possible, thus providing them
with more opportunities to pursue studies and career. The funding to
schools to facilitate the implementation of the Chinese language as the second
language framework had been increased to over Hong Kong $ 200 million per year
since the 2014/15 school year. The Government attached great importance
to providing ethnic minorities with equal opportunities in seeking employment,
including through dedicated employment services provided by the Labour
Department and dedicated training courses to meet career aspirations by the Employees
Retaining Board. Under the labour laws, foreign domestic workers enjoyed
the same employment rights and protection as local workers in relation to rest
days, paid holidays, annual leave, sickness allowance, maternity protection,
and severance payment. In March 2018, the action plan to tackle
trafficking in persons and to enhance the protection of foreign domestic
helpers had been promulgated in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of
China.
(Refers to Macao, and is therefore irrelevant to this article)
LIU DEXUE, Director of the Legal Affairs Bureau, Macao
Special Administrative Region of China, reaffirmed that all persons in Macao
Special Administrative Region of China or subject to its jurisdiction were
equal before the law, irrespective of their nationality, descent, race, sex,
language, religion, political views and other grounds. This cornerstone
principle was expressly stipulated in the Basic Law, and rights to equality and
non-discrimination were enshrined in the legal system by a diversity of
sources, and everyone was equal before the law and through the law.
Illegitimate subjective discrimination was prohibited, and positive
discrimination was only admissible under the law to correct de facto inequalities.
Of the 650,000 inhabitants, 170,000 were non-resident workers, thus Macao
Special Administrative Region of China, a city of tourism and culture, embraced
the values of tolerance and respect for cultural diversity; every ethnic group
shared the same dignity and was entitled to its own cultural life, to practice
its own religion and to use its own language. The public consultation
mechanism for government policies and future legislation was an important tool
to engage the population in public affairs, including different ethnic and minority
groups. The Commissioner against Corruption accumulated other Ombudsman
functions, including to promote and protect rights and freedoms, safeguard
interests of individuals, and ensure that the exercise of public powers abided
by the criteria of justice, legality and efficiency. The Commissioner
could directly propose to the Chief Executive the enactment of normative acts,
their amendment or repeal, and could conduct inquiries and issue
recommendations and redress measures.
Questions by the Country Rapporteurs
NICOLÁS MARUGÁN, Committee Rapporteur for China, congratulated China for
creating extraordinary prosperity and lifting hundreds of millions of people
out of poverty over the past 30 to 40 years: between 500 and 767 million
according to the World Bank, including in the eight multi-ethnic provinces and
regions where the incidence of poverty had dropped from 26 per cent in 2011 to
12 per cent in 2015. However, ethnic minorities continued to suffer
the greater rate of poverty and inequality: they represented 8.49 of the total
population but made up around one third of the poor in China. (ME:In
the United States, Hispanics make up 18% of the population but are 28% of those
living in poverty) In its National Human Rights Action Plan
2016-2020, China had acknowledged the very high levels of inequality, said the
Rapporteur, noting that the GINI coefficient in the distribution of net
household income had grown from 0.28 in 1981 to 0.49 in 2007. Was ethnic
disaggregated data on poverty available?
What measures were in place to ensure that laws aiming to fight terrorism,
separatism and extremism did not undermine the non-discrimination
provisions of the Convention and those contained in the Constitution and the
Law on Regional National Autonomy protecting ethnic minorities? Mr.
Marugán asked the delegation to explain why there were very few complaints of
racial discrimination in China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of
China and Macao Special Administrative Regions of China, and to explain how the
under-reporting of hate crimes was being addressed.
There were reports that the situation of Tibetans and Uyghurs was deeply
problematic, and that most ethnic minorities in China were exposed to serious
human rights challenges. In Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
of China, despite having one of the highest rates of gross domestic product per
capita in the world, inequality had worsened and the rate of ethnic minorities
living in poverty had increased from 15.8 per cent in 2011 to 19.4 in 2016,
while the poverty rate among South Asians was at 25.7 per cent, with Pakistanis
registering the rate of 56 per cent. The Rapporteur reiterated the
concern expressed in 2016 by the Committee against Torture about cases of
torture, deaths in custody, arbitrary detention and disappearance of Tibetans,
Uyghurs and Mongolians. Would China impartially investigate officials
implicated in such cases and bring them to justice?
