Taiwan should study China's repressive policies against Muslims in Xinjiang and understand the lengths to which Beijing will go to achieve its political goals, the United States' first Uyghur American official said in Taipei on Tuesday.
The Chinese government has arbitrarily detained more than a million Uyghurs and other members of Turkic ethnic minority groups as part of what it calls a counterterrorism campaign spanning over half a decade, according to estimates by the U.S. and human rights organizations.
In policies the U.S. and other Western governments have determined to be genocide and crimes against humanity—terms with implications under international law—China is accused of putting Uyghurs into "reeducation" facilities. A United Nations special report this month concluded the government's policies amounted to forced labor.
"The Communist authorities have made it clear that Taiwan must understand what's happening to the Uyghur people," Kashgar-born Nury Turkel said in a keynote address for a forum on religious freedom. The forum was attended by President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan as well as the top U.S. envoy to Taipei, Sandra Oudkirk.
"You must know that if you fail to protect Taiwan, a similar fate awaits for the Taiwanese people," said Turkel, who in June was appointed chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Recent remarks by Lu Shaye, the Chinese ambassador to France who said "reeducation" would follow Taiwan's "reunification" with China, were a "crystal-clear example" of Beijing's ambitions, Turkel said.
"Let me tell you what reeducation really means for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party)...these classes, where history is rewritten to dictate a reality that never existed, renouncing any religious beliefs or political dissent, and then replacing these ideas with Xi Jinping thoughts, forcing you to recognize that everything you have in life is due to the party," he said.
"We have seen what the CCP is doing to the Uyghur people," said Turkel. "We know what the Chinese regime is doing to the people of Hong Kong, and what they are willing to do to their own people in Shanghai in the name of political goals. And we can be certain that the Chinese leaders pursue the same for Taiwan.
"Taiwan must study the Uyghur genocide; you must learn from these horrors and atrocities carried out in broad daylight. You must not wait and see, hope for the best, or hope that you will be spared from the same fate," he said.
Beijing has defended its policies in Xinjiang and describes accusations of human rights abuses as an effort to tarnish its image. The government invited U.N. rights chief Michelle Bachelet to the region in late May but didn't grant her the access required to make a conclusive assessment.
Bachelet, whose leadership of the U.N. Human Rights Office ends on Wednesday, had promised to publish her office's long-awaited report on Xinjiang before her term ends.
In an interview with Germany's Deutsche Welle on Monday, Bachelet said her office followed standard procedures and shared a draft of the report with Beijing, which was given time to provide "factual comments."
"We have received recently big numbers of facts, comments," she said, "and we are reviewing it."
Bachelet confirmed earlier reports that said China was seeking to block the report's publication.
"They have done what every country does. They have sent a letter—that has been publicly known—signed by them and like 40 or 50 countries, asking for the not publication," she said. "But I have to tell you, I have received so many other letters, meetings, interviews with other countries who want me to [publish]."
"Pressures won't define what will happen with the report," said Bachelet, whose office told AFP on Wednesday that the document was forthcoming.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
John Feng is Newsweek's contributing editor for Asia based in Taichung, Taiwan. His focus is on East Asian politics. He ... Read more
