It is worth noting that Gay McDougall, a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, reportedly made a statement in Geneva in early August 2018 as follows: "In the name of combating religious extremism and maintaining social stability," China has turned the Xinjiang (northwest) region "into something that resembles a massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy, a sort of 'no rights zone'.

This confrontation between the UN panel and China is a culmination of a human rights situation in the Xinjiang region that has become increasingly precarious, according to human rights organizations, advocacy groups, and journalists, who have tried to document the situation despite China's tight media control.

Who are Uighurs?

Xinjiang, where about 10 million Muslim Uighurs and some other Muslim minorities live, is an autonomous region in China's northwest that borders Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia. It has been under Chinese control since 1949, when the communist People's Republic of China was established.

A United Nations panel estimated in August 2018 that China has detained as many as one million (10 lakh) Uighurs in internment camps and "re-education" programmes. Uighurs speak in their own language - an Asian Turkic language similar to Uzbek- and most practice a moderate form of Sunni Islam. Some activists, including those who seek independence from China, refer to the region as East Turkestan. About 200 Uighurs were killed and hundreds injured during the unrest.

Once situated along the ancient Silk Road trading route, Xinjiang is oil- and resource-rich region.. As it developed along with the rest of China, the region attracted more Han Chinese, a migration encouraged by the Chinese government. . The demographic shift inflamed ethnic tensions, especially within some of the larger cities. In 2009, for example, riots broke out in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang autonomous region, after Uighurs protested their treatment by Chinese.

The Chinese government's repression of ethnic Uighurs, most of whom are Sunni Muslim, has reportedly intensified in recent years amid what it calls an "anti-extremism initiative. The Chinese programs that reportedly focus on psychological indoctrination - like studying communist propaganda and " giving thanks to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Chinese government, however, blamed the protests on violent separatist groups - a tactic it would continue using against the Uighurs and other religious and ethnic minorities across China.

A letter sent by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in August 2018 urges targeting specific officials and companies with sanctions for their role in carrying out or assisting the Chinese government in its campaign against the Uighur community. "Muslim ethnic minorities are being subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, egregious restrictions on religious practice and culture, and a digitized surveillance system so pervasive that every aspect of daily life is monitored," the letter read.

It is reported not only does President Donald Trump disregard human rights; he outright embraces the illiberal tactics of Xi Jinping and other strongmen. It is reported that Trump has likewise used the rationale of counterterrorism to justify persecution of a large group of people as inherently dangerous based on their identity: It may be recalled that during the 2016 campaign, he proposed banning all Muslims from entering the United States.

Importance of Xinjiang for China

Xinjiang is also a major logistics hub of Beijing's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, a trillion-dollar infrastructure project along the old Silk Road meant to boost China's economic and political influence around the world. Xinjiang's increasing importance to China's global aspirations is likely a major reason Beijing is tightening its grip.

All of which means China has reportedly tried increasingly to draw Xinjiang into its orbit, starting with a crackdown in 2009 following riots in the region and leading up to the implementation of repressive policies in 2016 and 2017 that have allegedly curbed religious freedom and increased surveillance of the minority population, often under the guise of combating terrorism and extremism.

It is reported that China's crackdown on the Uighurs is part of a policy of "de-extremification." It is allegedly banning Muslim names to children born out of Uighur Muslims.

It is reported that Communist China has a dark history with reeducation camps, combining hard labor with indoctrination to the party line. According to research by Adrian Zenz, a leading scholar on China's policies toward the Uighurs, Chinese officials began using dedicated camps in Xinjiang around 2014 - around the same time that China reportedly blamed a series of terrorist attacks on radical Uighur separatists.

China escalated pressure on Muslim minorities through 2017, slowly chipping away at their rights with the passage of religious regulations and a counterterrorism law, according to the Uyghur Human Rights Project, a pro-Uighur group based in Washington, DC.

Post-2016

In 2016, Xinjiang also got a new leader: a powerful Communist Party boss named Chen Quanguo, whose previous job was restoring order and control to the restive region of Tibet. It is reported that Chen has a reputation as a "strongman" and is reportedly good in ethnic crackdowns.

It is reported that increased surveillance and police presence act as a strategy for his move to Xinjiang, including his "grid management" policing system. As the Economist reported, "authorities divide each city into squares, with about 500 people. Every square has a police station that keeps tabs on the inhabitants. So, in rural areas, does every village."

Security checkpoints where residents must scan identification cards were set up at train stations and on roads into and out of towns. Authorities have reportedly used facial recognition technology to track residents' movements. Police confiscate phones to download the information contained on them to scan through later. Police have also confiscated passports to prevent Uighurs from traveling abroad.

It is reported that the Chinese government made it illegal to not watch Chinese state television. The government reportedly tried to promote drinking and smoking, because people who didn't drink or smoke - such as devout Muslims - were deemed suspicious.

It is reported that James Millward, a professor at Georgetown University of the US that the Chinese government is "trying to expunge ethno-national characteristics from the people, They're not trying to drive them out of the country; they're trying to hold them in. The ultimate goal, the ultimate issue that the Chinese state is targeting the cultural practices and beliefs of Muslim groups," he reportedly added.

Millward reportedly said the Chinese authorities see the camps as "a kind of conversion therapy, and they talk about it that way." A Chinese official reportedly referred to the "re-education" as "like spraying chemicals on the crops" for their protection. That is why it is general reeducation, not limited to a few people."

The Wall Street Journal's Josh Chin and Clément Bürge, who documented the increasingly oppressive state surveillance in Xinjiang in a December 2017 Report, described one of these detention centers Those detained in the camps are often accused of having "strong religious views" and "politically incorrect" ideas, according to Radio Free Asia.

At a July hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China - a special committee set up by Congress to monitor human rights in China - Jessica Batke, a former research analyst at the State Department, reportedly testified that "in at least some of these facilities, detainees are subject to water-boarding, being kept in isolation without food and water, and being prevented from sleeping."

The question is whether or how the UN will alter China's policies toward the Uighurs is unclear. Zenz said it might prompt China to disguise the re-education regime a bit more, or possibly tone down its policies. "But China's stance at the moment is more one of justification, distraction, and defiance," he reportedly wrote.

Chinese position

The Chinese government has reportedly denied these camps exist. When confronted about them at the United Nations in August, officials claimed they were for the "assistance and education" of minor criminals. China's state-run media has dismissed the reports of detention camps as Western media "baselessly criticizing China's human rights." Chinese spokesperson Lu Kang said in a statement in August. China has continued to deny the harshest of the claims. "People of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang cherish the current situation of living and working in peace and happiness," China reportedly said.

Hu Lianhe, a senior official with the Chinese government agency that oversees ethnic and religious affairs in the country, told the UN panel on August 13 2018 that "there is no arbitrary detention" of the Uighur minority and that "there are no such things as re-education centers." But Hu did say that convicted "criminals charged with minor offenses" were sent to "vocational education and employment training centers" to help them reintegrate. He declined to say how many people were being held in these centers.

Barrister Harun ur Rashid, Former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.