GAY MCDOUGALL, Committee Co-Rapporteur for China, raised concern
about the numerous and credible reports that in the name of combatting
“religious extremism” and maintaining “social stability”, the State party had
turned the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region into something that resembled a
massive internment camp shrouded in secrecy, a “no rights zone”, while members
of the Xinjiang Uyghur minority, along with others who were identified as
Muslim, were being treated as enemies of the State based on nothing more than
their ethno-religious identity. The Co-Rapporteur noted reports of mass
detention of ethnic Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities, and estimates
that upwards of a million people were being held in so-called counter-extremism
centres and another two million had been forced into so-called “re-education
camps” for political and cultural indoctrination (this mentions the reports but
we still do not know the source of the allegation. And this is not the position
of the UN as a body but the assertion of a single American). All the
detainees had their due process rights violated, while most had never been
charged with an offense, tried in a court of law, or afforded an opportunity to
challenge the legality of their detention.
Reports further indicated, continued Ms. McDougal, that the State party was
making even the most common-placed expressions of ethno-religious significance
to Muslims into a penal offence, including daily greetings, possession of
certain Halal products, and growing a full beard or wearing a full-face
headscarf. Recent amendments to the legal framework appeared designed to
enable even greater control of Xinjiang Uyghur and other minority groups; the
Criminal Law amendments, the National Security Law of 2015, the
Counter-Terrorism Law of 2016, the Cybersecurity Law of 2017, and the Religious
Affairs Regulations Law amended in 2018, established imprecise and too broad
definitions on national security offences related to “terrorism” and
“extremism” that enabled abusive, arbitrary and discriminative prosecution and
conviction.
VERENE SHEPHERD, Committee Co-Rapporteur for China, recognized China’s vigorous
efforts to promote education among ethnic minorities, as well as the education
on ethnic unity in the country, and expressed concern about the failure in the
implementation of some policies. The Committee’s main concerns related to
the quality of education, provision of bilingual education for ethnic minorities,
improving literacy rates in ethnic minority areas, and ensuring access to
education for ethnic minority children. Was there ethnically
disaggregated data and statistics available on school enrolment and on drop
outs?
Questions by Other Experts
GUN KUT, Committee Rapporteur for Follow-up to Concluding Observations,
commended China for the timely provision of the follow-up report to the
Committee’s concluding observations issued after the 2009 review. China
had implemented the recommendation to extend the national human rights plan,
and the Committee wished to hear more about its results and outcomes. The
second theme for follow up concerned re-education in labour camps, which in law
had been abolished but had – alarmingly - continued in practice in different
shapes and forms. The Committee had asked China to ensure that lawyers
exercised their profession freely, particularly in cases involving human rights
violations. China had amended the Lawyers Law, however, the harassment
and intimidation of human rights lawyers, including disbarment and
administrative sanctions of various sorts, continued. Was this true?
Other Experts asked about concrete measures taken to combat poverty in rural
areas and the legal justification for counter-terrorism activities against
the Tibetans and their religious practices. The Committee was
concerned that China continued to deny refugee status to asylum-seekers
from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and it also continued to
forcibly return them to their country of origin, regardless of a serious threat
of persecution and human rights violations. Also, China failed to
establish a mechanism for refugee recognition and determination of refugee
status.
Experts also raised the issue of statelessness, particularly for children
abandoned by their Chinese fathers, and the situation of non-recognised ethnic
groups, which – due to their non-recognition – found it hard to have a voice
and representation. The Committee was concerned about the situation in
Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and the reports of surveillance and
harassment of peaceful protesters opposing mining, deforestation and other
activities causing environmental degradation, as well as about mass
resettlement of ethnic Mongolians to make place for development activities.
The delegation was asked whether ethnic minorities recognized themselves in the
portrayal of ethnic minorities in the media, the plans to eliminate by 2020 the
difference between agricultural and non-agricultural workers, and the situation
in accessing health services, particularly ante-natal services, for ethnic
minorities. What level of religious freedom was available to Uyghurs
and how was the practicing of their religion protected?
What was being done to extend protection to the defectors from the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea, including from refoulement, and to protect them
from trafficking and exploitation in China?
