'Unprecedented atrocity of the century': Uighur activist urges Australia to take tougher stance against China

Rushan Abbas says countries doing business with China are enabling its mass detention of 3 million people, including her sister
By Sarah Martin

Uighur activist Rushan Abbas: China is using its economic power to silence world criticism of its detention of 3 million Muslims.

A leading Uighur activist, Rushan Abbas, has urged Australian MPs to take a stronger stance against the Chinese regime, while backing realist comparisons between the state’s authoritarianism and Nazi Germany.
Abbas, who met with MPs in Canberra on Thursday and held a roundtable at the US Embassy on the plight of the Uighur Muslim minority in western China’s East Turkestan colony, said that “modern day” concentration camps holding as many as 3 million Uighurs were a case of “history repeating itself”.
The Liberal MP Andrew Hastie sparked a controversy when he penned an opinion piece in the Nine newspapers in August, comparing the west’s complacency about China to France’s response to the rise of authoritarian Germany in the lead up to the second world war.
Abbas, the executive director of the Campaign for Uyghurs, said she strongly backed the comparison, saying the first German concentration camps were built in 1933 while the country was still trading with other democratic countries. 

The first Uighur camp was built in 2014, Abbas said.
“Most of the economically independent or rich countries, they continued to do business with Germany, they enabled Germany’s economy to murder more people,” Abbas said.
“Great Britain – they continued to do business with Nazi Germany at that time – what happened? 

They were then faced with the bombers flying over London. 

That’s exactly the same thing happening right now. 

Continuing to do business with China is enabling China’s economy to be the threat to the world community … its democracy and values.
“Continuing to do business with China is enabling China to murder my people.”
Abbas, whose sister and aunt were both abducted and detained in camps a week after she first went public as an advocate in the US in late 2018, said Uighurs were being detained because “our religion, our culture, our language is being targeted as a mental ideological disease”.
“[It is] not just the 3 million people in the concentration camps facing mental and physical torture, forced intense indoctrinations, forced medications, food and sleep deprivation, [but] even the people at large … living outside, are facing a complete surveillance police state.”
Abbas said she had not heard from her sister since she was abducted, saying: “I don’t even know if my sister is still alive.”
There are 17 Australian residents who are believed to be under house arrest, in prison or detained in the secretive “re-education” camps, Guardian Australia revealed in February.
Labelling the mass detention of Uighurs as the “unprecedented atrocity of the century”, Abbas hit out at western countries, including Australia, for being too timid in the face of China’s authoritarianism.
“[This] is the largest incarceration of one ethnic group since the Holocaust, since world war two – why we are not getting much attention in the international media?“It’s because China is using its economy and the market for silencing the world population.
“China has become a power able to strong-arm the world … and with all that they are actually successfully silencing the world communities,” she said.
She urged Australia to do more to raise human rights concerns in its dealings with China, saying the west could use its combined economic might to pressure China. 

She also called for the international community not to “reward” China with the hosting rights for the Winter Olympics in 2022 and the FIFA World Cup in 2021.
“Freedom is not free – any kind of doing the right thing comes with a price,” Abbas said.
“Yes, there might be some economic burden, but when it comes down to what is right, and when it comes down to the basic rights of human beings that is endangered right now … we shouldn’t be only shortsighted to see the economy today, or next year or next five years.”
She also called for the establishment of a Uighur friendship group and for Australia to advance its own version of the US Magnitsky Act, which would impose sanctions on individuals who commit gross human rights abuses.
The foreign minister, Marise Payne, has tasked parliament’s joint standing committee on foreign affairs, defence and trade to conduct an inquiry into Australia’s legal standing in response to international human rights abuses.
Such legislation has already gained support from the Labor senator Kimberley Kitching and the Liberal senator James Paterson.

Australia's foreign minister Marise Payne labels China's treatment of Uighurs 'disturbing'

Last month, Payne labelled reports of China’s mass internment of Uighurs as “disturbing” and called on China to end arbitrary detention, following leaked internal Chinese government documents which included directives from Chinese dictator Xi Jinping to “show absolutely no mercy” in the “struggle against terrorism, infiltration and separatism”.
Abbas also called on the Australian government to do more to prevent the “harassment and surveillance” of the 3,000-strong Uighur community in Australia.
“They are feeling threatened for their own safety and for their relatives back home,” Abbas said.
On the call to strip China of the Olympic Games hosting rights, Abbas also pointed to the historical comparison of Berlin’s hosting of the 1936 Olympic Games, which at the time faced calls for a boycott, and was used by the Nazi regime as a platform for rampant nationalist propaganda.
“The Olympic Games is a celebration of the differences and unity in the world, bringing together all different regions, different nations … a country holding 3 million innocent people because of their race and religion is the last country qualified to host such a game.”

