10 Stages of Genocide — China’s Organized Mass Detentions of Uighurs Muslims

A slow and steady genocide of minorities

The Uighurs is a minority Muslim Turkic ethnicity who mainly resides in the Xinjiang region of China. This community also resides in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan, and several thousand live in Australia.

Over the past last 3 years, the Chinese government has undertaken some brutal and repressive measures on this minority group leading to growth rates falling by 84% in the two largest Uighur prefectures between 2015 and 2018

Genocide — The deliberate physical and mental torture of a group of people belonging to the same ethnic group, nationality, religion, or race and ultimately killing them. Forcing them to live under harsh conditions, prohibiting them to practice their religious beliefs, abusing them and forceful conception and sterilization contributes to genocide.

Examples include the Holocaust, the Cambodian genocide, and the Rwandan genocide.

“Ten Stages of Genocide” is a non-linear process that tells how a majority represses and society engages in genocide.

It is given by Dr. Gregory H. Stanton who is a professor at Mary Washington University and the Vice President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (2006).

“Genocide cannot be committed by an individual or small group; rather, it takes the cooperation of a large number of people and the state.” — Dr. Gregory H. Stanton

The main objective behind the 10 stages is to identify the signs and warnings of genocide and make people, country, and the world vigilant on how to stop it from happening.

10 Stages of Genocide of Chinese Uighurs

1. Classification

“When the cultures distinguish people between us and them by race, ethnicity, religion or nationality.”

The People’s Republic of China annexed Xinjiang in 1949. At this point, the Uligurs constituted 76% of the population and Han Chinese — the majority ethnic group in China as 6.2%.

Since 1949, the Chinese government-sponsored immigration of Han Chinese to Xinjiang that has diluted the Uighurs population. The statistics in 2000 showed the population now consists of 42% Uighurs and 40% Han.

From 2009, a series of disputes have taken place between the Uighurs and Han Chinese that created unrest, war-like conditions in this place. In May 2014, the Chinese government initiated the “Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Terrorism” in Xinjiang to control the ethnic unrest and legalize the counter-insurgency policies.

2. Symbolization

“Classification and symbolization are universally human and do not necessarily result in genocide unless they lead to the stage of dehumanization.”

The Chinese government has imposed extreme surveillance and biometric measures against Uighurs.

Taking their blood samples to track DNA, scanning their faces using face recognition techniques, and recording their voices without their consent.

The government has justified its doings stating that they are building a single-database to sort the Uilgurs from the rest population.

3. Discrimination

“A dominant group uses law, custom, and political power to deny the rights of other groups.”

The government implemented new bans and repressive regulations from 1st April 2017.

Having a long beard and woman wearing long veils in public was prohibited. Forcefully asking the Uighurs to eat pork, not allowing them to fast in the holy month of Ramzan, and naming a child as Muhammad that would trigger religious fervor was made illegal.

The languages in schools turned from bilingual (Mandarin and Uilgur) to practice solely Mandarin Chinese.

The unemployment rate of Uighurs massively increased from the time the Han Chinese migrated to Xinjiang.

4. Dehumanization

“Dehumanization is when one group treats another group as second-class citizens.”

Human Rights Watch — A New York-based NGO has alleged gross abuse over the Uighurs.

Forceful contraception and sterilization of women have been done in education concentration camps. The women have been abducted, drugged, and given medicines to stop menstruation.

Mihrigul Tursun stated that she had been a victim of gross abuse in the euphemistically-named re-education camps.

Brainwashing the Uighurs in concentration camps and forcefully asking them to practice sinicization.

Sinicization — A practice to forcefully convert an individual’s religion into another’s asking them to follow their religious beliefs.

5. Organization

“Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, though sometimes informally or by terrorist groups.”

The Chinese government has clearly repressed the Uighurs, discriminated against them from the other ethnicities.

The extreme surveillance on the Uighurs, prohibiting their basic religious rights, and putting them into arbitrary detention centers have revealed the cruelties by the government against this minority group.

6. Polarization

“Extremists drive the groups apart.”

Hating the Uighurs, suppressing them, making them live under unlivable conditions, and brainwashing their minds to learn Chinese beliefs and religion have been driven by the Chinese government.

7. Preparation

“They often use euphemisms to cloak their intentions, such as referring to their goals as ethnic cleansing,“purification,” or counter-terrorism.”

The government segregated Uighurs from other groups using extreme surveillance and biometric techniques.

8. Persecution

“Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity.”

The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the government of the People’s Republic of China detained more than a million Uighurs in euphemistically-named vocational centers and education camps.

Alleged reports have come into the picture of people being suppressed and tortured in these education camps.

9. Extermination

“Extermination begins, and quickly becomes the mass killing legally called genocide.”

10. Denial

“Denial is the tenth stage that always follows a genocide. It is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres.”

The Chinese government has condemned all the allegations against them. The retention of Uigurs in concentration camps has been justified by the government in terms of counter-terrorism and national security of the people.

How countries across the world have reacted to these human rights abuses against a minority ethnic group

European countries (against the movement)

In July 2019, 22 European countries signed a letter and passed it to the UN Human Rights Council calling the arbitrary detention of Uigurs as brutal and inhumane.

Countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia (supporting the movement)

37 different countries signed another letter to the same council applauding China’s remarkable achievements in the field of human rights and security measures taken for Xinjiang. Some countries like Pakistan who had economic deals with China defended the movement. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has supported the movement on the basis of anti-terrorism and measures taken by the government to protect national security.

The United States of America

The USA has shown support and criticized the movement sporadically. A firm stand against this human rights violation is missing from a powerful country like the USA.

On 17th June 2020, President Trump has signed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act. The problem is that human rights have always been sidelined in US-China relations.

The global silence over this cruel and appalling matter has reflected the economic power of China.

Many countries don’t want to ruin their political and economic benefits given by the largesse Chinese economy. The countries are not willing to give their voice and expose the genocide Uigurs are going through.