Questions by the Country Rapporteurs
VERENE SHEPHERD, Committee Co-Rapporteur for China, said that the use of
bilingual education seemed to have completely displaced the use of Uyghur
language in education. What was being done to protect the use of ethnic
languages? What policies were in place to support Portuguese or Macanese
speakers in learning Chinese and so enable them to take advantage of the rapid
development of the Macao Special Administrative Region of China? The
Committee was concerned about the laws and attitudes towards the use of the
Tibetan language in schools and everyday life.
GAY MCDOUGALL, Committee Co-Rapporteur for China, asked the delegation to
explain the grounds on which Uyghurs were sent to re-education camps, which
laws they had violated and were there police reports of those violations.
What were the current circumstances of Uyghurs who, following the
issuing of the 2017 directive, returned to China, voluntarily or not, from
their studies abroad, including in Egypt, Turkey and Thailand?
Replies by the Delegation
YU JIANHUA, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations Office at
Geneva, said that as a developing multi-ethnic country with a large population,
there was still room for improvements in China, which was why China accorded
importance to the work of this Committee. The Government was making a
mid-term assessment of the implementation of the National Human Rights Action
Plan, said Mr. Yu, emphasising (sic) that the right of ethnic minorities
to participate in political affairs had been guaranteed. All 55 ethnic
groups were represented in the National People’s Congress and the Chinese
People’s Political Consultative Conference, where they accounted for 14.7 per
cent of the delegates. Poor populations in ethnic minority areas had
dropped from 14 million in 2016 to 10 million in 2017, and education for ethnic
minorities had developed rapidly, as rural students were exempted from all
tuition and fees for compulsory education and the public funding for primary
and secondary schools in rural areas had been increased.
The Belt and Road Initiative had greatly opened up ethnic minority areas
and was serving as a driver of development there. The Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region served as a core area on the Silk Road Economic Belt, and
remarkable achievements had been made in ethnic minorities areas, for example,
Xinjiang had become a major corridor of energy and resources on land, a
large-scale base of coal, coal-fired electricity and coal chemical industry, a
large-scale wind power base, and a hub for transportation and commercial
logistics.
Instead of establishing a stand-alone national human rights institution, China
had designated the human rights promotion and protection responsibilities to
different departments, for example, the Office of Letter and Calls of People’s
Congress and Governmental departments at all levels to investigate and handle
human rights violations. The State Ethnic Affairs Commission bore
significant responsibility for protecting and promoting the rights of ethnic
minorities.
Citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who illegally
entered China were dealt with in accordance with international law, domestic
laws, and humanitarian principles. These individuals had entered China
for economic reasons and did not qualify as refugees as defined by the Refugee
Convention. China provided such individuals with a great deal of
humanitarian assistance, therefore their exploitation and maltreatment did not
exist.
Poverty-stricken areas were mainly located in the central and western regions
of China due to historical reasons, and within the same region, poverty did not
differentiate between different ethnic minorities. The population of the
12 provinces where ethnic minorities were concentrated was 347 million, or 27
per cent of the total population, but only 16 million of that population were
poor. Extraordinary measures had been adopted to lift ethnic minorities
out of poverty, including additional state funding: 60 per cent of the central
Government’s additional funding in 2018 was earmarked for the three regions and
three prefectures, to benefit the 3 million poor. For ethnic minorities,
the past five years had witnessed the fastest increase in living standards,
reaffirmed the delegation.
Laws such as Amendments to the Criminal Law, the National Security Law, the
Counter-Terrorism Law and the Cyber-Security Law of China stipulated the
measures and procedures to safeguard national security, public security and the
security of people’s lives and property. Provisions of the laws, said the
delegate, were specific and clear and there was no so-called ambiguity in the
provisions concerning national security.
Another delegate explained the system of complaints for discrimination by
ethnic minorities and said that the central Government had instructed
sub-governments on handling of ethnic discrimination, direct and indirect.
To ensure the implementation, special long-term inspection projects had
been set up, such as the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of
China, the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Public Security,
and others. Some local authorities had set up community legal aid centres
and made hotlines available to ethnic minorities. Any victim of criminal
behaviour had the right to report such events to the public security organs,
who took measures to stop the crime and impose sanctions on the offenders, or
to transfer the case to judicial organs for criminal punishment.
Starting from 1949, the Chinese Government had identified 55 ethnic minorities
through an ethnic identification process, and had ensured their rights on an
equal footing. There were no unrecognized ethnic minorities in
China, but there were 600,000 unidentified people, who still fully and equally
enjoyed their rights, even if their ethnic identities had not been recognized
due to complex reasons, said the delegate.