China's crimes against humanity

China’s assault on human rights is the one thing bringing Washington together
By Josh Rogin

Ethnic Uighur demonstrators hold portraits of their relatives said to be missing during a demonstration against China in Istanbul on Feb. 23. 

It has become accepted Washington doctrine that, when it comes to foreign policy, the splits between the parties (and within them) are too wide to bridge.
But there’s one issue bringing everyone together, even in this era of deep political and ideological discord: China’s horrific treatment of its Uighur Muslim population and other ethnic and religious minorities.
Republicans and Democrats, isolationists and internationalists, the Trump administration and Congress, even Christians and Muslims all agree: This is a catastrophe the United States can no longer ignore. 
This rare consensus, made possible only by the mind-boggling cruelty and injustice the Chinese government is perpetrating on millions of its own people, has finally materialized in words — and will hopefully soon translate to action.
When releasing the State Department’s annual human rights reports Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said China “is in a league of its own when it comes to human rights violations.” 
Ambassador Michael Kozak, who heads the bureau that drafted the reports, compared China’s internment of more than 2 million people in East Turkestan colony to Nazi concentration camps.
“You haven’t seen things like this since the 1930s,” he said.
The Chinese “are trying to basically erase [Muslim minorities’] culture and their religion and so on from their DNA. It’s just remarkably awful.”
The State Department’s report on China goes into excruciating detail.
Chinese authorities are conducting mass arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, torture, rape, compulsory worship of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, and more. 
They especially target activists, artists, musicians, teachers, lawyers and family members of U.S. citizens, in clear and egregious violation of both Chinese and international law.
Any Uighur family not in the camps is monitored 24/7 by one of the 1.1 million “civil servants” Beijing has sent to live among them and report anything suspicious, religious or disloyal back to the party. 
Thousands of children of interned parents are being shipped off to orphanages.
The Chinese government is pressuring Uighurs around the world to give up their DNA and other private information under the threat that their families will vanish.
For those watching the issue closely, much of this was already known.
But what’s new is that the Trump administration is joining Congress, at least rhetorically, in confronting Beijing publicly on its repression, its lies and its overall campaign to snuff out religious and ethnic identity inside China. 
“The Chinese government is at war with faith. It is a war they will not win,” Sam Brownback, ambassador at large for international religious freedom, said in Hong Kong last week.
In Congress, the Uighur issue has brought together a broad and unlikely alliance of lawmakers.
Just look at the list of 39 co-sponsors of the Uighur Human Rights Policy Act, which is moving through the House now.
The bill’s leader , Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), and co-sponsor Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) could not be further apart on Israel, but they are both appalled by China’s persecution of Uighurs. Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) are at war over the Russia investigation, but they agree on this.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is a sponsor, which means the bill is likely to pass the House. The Senate version, led by Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), has 25 co-sponsors, including Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).
It’s a bipartisan, bicameral, and ideologically and ethnically diverse coalition forged by outrage at Beijing and the determination not to turn a blind eye.
The Chinese government is certainly feeling the pressure, illustrated by the fact that its explanation for the camps keeps evolving.
At first, the authorities denied their existence.
Then, they were described as “re-education centers” for extremists.
Now, they are “boarding schools.”
The fact that the story changes so often lays bare that Chinese officials are lying.
Beijing could be forgiven for not believing that the United States is serious.
The Trump administration hasn’t taken any of the punitive actions Congress is demanding, such as sanctioning Chinese officials under the Magnitsky Act or restricting the export of technologies used for repression. 
Officials tell me that Trump hasn’t wanted to complicate ongoing trade negotiations with Beijing or his North Korea diplomacy, which depend on Xi’s cooperation.
But the repression is only getting worse, and now China is exporting it.
Beijing is retaliating against Turkey for speaking out about the Uighurs.
Under Chinese pressure, the government of Kazakhstan this week arrested the leader of a group that has been exposing the camps.
China can bully smaller countries but not the United States. 
Despite America’s recent shortcomings, the world still looks to us to lead on human rights.
If we lead, like-minded nations will follow.
The Uighur issue is just one part of a greater awakening and consensus in Washington and other Western capitals about the threat of the Chinese Communist Party under Xi, which is more internally repressive and externally aggressive every day. 
But calling out the problem is not enough; now the world must act.

