Demonstrators from China’s Uighur Muslim ethnic group have protested in Istanbul, calling for a boycott of next month’s Winter Olympics in Beijing over China’s poor treatment of the minority in Xinjiang province. The protesters gathered outside the Turkish Olympic Committee building, waving the blue and white flags of the independence movement of East Turkestan, a group China says threatens the stability of the far western region of Xinjiang. “China, stop the genocide; China, close the camps,” chanted the demonstrators, some holding up a banner reading “Stop Genocide Olympics”. United Nations experts estimate more than a million people, mainly from the Uighur and other Muslim minorities in the region, have been detained in and placed in camps in recent years. Beijing denies genocide or the existence of forced labour camps in Xinjiang. After initially denying the existence of the Xinjiang camps, China later pivoted to defending them as vocational training centres aimed at reducing the appeal of “extremism”. This has led to a tit for tat battle between the West and China, with sanctions going both ways. “The world, Turkic countries and Islamic countries need to wake up. China is committing genocide right now,” said protester Abdurrahman Taymaz.
This is currently one of the world’s worst kept secrets. China is attempting to change an entire group of people into something they are not and I believe it is because they are Muslim. China, like other communist countries both past and present, does not want to have religion within their country, as it is seen as a uniter that isn’t the state’s “religion” communism. China would find it ideal if this minority, a Turkic ethnic group, was swept under the rug per se. Obviously, this makes Turkey extremely angry, especially people of the same ethnic group. It is interesting to see how President Erdogan will deal with this, as he has been critical of China in the past, but as we know money talks.
This relates to what we are discussing in class as we have discussed just how arbitrary some borders are, especially in Africa, which can lead to conflict due to ethnic groups being seperated from where they feel is their home.