The purpose of the Non-Governmental Organizations Management Law and the
Charity Law was to protect the legitimate rights and interests of all
individuals and organizations involved in charity activities, including foreign
non-governmental organizations, the delegation said. Public security
organs, civil affair departments and other relevant departments at all levels
had made great efforts to facilitate the activities of foreign non-governmental
organizations operating in China in accordance with the law. The Ministry
of Civil Affairs had recently rolled out regulations enabling it to serve as a
competent department to facilitate non-governmental organizations’ activities.
In recent years, China had been studying the possibility of formulating
domestic laws governing the application for and the recognition of refugee
status. The Exit and Entry Administration Law of 2012 had a clause that
allowed for the issuance of certificates of temporary stay for people who
applied for refugee status, and certificates of residence to those whose
applications were approved. According to the United Nations Refugee
Agency in China, in June 2018, there were 943 refugees in the country as well
as asylum-seekers from 46 countries.
As a permanent member of the International Labour Organization, China was
serious and responsible about ratifying its Conventions, and had expressly
banned forced labour. China would step up its efforts to research the
possibility of ratifying the conventions on industrial and commercial labour
supervision and on domestic workers.
Bilingual education of ethnic minorities was a concrete measure to respect
and guarantee the right of ethnic minorities to receive education in their own
languages and to enable ethnic minorities to master the commonly-used language,
in order to ensure their equal enjoyment of political life and the fruits of
the country’s economic development. In some ethnic minority areas, the
local people used ethnic minority languages in the daily life, and the
popularity of the commonly-used language was still relatively low. China
was strengthening the education of the commonly-used language and characters
and strove to make ethnic minority students master both languages.
Bilingual education in Xinjiang and Tibet was fully guaranteed in terms
of bilingual teachers, curricula, textbooks and class time. The
statements that “Xinjiang or Hoten prohibited teaching in Uyghur language”, and
that bilingual education aimed at replacing ethnic minority languages, were not
true, said the delegation. Nearly 40 laws and regulations, including the
Constitution and the Law on Regional National Autonomy, provided for the use
and development of languages of ethnic minority groups. Of the 55 ethnic
minorities, 53 had their own languages except the Hui and Manchu, 22 groups
used a total of 28 languages, and ethnic minority languages were widely used in
political and social life across China.
Concerning the protection of the freedom of lawyers to practice, a delegate
explained that in recent years, the judicial reform, which aimed at promoting
the rule of law in all respects, had contained measures to ensure the rights of
lawyers to practice law. The 2012 revision to the Criminal Procedural Law
had improved the provisions governing lawyers’ right to interview clients, read
case files and collect evidence, while in September 2015, the Supreme People’s
Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and the Ministries of Public
Security, State Security, and Justice had issued a joint document: Provisions
on Securing the Right of Lawyers to Legal Practice according to Law. It
had clarified the general requirements for authorities to protect the lawyers’
right to practice law and put forward concrete safeguard measures. In
April 2017, a joint quick response mechanism to safeguard lawyers’ rights to
legal practice had been created.
The delegation said that the allegations of excessive use of force, torture,
arbitrary detention and disappearance of ethnic minorities were “against
the fact”. China consistently adhered to the principles of ethnic
equality, ethnic solidarity, and common prosperity of all ethnic groups, while
judicial and law enforcement authorities treated all ethnic groups equally and
fully protected their legal rights. The delegate explained that Tashi
Wangchuck had not been arrested for his comments on the protection of ethnic
minority languages, but on suspicion of inciting secession, for which he had
received in May 2018 a sentence of five years’ imprisonment by the Intermediate
People’s Court of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. His trial had been
handled in strict accordance with the law and in an impartial and independent
manner; the defendant’s rights had been guaranteed throughout the process, said
the delegate.
The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region always respected and guaranteed the
human rights of people of all ethnic groups in accordance with the law.
