Let’s start off with the basics: Who are the Uighurs? 

The Uighurs are Turkish-speaking Muslims who populate the north-west portion of China, a region called Xinjiang. The largest population of Uighurs in the world lives there, but are greatly discriminated against by the rest of the country. 

Why is China detaining them? This question has a less straightforward answer. As it seems to happen throughout the ages, just being a minority in a country has led to discrimination against the Uighurs. Of course, the conflict runs much deeper than this. 

China is ruled by the Communist Party of China (CPC), and more specifically, Xi Jinping, the authoritarian leader. Jinping and his party are not exactly down to boogie with people who don’t follow their rules or believe the same things they do. Not-so-coincidentally, many Uighurs refuse to speak Mandarin, and some campaign for independence, which are both seen as direct attacks against the CPC. Xi Jinping also sees the Uighurs’ Muslim faith as an attack against the state, and believes that citizens in China should focus on the beliefs of the Communist Party. 

On top of the ongoing conflict between the two parties, there has also been a rise in terrorist attacks carried out by a very small portion of radical Uighurs, the most noticeable being the Kunming stabbing, which resulted in the death of 31 people in 2014. Events like this paved the way for China to label all Uighurs as terrorists. This leads us to how the Chinese government is getting away with running these detention camps. The government has been selling the idea of the camps as a way to fight terrorism within Xinjiang. This has garnered support from China’s allies, which just fuels the rampant Islamophobia that already exists in China. This, in turn, makes the situation even more dire from Uighurs in Xinjiang.  

In July of 2019, the Chinese government said that most people had been released from the detention camps in Xinjiang, but journalists from numerous countries have found this is not true, and even that the centres are expanding. 

According to accounts from former detainees, the Uighurs experience abuse, withholding of food, torture, and forced labour within the camps. A U.S congressional report characterised the camps as “political re-education centres” . The same report stated that such “political re-education” includes attempts at eradicating minority language, culture, religion, and indoctrination into Communist ideology. Along with detaining adults, there have also been numerous reports of government officials taking Uighur children from their homes and placing them in boarding schools. In these schools, children are taught to relinquish their faith and believe in Communist ideology. 

As conditions worsen for Uighur people in China, it gets more and more difficult for journalists to get word out about the situation. China is an extremely secretive country, with little to no internet access for citizens and extreme censorship. Naturally, they have taken measures to cover up the severity of the camps and even their existence in some cases. This, coupled with tense relations, makes it difficult for Canada and other countries who oppose the camps to call for action. 

It seems the circumstances could not be worse for Uighurs in Xinjiang, as foreign aid appears to be the only path to liberation.