Jihadist terrorism or state terrorism? The Chinese problem in Xinjiang

The Uyghurs are an ethnic group located mainly in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, an area rich in gas, oil and various minerals, and of great geostrategic importance in economic terms as it is a crossing point on the Silk Road¹. The Uyghurs are of Turkic origin, of Muslim-Sunni religion, Turkic-speaking and Arabic-script, and mainly agricultural. This region is the largest in China and was home to more than 12 million² ethnic Uyghurs³. 

Since the 7th century they have been a people, the result of the cohesion of several tribes that decided to settle in this area. Faithful to their culture and religion, they have developed a strong nationalist sentiment that opposes the assimilation of Han culture that the Chinese Communist Party has been trying to implant in them since 1949, the year in which Xinjiang fell under the sovereignty of the CCP, putting an end to their independence. 

As the Han are the vast ethnic majority in China (official government culture), the Uyghurs are the most incompatible and numerous ethnic minority. In other words, Xinjiang, the Uyghur region, "is not linked to China either by culture or history; the ethnic groups that populate it are Muslims of Turkic origin, they speak a completely different language and their past has very little to do with that of the Han", as Professor Ondřej Klimeš points out⁴.

When the Chinese Communist Party came to power, it found that one of its most strategically important regions was populated by several million Uighurs, who had no intention of yielding to Mao's teachings. Faced with this situation, which was unacceptable to the regime, political repression and demographic pressure were used: the authorities encouraged the arrival of Han Chinese in order to "dilute Uighur culture with migrants culturally loyal to the regime"⁵. It led to high tensions that turned into terrorist attacks during the 1990s, claimed by the Turkestan Islamic Movement⁶, considered terrorist by China, the UN and several countries such as the US, the UK⁷ or Turkey⁸, and serious altercations during the 2000s⁹. 

This situation may seem familiar to us from other totalitarian regimes that have opted for the direct extermination of the targeted minority, but in the case of the Chinese regime, its main objective is to achieve absolute control over its citizens, to transform the individual's thinking towards the only correct and permitted way of thinking. Hence its commitment to "re-education" programmes.

The first of these was born in the 1950s. For its application, no formal accusation was necessary, no evidence, no trial, the mere suspicion of "denial" of state ideology was sufficient for indictment and "treatment". 

The new century saw the second wave of re-education, with the Transformation through Education programme focused on the struggle against Buddhists and Taoists. Again, the main feature was its extrajudicial character, resorting mainly to denunciations on mere suspicion and blacklisting. 

In 2013 Xi Jinping came to power, revamping the system and implementing the Political Re-Education programme, ultimately focused on stamping out Uyghur culture. The need for the programme was reinforced with a discourse based on the jihadist attacks in the West since 9/11¹⁰, highlighting the need for the de-radicalisation of the Xinjiang region. They also used "medical" jargon, treating the Uighurs as a "biohazard" due to their "dangerous religious addiction "¹¹. 

The methodology carried out since Jinping came to power has worsened since 2017, as it is now considered a preventive measure and can be applied indiscriminately. There is talk of more than a million Uighurs being "voluntarily¹²" imprisoned in "re-education" camps. 

For almost four years now, the Chinese government has built 380 concentration camps in the region, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI)¹³, which contradicts the official version that claims a reduction in mass internment. The study was carried out using satellite imagery that showed, in addition to the 380, fourteen more in the process of being built¹⁴.

Despite the enormous amount of information provided by various NGOs and institutions on the reality of the situation in Xinjiang, the Chinese government continues to defend the idea that these are "voluntary re-education" camps, which are an infallible method for the employability of individuals, ensuring a job for all of their members after their release¹⁵.

However, this "job insurance" translates more into forced labour¹⁶, for companies such as Nike, Apple, Huawei or BMW¹⁷. ASPI data states that over 80,000 Uyghur people were transferred from the camps last year to some 30 factories supplying 83 technology, textile and automotive brands¹⁸.

It is clear that a business of buying and selling people for labour is taking place: the Xinjiang government gives 300 yuan per person (€38.95) to each sales "promoter" and 1,000 yuan per person (€129.83) to each company that hires Uyghurs for a year in its factories. The companies that benefit most from this business, either directly or indirectly, are Apple, Dell and Sony¹⁹. 

But is this really a terrorist "prevention" initiative or is it more about economic motives? The economy of the Xinjiang region has always revolved around agriculture and livestock farming²⁰, however, since 2017, a mega-project has been planned in the land of the Uyghurs, Xinjiang, where it is planned to invest the largest amount of money in history in infrastructure construction, economically encompassing 60 countries, as well as 75% of the energy reserves; the project includes the expansion of sea routes, especially to Arab countries²¹.

Thus, the interest in the Uyghurs and the spread of their ethnicity in the area is curious, despite the government's own frequent self-defences of the 're-education' camps, insisting that they are places where peasants voluntarily go in order to receive education in new technologies and adapt to the modern world²², as well as rehabilitating criminals with minor offences or Muslims suspected of terrorist radicalisation²³.  

The idea of the emergence of terrorist movements in the area is not unreasonable, and it is certainly not their culture that is the triggering factor, but rather the repression and atrocities carried out by the government against the population in the area. With the rise of the Turkestan Islamic Movement in the late 1990s and the commission of attacks for the independence and liberation of the people of Xinjiang²⁴, the Chinese government was able to justify itself to some extent internationally. In short, the Uyghur diaspora is an international problem that affects countries such as Turkey, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Afghanistan, from where the suspicion of cooperation with al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups originates, something that has never been proven²⁵ and, if true, it would be more likely that the organisations themselves are seeking to settle in Xinjiang, taking advantage of the desperation of the population to expand in the area.  

Going beyond the violation of human rights, we are faced with a potential grievance that constitutes a breeding ground for terrorists and a problem that, if not curbed, will have a serious global impact. 

Amanda Pérez Gómez, criminologist specialising in international terroris

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