There was no arbitrary detention or lack of freedom of religious belief,
while the view that Xinjiang was a “no rights zone” was completely “against the
fact”. There were no such things as “re-education centres”, or
“counter-terrorism training centres” in Xinjiang. Xinjiang, an integral
part of China, pointed the delegate, was a victim of terrorism, therefore, in
order to secure the life and property of all ethnic groups, the Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region had undertaken special campaigns to clamp down on violent
terrorist activities according to the law, and had put on trial and imprisoned
a number of criminals involved in severe offenses. Criminals involved in
minor offenses were provided with assistance and education to assist them in
their rehabilitation and reintegration. The legal rights of the offenders
assigned to vocational education and employment training centres were duly
protected and they were not subject to any arbitrary detention, let alone
ill-treatment.
The delegate went on to reiterate that there was no deliberate targeting of any
ethnic minority nor supressing or restraining the rights of the freedom of
religious belief of the Uyghur people, and emphasised that the Regulations on
Anti-Extremism of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region targeted religious
extremism and not a particular religion. There was no “de-Islamization”
and there was no violation of ethnic minorities’ freedom of religion in the
name of counter-terrorism. Since the 1990s, the “three forces” of
terrorism, extremism and separatism had been present in Xinjiang, which
attempted to undermine its stability. In response, measures had been
adopted to strengthen social and security management, collect information,
crack down on illegal and criminal activities of the “three forces”, and
protect the State’s stability and citizen safety and security, in accordance with
the law.
On the protection of the religious freedom and the traditional culture of the
Tibetans, another delegate emphasised that Tibet enjoyed sound and rapid
growth, ever-increasing living standards, improving eco-environment, progress
and unity shared by all ethnic groups, harmonious religious lives, social law
and order, and happiness enjoyed by all people. The Chinese Government
had taken good care of the Tibetan religion and culture, and long-gone were the
days when Tibet had been secluded thanks to the tremendous development there.
With regard to the legislation on hate speech, the delegate explained that the
prohibition of the dissemination of racism, and incitement to racial
discrimination, hatred or violence, was expressly provided and sanctioned in
the Criminal Law, the Press Law, the Law on the freedom of association, and the
Law governing Radio and TV Broadcasting. There had indeed been no
prosecution or judicial cases of racial or ethnic discrimination, which could
be explained by the deeply-rooted respect for cultural diversity, customs and
traditions.
Questions by Committee Experts
NICOLÁS MARUGÁN, Committee Rapporteur for China, asked for details concerning
the budgeting and resource allocation for the implementation of the National
Human Rights Action Plan. What were the Government’s views on how the
relationship with non-governmental organizations could improve? What
types of discriminatory actions and behaviours were prohibited by laws?
The concept of “separatism” was not clearly defined in the law, noted the
Rapporteur, citing the example of Tibetans who were charged with separatism for
peacefully protesting violations of their rights and the use of the law to hand
down heavy handed sentences on Uyghurs. What measures were in place to
protect them from racial discrimination in the context of counter-terrorism?
What were the intentions concerning the removal of the two reservations
to the International Convention?
GAY MCDOUGALL, Committee Co-Rapporteur for China, said that the Committee
needed more than just denials that state and national security laws violated
the rights of ethnic minorities. To this end, the Committee needed
numbers, figures, data on investigations, prosecutions and detentions, and the
number of people in re-education camps.
VERENE SHEPHERD, Committee Co-Rapporteur for China, recognized the critical
importance of social integration in diverse societies and asked how the
implementation of the education policy, in particular the bilingual language
policy, was being monitored. How was the history-teaching curriculum,
which had an enormous power to divide or to unite, being developed?
The delegation was asked about specific measures adopted to protect the
environment in the course of development; initiatives to inform domestic
workers of their rights in the Macao Special Administrative Region of China,
and the mechanism to deal with complaints of racial discrimination; and tens of
thousands of stateless children who, due to statelessness, could not access basic
services.
Replies by the Delegation
Over the past five years, one person was alleviated from poverty every two
seconds, and those persons were mainly from north-west China. This
represented an important contribution to the defence (sic) of the rights
of ethnic minorities, the delegation said. In terms of the implementation
of the provisions of the Convention, China stressed that States were different
in their concrete situations, and there were no unified answers in this regard.
In the course of the dialogue, China was concerned that some Committee
Members had made unsubstantiated statements; most materials on which such
statements were made were not credible and were aimed at splitting China.
China attached greatest importance to the Committee on the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination and to the goals of the International Convention on the
Elimination of Discrimination, and stressed that the dialogue must be based on
the United Nations Charter principles of respecting State sovereignty and territorial
integrity. Equally, the Committee must share the objectives of fighting
terrorism which was the best way to protect ethnic minorities.
