The situation in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region is rapidly deteriorating. Multiple reports on the ground in addition to analysis of satellite imagery and open-source data paint a bleak picture of repression and forced internment in the isolated region.
On this side of the Taiwan Strait, anyone who still believes that unification with China is a viable option should sit up and take note.
An analysis of government documents by German academic Adrian Zenz and a special investigation by the BBC has revealed the sinister reality of a rapidly expanding network of “vocational education and training centers” in Xinjiang.
Tender documents show that the centers’ construction is replete with razor wire and watchtowers. Documents also reveal that staff in some centers are armed with a plethora of weapons and restraining devices, such as electric cattle prods, tear gas, stun guns, Tasers and spiked clubs known as “wolf’s teeth.”
At least one center requested the purchase of “tiger chairs,” a device used by Chinese police to torture interrogation subjects.
There are estimated to be at least 181 re-education facilities in Xinjiang, which Zenz believes could be holding as many as 1 million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities.
Beijing initially denied their existence, but now claims that enrollment is entirely voluntary and has released propaganda videos in an attempt to spin the centers as vocational schools for grateful students to brush up on their Mandarin and try knitting or baking.
In reality, an ethnic and religious minority is being interned: 20th-century history shows that this will not end well.
Radio Free Asia reported that in Haniqatam, up to 6,000 villagers have been indefinitely detained in centers; the initial batch of inmates has been incarcerated for two years.
Arbitrary quotas appear to be in effect and local sources have said that as many as 40 percent of residents in each village are being rounded up.
“In some houses the husband has been taken away, while in others the wife has been taken away and others still have had both detained, leaving the children behind,” said a local police officer who wished to remain anonymous.
It is becoming ever more apparent that under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), China is fast regressing to its authoritarian past and the dark days of Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) Cultural Revolution.
An Agence France-Presse report quotes Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Quanguo (陳全國) as saying: “To build new, better Chinese citizens, the centers must first break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections and break their origins.”
The Chinese Communist Party of course has experience in this field. It invaded and conquered Tibet in the early 1950s and since then, it has systematically worked to destroy Tibetan culture and displace Tibetans with Han Chinese.
By contrast, Hong Kong was “peacefully reunited with the motherland” in 1997, yet the methods and end result are the same — the importation of mainland Chinese to dilute the local population and the gradual hollowing out of Hong Kong’s independent judiciary, media and its mini-constitution.
The evidence could not be clearer. Whether conquered by force or through a peaceful accommodation with Beijing, Taiwan’s freedoms would be gradually and systematically snuffed out.
Like the hapless residents of Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, Taiwan would be left a shell of its former self and an impotent outpost of China’s colonial empire.
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then