The People’s Republic of China is an ex authoritarian-socialist country, which has since dropped the socialism and buoyed the authoritarianism as far as it can go. Many of the PRC’s recent actions reflect this, such as the internment and “re-education” of possibly millions of Uyghur Muslims in the western province of Xinjiang, the introduction of “Sesame Credit”, and its foreign push to create an economic colonial empire from the ex-colonies of Africa and East Asia.
The internment of the Uyghurs of Xinjiang should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the history of China. Similar programs have been imposed on ethno-linguistic minorities in the past, such as Tibet, in the 1950s, the most recent iteration of this history of repressive assimilation. However, what does this practice of “re-educating” the minority out of the minority look like in the modern day? What does it look like in regards to Uyghur Muslims specifically? Reports are scattered, due to the unwillingness of Beijing to allow foreign observers in, but there seem to be some clear themes.
The foremost of these themes is forced relocation. Uyghurs are relocated to specifically-made cities and towns that serve as the points of concentration for internment, and live with Han Chinese CCP members from the cities on the coast. This is the clearest sign that the goal is mass assimilation. By placing them with members of the ethnic majority, it’s hoped that the minority will begin to adopt the cultural and linguistic habits of said majority. Repression of language comes as part of the territory here, with Uyghurs being instructed to speak Mandarin Chinese rather than their native language.
The next part of this forced assimilation is the repression of cultural characteristics, such as faith. For this reason, the Quran has been banned throughout much of the province, in an effort to force the Uyghurs to surrender Islam, and submit to no dominance beyond Beijing. This, as well as the forced internment, go hand-in-hand with the last part of forced assimilation, which is brutal repression of anyone who speaks against it. The CCP gives off the impression of omnipresence, of being able to see whatever you think or say or read, and it does so to create an oppressive atmosphere, to stamp out anti-PRC sentiments to the best of its ability. It has recently taken the next step in creating this atmosphere, which will be elaborated on in the next analysis post.