cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/50531925
In 2019, Chinese diplomat Jiang Duan told UNHCR delegates in Geneva that “the experience in Xinjiang in this field can be introduced to other countries.” While “this field” referred to management of minoritized peoples, the “experience” he touted was China’s vast system of internment camps, so-called “vocational training centers,” targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples. Survivor testimony has implicated the camps in a systematic campaign of forced labor, cultural assimilation, political indoctrination, torture, and forced sterilization. The Uyghur Tribunal determined these abuses to constitute genocide, while the very body Jiang Duan addressed, UNHCR, found they may amount to crimes against humanity.
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A Global Model for Repression
Despite a focus on the domestic management of minoritized peoples, the implications of the Ethnic Unity Law do not end at China’s borders. Chinese state officials and amplifiers argue this approach is the optimal way to govern diverse ethnicities. Chen Xiaoyan, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a rubber-stamp advisory body, stated that the law “will not only benefit the people of China but also serve as a valuable model for other countries and regions grappling with ethnic relations.” In an article for CGTN, academic Bai Fan claimed the Ethnic Unity Law “represents a model approach to addressing ethnic issues internationally.”
If adopted overseas, the principles underlying the Ethnic Unity Law risk normalizing deeply troubling practices, including the framing of ethnic relations primarily as a national security issue and the promotion of state authority over cultural pluralism. For the Uyghur people, the consequences are already clear through the systemic and iterative dismantling of their cultural and religious heritage. Exporting this model globally risks a dramatic expansion of similar abuses against minoritized peoples and the further erosion of international human rights protections.
To prevent the normalization of the repressive framework represented in the Ethnic Unity Law, the multilateral system must move beyond statements and invoke formal accountability for the outcomes of China’s assimilationist policies and practices. In addition to the 2022 UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) call for an investigation, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism and the Special Rapporteur on minority issues should issue a joint communication expressing grave concern over the law’s compatibility with international treaties.
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