Muslim countries urged to press China end crackdown of Uighurs

Uighur Muslim scholars accuse Beijing of engaging in systematic human rights violations of ethnic compatriots.
By Ali Younes
Mohamad Mahmoud, left, and Abdel Khaleq Uighur, right 

Doha, Qatar -- A group of visiting Uighur Muslim scholars originally from China's East Turkestan colony has urged Muslim-majority countries to press China to end its "cultural war" against their ethnic compatriots.
According to a United Nations panel, more than one million Uighurs and other Muslims are held in mass detention centres in the remote western region.
During a visit to Qatar's capital, Doha, leaders from the Turkey-based Society of the Muslim Scholars of East Turkistan (SMSET) accused Beijing of engaging in systematic human rights violations of Uighurs in a bid to erase their cultural and religious heritage.
"The Chinese government is waging a cultural war against our people by trying to force us to abandon our Muslim faith and our heritage to become atheists and communists like the majority Chinese society," the SMSET's Abdel Khaleq Uighur said on Tuesday.
In January, China passed a new law that sought to "Sinicise" Islam within the next five years, the latest move by Beijing to rewrite how the religion is practised. 

Sinification is a process of melting non-Chinese communities into the majority Han Chinese culture.
No Muslim country dared to condemn China for the mass incarceration of Uighurs and other ethnic Muslim minorities except Turkey, which has called on China to shut the camps. 

Ancient Silk Road
The Uighurs, whose homeland is in the heart of the ancient Silk Road, say Beijing sees their presence as an obstacle to its economic development and westward expansion through its flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Launched in 2013, the massive investment drive aims to finance and build infrastructure in some 80 countries around the world, including in the Middle East and parts of Eurasia.
"With high-speed rail and other upgraded land transport developments, China strives to promote land and maritime trade simultaneously between China and the Middle East," Wang Jian, a professor of history and international political economy at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said in a paper published in 2017.
Mohamad Mahmoud, of the SMET, argued that China's promises of vast wealth and economic development from its BRI projects have prevented Muslim-majority countries from addressing the crackdown on Uighurs.
"I hope that Muslim countries can overcome their fears of China and address its gross human rights abuses against our community," he said.
Uighurs speak a Turkic language distinct from the country's overwhelming Han majority.
According to a 2018 Amnesty report, open or even private displays of religious and cultural affiliation, including growing a beard, wearing a veil or headscarf, regular prayer, fasting or avoidance of alcohol, or possessing books or articles about Islam or Uighur culture can be considered "extremist" under the regulation.
Last week, the Chinese government published a lengthy policy paper outlining and defending its policy against the Uighurs as "deradicalisation" measures. 

The paper admitted the arrest of 13,000 Muslim Uighurs since 2014.
Responding to government claims of "terrorism and radicalism" in the region, Mahmoud said the Chinese government claims are not true.
"Our people are not seeking separation and there is no terrorism or armed insurgency in East Turkistan," he said.
"The only terrorism in the region comes from the Chinese government itself," added Mahmoud.

Rogue President

China Just Bribed Trump to Undermine National Security
By Paul Krugman

Trump announced this week that he was working with XiJinping to help save ZTE.

Did the president of the United States just betray the nation’s security in return for a bribe from the Chinese government?
Don’t say that this suggestion is ridiculous: Given everything we know about Donald Trump, it’s well within the bounds of possibility, even plausibility.
Don’t say there’s no proof: We’re not talking about a court of law, where the accused are presumed innocent until proved guilty. 

Where the behavior of high officials is concerned, the standard is very nearly the opposite: They’re supposed to avoid situations in which there is even a hint that their actions might be motivated by personal gain.
Oh, and don’t say that it doesn’t matter one way or the other, because the Republicans who control Congress won’t do anything about it. 

That in itself is a key part of the story: An entire political party — a party that has historically wrapped itself in the flag and questioned the patriotism of its opponents — has become entirely complaisant in the possibility of raw corruption, even if it involves payoffs from hostile foreign powers.
The story so far: In the past few years ZTE, a Chinese electronics company that, among other things, makes cheap smartphones, has gotten into repeated trouble with the U.S. government. 

Many of its products contain U.S. technology — technology that, by law, must not be exported to embargoed nations, including North Korea and Iran. 

But ZTE was circumventing the ban.
Initially, the company was fined $1.2 billion. 

Then, when it became clear that the company had rewarded rather than punished the executives involved, the Commerce Department forbade U.S. technology companies from selling components to ZTE for the next seven years.
And two weeks ago the Pentagon banned sales of ZTE phones on military bases, following warnings from intelligence agencies that the Chinese government may be using the company’s products to conduct espionage.
All of which made it very strange indeed to see Trump suddenly declare that he was working with Xi Jinping of China to help save ZTE — “Too many jobs in China lost” — and that he was ordering the Commerce Department to make it happen.
It’s possible that Trump was just trying to offer an olive branch amid what looks like a possible trade war. 

But why choose such a flagrant example of Chinese misbehavior? 

Which was why many eyes turned to Indonesia, where a Chinese state-owned company just announced a big investmentin a project in which the Trump Organization has a substantial stake.
That investment, by the way, is part of the Belt and Road project, a multinational infrastructure initiative China is using to reinforce its economic centrality — and geopolitical influence — across Eurasia. 

Meanwhile, whatever happened to that Trump infrastructure plan?
Back to ZTE: Was there a quid pro quo? 

We may never know. 

But this wasn’t the first time the Trump administration made a peculiar foreign policy move that seems associated with Trump family business interests.

Last year the administration, bizarrely, backed a Saudi blockade of Qatar, a Middle Eastern nation that also happens to be the site of a major U.S. military base. 

Why? 

Well, the move came shortly after the Qataris refused to invest $500 million in 666 Fifth Avenue, a troubled property owned by the family of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.

Qatar may be about to make a deal on 666 Fifth Avenue, a troubled property owned by the family of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.

And now it looks as if Qatar may be about to make a deal on 666 Fifth Avenue after all. 

I wonder why?
Step back from the details and consider the general picture. 

High officials have the power to reward or punish both businesses and other governments, so that undue influence is always a problem, even if it takes the form of campaign contributions or indirect financial rewards via the revolving door.
But the problem becomes vastly worse if interested parties can simply funnel money to officials through their business holdings — and Trump and his family, by failing to divest from their international business dealings, have basically hung a sign out declaring themselves open to bribery (and also set the standard for the rest of the administration).
And the problem of undue influence is especially severe when it comes to authoritarian foreign governments. 

Democracies have ethical rules of their own: Justin Trudeau would be in big trouble if Canada were caught funneling money to the Trump Organization. 

Corporations can be shamed or sued. 

But if Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin make payoffs to U.S. politicians, who’s going to stop them?
The main answer is supposed to be congressional oversight, which used to mean something. 

If there had been even a whiff of foreign payoffs to, say, Gerald Ford or Jimmy Carter, there would have been bipartisan demands for an investigation — and a high likelihood of impeachment.
But today’s Republicans have made it clear that they won’t hold Trump accountable for anything, even if it borders on treason.
All of which is to say that Trump’s corruption is only a symptom of a bigger problem: a G.O.P. that will do anything, even betray the nation, in its pursuit of partisan advantage.