Unashamed by its abuse of Uighurs, China is lecturing India on the rights of minorities

Do hypocrisy and doublespeak have any limits? China’s cant and conduct make it amply clear that the answer is in the negative. Islamic nations’ protest against the remarks about Prophet Muhammad made by a former spokesperson is understandable, but Beijing’s lecture to New Delhi about discarding “pride and prejudice” renders us aghast. It’s a nation that has little regard for the human rights of its own citizens, and less for those of the ethnic and religious minorities; and yet it has the temerity to pontificate about “harmonious coexistence”. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Monday: “China always believes that different civilisations and religions should respect each other and live together as equals.” He went on to say: “It is always important to discard pride and prejudice, better understand the differences between one’s own civilisation and other civilisations, and promote exchanges, dialogue and harmonious coexistence between civilisations.” And how, pray, China promotes harmonious coexistence”? There is a mountain of evidence and a zillion reports — freely accessible on the internet — proving that Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang are facing an existential crisis. Their civil and human rights have been annulled by Beijing; they have been subjected to the most brutal forms of repression; their religion, Islam, is being banished; their mosques and other places of reverence are being razed. The Chinese Communist Party has gone to the extent of calling Islam a mental disorder, a disorder that needs to be cured.

This is exactly what it has been doing in Xinjiang: A large number of concentration camps — officially called Vocational Education and Training Centres — have imprisoned over a million Uighur Muslims in the province. No other minority in the world is suffering as much as the Uighurs are at this moment: from actual genocide to cultural genocide, they are being subjected to every form of oppression. Five years ago, the Chinese Government came up with a regulation that forbade certain Muslim names, so parents can’t choose names like Muhammad, Arafat, Jihad, Islam, Quran, Saddam and Mecca for their children. The violation could deprive the children of education and Government benefits. BBC reported on May 24, “A series of police files obtained by the BBC in 2022 revealed details of China’s use of these camps and described the routine use of armed officers and the existence of a shoot-to-kill policy for those trying to escape. The US is among several countries to have previously accused China of committing genocide in Xinjiang. The leading human rights groups, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, have published reports accusing China of crimes against humanity.” There have been reports of systematic rape of Uighur women to terrorise the Muslim community in Xinjiang. In June 2021, there were allegations that organ harvesting was being carried out on minority groups, including Uighurs. A group of UN independent experts expressed concern over the allegations. Harmonious coexistence, indeed!