China's Final Solution

China is inventing a whole new way to oppress a people
By Benny Avni

The growing, horrifying oppression of Muslims in a western Chinese colony marks a key moment in Beijing’s expansionist drive — and its global competition with America.
A key part of China’s manufacturing machine, East Turkestan colony is a gateway to Central Asia, and therefore crucial for Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, a plan to create a formidable China-dominated realm all the way to the Indian Ocean and the Mideast.
The province’s 11 million Uighurs look different than most Chinese, have a different culture, practice moderate Islam — and have been oppressed by Beijing for decades. 

But now, seen as a major stumbling block to Xi’s new ambitions, China’s Communist Party has escalated its control.
Things worsened when Xi became president in 2012. 

But the real turning point was in 2016, when the Communist Party secretary in Tibet, Chen Quanguo, was transferred to East Turkestan, importing to the colony tactics used in his successful quashing of Tibetan unrest.
In East Turkestan, Beijing is honing to perfection such tactics as facial recognition, personal-background data-mining and DNA collection. 

Scannable codes are posted on apartment buildings where suspected Uighur dissidents live. 

Such practices, reminiscent of 1940s low-tech identification of Jewish residences under German control, may expand beyond the Uighur province.
“Now they [have started] using these systems in the rest of China,” says Omer Kanat, director of the Washington, DC-based Uyghur Human Rights Project. 

Soon, he added, the tactics China uses in East Turkestan will be exported to friendly dictatorships outside the country as well.
Up to 1 million Uighurs were sent to concentration camps for “sins” like eating Halal food or growing beards longer than Beijing allows. 

Those interned in camps are forced to eat pork, study Xi’s writing and participate in intensive forced-labor projects. 

Some are executed; many don’t survive for other reasons.
Artists, scholars, musicians, intellectuals and anyone who ever had contact with the outside world are specifically targeted for “cultural indoctrination,” Kanat adds. 

“My neighbor, Abdel Rashid Seley, died in the camp.” 

Other reported Uighur deaths include an intellectual known for his translation of the Koran to Chinese and one of China’s most well-known scientists.
After taking over Macao and Hong Kong, Beijing promised to leave local practices intact, calling it “one government, two systems.” 

But by now China’s neighbors know that once Beijing assumes control, it’ll pursue complete ideological, political and cultural domination. 

If you happen to be Muslim, Christian, Falun Dafa or a Western-style democrat — well, too bad.
Xi increasingly uses China’s economic prowess to squeeze resistant neighbors and reward those willing to accept Beijing’s dominance. 

Once successful, China will control regions rich in minerals, rare earths, oil and other resources necessary for China’s economic growth.
Beijing will also export its model of controlled capitalism, using economic incentives and punishment as well as military tactics honed in the East and South China Seas.
But to pave his new Silk Road, Xi must first control China’s gateway to Central Asia. 

And if America wants to arrest his march, highlighting Uighur oppression would be a good start.
To that end, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have already been speaking up. 

Some in Congress call to invoke the Magnitsky Act and impose sanctions on seven Chinese officials responsible for the Uighur plight, including party secretary Chen.
The administration’s wild card: Donald Trump, who veers between expressing his friendship with Xi and waging a trade war against China. 

A more comprehensive strategy is needed.
Xi’s China is emerging as America’s most formidable global enemy since the end of the so-called “end of history” era. 

Many countries in China’s immediate neighborhood, and increasingly beyond, face a choice: our liberal democracy or China’s harsh ways.
America should highlight the horrors suffered by China’s Uighurs to help those countries choose right. 

Oh yeah: We also bear an obligation to stand up for universally accepted human rights, and the Uighurs are also a model pro-American Muslim community.
Some of China’s allies will rejoice as they study Beijing’s new ways to control populations. 

Everyone else represents our current, and perhaps future, allies.

The Magnitsky Act : Trump has the power to fight China on human rights. Will he use it?

President Trump inherits law originally aimed at Russia that allows him to sanction any official involved in violations – and China activists have put forward a list.

By Benjamin Haas in Hong Kong

The human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng was one of the Chinese government’s high-profile targets. 

As Donald Trump enters the White House, human rights campaigners around the world fear his administration will drop support for global struggles for democracy and freedom. 

But his administration is armed with a new law unprecedented in US history: the ability to sanction any individual involved in human rights abuses.
Now a newly formed NGO is hoping to push the US to sanction a slew of Chinese names, focusing on prosecutors and police who handle cases of prominent human rights activists. 