Concluding Remarks
GUN KUT, Committee Rapporteur for Follow-up to Concluding Observations,
expressed disappointment because most of the answers were very defensive, while
some rejected certain Experts’ questions as baseless. (Again, which
experts? I was brought here from several articles in order to learn this very
question.) There could have been a better and more fruitful
discussion on how to ameliorate the situation in China, for the benefit of
China itself, he concluded.
NOUREDDINE AMIR, Committee Chairperson, thanked civil society organizations for
their interest in the constructive dialogue with China, and thanked the
delegation for all the efforts to respond to hundreds of questions asked.
The Committee, stressed the Chair, worked on the exclusive basis of the
Convention; it was a legal rather than a political Committee, and it was not a
tribunal or a court of justice.
NICOLÁS MARUGÁN, Committee Rapporteur for China, asked China to provide written
information on the allegations of torture and on the intentions
concerning the establishment of an independent mechanism for the investigation
of allegations of torture and deaths in custody in Tibet and in Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region. The Rapporteur thanked the delegation for the many
good responses provided, and emphasised the importance that the Committee
attached to freedom of expression, thanking civil society organizations for the
reports and information submitted.
YU JIANHUA, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations at Geneva,
said that China took a factual approach and had provided much information and
hoped that there would be opportunities for further exchange, within the limits
of the Committee’s mandate. Unfortunately, China was not able to provide
answers to the questions that were not factual. Eliminating racial
discrimination was a daunting task facing the international community as a
whole, Mr. Yu said, and reiterated China’s commitment to ethnic equality and
solidarity and to conscientious implementation of the Convention.
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So, hours later, I still have no idea where the source of the “million Uyghur” assertion comes from, which by now has become indisputable fact according to countless articles. In fact, each article that sites the million Uyghur assertion serves to buttress every other article that makes the assertion. One thing I’m beginning to realize, though, is that this is not how journalism is supposed to work. It is supposed to supply the reader with the evidence needed to get an understanding of what is really going on.
Finally, with the help of the Grayzone, I came upon the source for the million Uyghur assertion (I highly recommend the Grazone as a source of solid journalism). They linked me to this article which says “The estimate used most widely for over a year—of a million Uyghur Muslims held in Chinese camps—was arrived at using similar methods by a group called China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), and by (Adrian) Zenz.” CHRD arrived at the number by interviewing “dozens of Uyghur people in Xinjiang. Interviewers gave estimates of how many people were being detained in their towns”, the numbers were added up and divided by the amount of people asked. According to the Grayzone article itself, the number of people interviewed was actually eight.
Now, admittedly, in the article linked by the Grayzone to confirm the number as eight, I did not find any proof that the number was eight and not dozens. Nonetheless, it does appear to give the lie to the assertion that the source was the United Nations itself but was from a single American who made the assertion without citing sources. It also pretty clearly lays out who is funding the CHRD and what its mission is.
As for the other source of the million Uyghur number, Adrian Zenz, he appears to be an end times fundamentalist with a religious reason for opposing China. Here’s a bit of video of an interaction between him and Max Blumenthal. Nowhere have I found any evidence provided by Zenz, but I am open to any that others might share. My search has not been exhaustive, but on the other hand those who have put forth claims have not been open with their evidence.
Further down in the Grayzone article I see the evidence for the eight interviews rather than the dozens stated elsewhere. It seems pretty direct, compelling, and damning. I will provide a second link to the article because it is worth reading in its entirety. Contrast their use of hyperlinks to the examples above.
This is not the first time I have come across such a situation when diving into news stories. Often, too often, I am told a certain assertion has so much evidence behind it that I am foolish to argue with it, only to be unable to find the actual evidence. Instead I watch as establishment media engage in a circle jerk where each elevates the claims of the other without ever questioning those claims. I remember a time when the media was expected to question itself.
Indeed, entire shows were dedicated to just that. Less than two decades ago I remember listening to Dave Berkman, professor of journalism, on Wisconsin Public Radio every Friday at 5 pm. Even FOX News had a very good weekly program with Jeff Cohen and others. The media is no longer interested in questioning itself. People like Jeff Cohen aren’t welcome on U.S. media anymore, though you can find him on RT.
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