Potential punishments including travel bans, freezing assets and seizing property.
“There is well documented evidence that Chinese officials routinely commit gross violations of human rights against dissidents and human rights defenders,” said Senator Benjamin Cardin, the sponsor of the law. 

“Those officials responsible for such violations should be investigated under the act.”
The Magnitsky Act was first passed in 2012 but until December 2016 it only applied to Russia. 

It is named after the Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was accused officials of stealing state funds and subsequently died in custody.
It was used this month to blacklist five Russian officials including Alexander Bastrykin, the powerful head of Russia’s investigative committee who reports directly to Vladimir Putin.
With its global expansion in December a group of veteran China activists established the China Human Rights Accountability Center with the singular goal of collecting evidence to mount cases under the Magnitsky Act.
“China’s human rights record is the worst in the world, surely in terms of scale, and this law sends a strong and clear message to Chinese officials,” said Teng Biao, one of the founders and a visiting fellow at New York University. 

“Being sanctioned would be a huge embarrassment and a confirmation of the suffering inflicted by so many.”
While convincing the US government to publicly sanction Chinese officials may be an uphill battle, the law specifically says the president will consider “information obtained by … nongovernmental organisations”.
The state department will submit a report to Congress sometime in April with a list of names. 

Even if the activists fail in having all of them sanctioned, they plan to put the detailed evidence on their website for the public to see.
“The name of the game is to scare, shame and embarrass officials who violate human rights,” said Yaxue Cao, another founder and editor of the human rights website ChinaChange.org.
The group is preparing to submit evidence for at least three names so far, including Jia Lianchun, a judge who presided over the trials of three prominent human rights activists including the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo. 

Liu was jailed for 11 years.
The others are Xia Baolong, who led a campaign against Christian groups as the Communist party boss of Zhejiang province; and Li Qun, who put the blind human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng under house arrest. 

Chen is also a founding member of the accountability centre.
Other potential targets for the NGO are the police and prosecutors who handled the case of Cao Shunli, a rights lawyer who died in 2014 – like Magnitsky, in police custody. 

The centre also plans to investigate the officials who prosecuted Ilham Tohti, an economics professor and member of the Uighur minority who was jailed for life and later given the prestigious Martin Ennals award.
“In the past the US criticised and we expressed our values but we really haven’t had any very effective tools to influence China,” said Susan Shirk, a former US deputy assistant secretary of state. “It was a very frustrating situation to feel that we don’t have the tools to really have much impact in these types of cases.”
Shirk, who is now the chair of the 21st Century China Centre at the University of California San Diego, pointed to US citizens held in China and often denied due process as a group that could benefit from the Magnitsky Act.
One prominent case is that of Sandy Phan-Gillis, an American who was charged with spying after being held for over a year and is believed to have been tortured, with the UN saying her detention is a violation of international law.
Many human rights activists in China and around the world are worried that Trump’s presidency will mean less focus on human rights but members of Congress have made clear it is still a foreign policy priority.
“We look forward to working with the new administration to make sure that the law is carried out in full, and without fear or favour,” Cardin said.
“We expect that the administration will take the necessary actions to implement the law and we in Congress will do our job of oversight to make sure that that is the case.”
Members of the centre say they hope professional diplomats will still push these causes, with Cao saying: “Trump can’t control everyone and there are many in the state department passionate about human rights.
“Trump has said he wants to restart, rethink and remap China-US relations, and he will put human rights into play because that’s something he can use in negotiations.
“Considering how bad China’s human rights record is, if no Chinese officials are on the list then that will stink for Trump’s administration.”
While most of the NGO’s founding members are based in the US, Hu Jia, having been denied a passport for years, remains in Beijing and could bear the brunt of any government reprisals.
“This is very dangerous work, but ever since I started doing human rights work I was more concerned for my family’s wellbeing than my own,” Hu said. 

“I’m the man of action on the ground and I hope I can help bring this law to life, give it power and have it make an impact.”
Police have been stationed outside Hu’s home for more than a decade beginning in 2004, even keeping watch over his wife and daughter while he was in prison for three and a half years. 

But Hu feels more at ease that only he will bear the brunt of any government reprisal now that his ex-wife and daughter are living in Hong Kong.
Hu said Australia, Canada and European countries should follow America’s lead and enact similar legislation, grasping a unique opportunity to make an impact.
“On the surface all these officials are very patriotic but in reality they’ve all stashed their money in the US,” Hu said.