Key points in this article:

• China’s surveillance system in Uyghur has become more severe and is heading towards disaster
• Their approach to Uyguhr is reiteration of Hitlerian ideology of xenophobia and purging of foreign races
• Uyghur has her own Liu Xiaobo, Ilham Tohti who is rumoured to be a potential Nobel Peace Prize laureate

 
The public has yet to know of the goings on inside the China-ruled Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Recently, however, the Wall Street Journal and Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail, have reported on the near-completion of a surveillance society inside the Autonomous Region.

Since ancient times the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region was a place of strategic importance connecting Europe and China, and was also a region with abundant resources such as coal, oil and natural gas. This was why in 1949 Mao Zedong invaded East Turkistan to absorb the Uyghurs into rule by the Communist Party of China.

In 2009 Uyghur students and security forces clashed in what is known as the 2009 Urumqi Riots. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands were arrested. The Communist Party authorities have strengthened their surveillance over Uyghur ever since.

Recruiting 90,000 Surveillance Personnel Per Year

2016 was a major turning point for those living in Uyghur.

It was the year Chen Quanguo was elected Communist Party Secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. He is the infamous former secretary to the Communist Party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region who was known for his cruel oppression of the Tibetan people. He is a man of extreme methods who recruited 90,000 security personnel within a year of his assuming office.

Chen’s next agenda is to establish Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as a complete surveillance society. The region will have the ‘privilege’ of becoming a testing ground for the latest surveillance technology.

The Wall Street Journal reports that for instance, when buying a knife (including kitchen knives) the product must be laser engraved with a QR code unique to the buyer. The numerous surveillance cameras on the streets are equipped with facial recognition, which is linked to the individual’s ID card so the authorities can know where anybody is and what they are doing at any time. They have introduced an AI system that sounds an alarm if people park their car in the wrong place; but AI is not the only surveillance method. The number of police officers have increased six-fold since 2015, and the number of police stations have also increased.

Uyghur Is Heading For Hell After 2017

The WSJ also introduced the story of Tahir Hamut, an Uyghur native who died in the U.S.

Hamut commented on the surveillance state of Uyghur.

“Uyghur is heading for hell after the spring of 2017. Police have started to collect detailed information on each Uyghur person about whether they have employment, a passport, whether they pray and so on. Uyghurs had to submit this form. From this information, the state decides whether a person is ‘safe’ or ‘dangerous'”.

According to the WSJ those deemed ‘dangerous’ are taken to a political education centre on the outskirts of Kashgar where they are locked up in a surveillance tower surrounded by electric wires. It is the state that decides who to detain according to surveillance information, so the detainees have no idea why they are being taken away.

The Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail, reported on the severe surveillance on Islamic Mosques, and how each individual’s thought patterns and DNA data are recorded. Especially amongst the children there is a strict rule to create a Chinese speaking environment at school and they are not permitted to return home during the school term.

A Reiteration of Hilterian Ideology

The rise of nationalism of minority races brought the USSR to collapse, and this image is fresh in the minds of China’s authorities. The ‘iron shackles’ that will prevent this from happening to China is the latest surveillance technology.

The Communist Party claims that Chinese language education will benefit the Uyghur economy, but in reality, it is an assimilation policy: a method of purging anything that is ‘different’.

Han Chinese supremacy: this is racism, and coincides with Hitler’s idea of Aryan supremacy and the purging of Jews. Hitler believed that the extinction of the ‘inferior race’ was nature’s law and that the ‘superior’ Aryan race should rule all others. Therefore, the other races should serve the Aryans or else die. He used the hate energy in racism to justify Germany’s invasion into other countries.

Hatred and denial, however, are not principle of rulership. Since ancient times, fair rulership was based upon justice, rule-of-law, and harmony under God’s love. In other words, the ruler must have the love for God and his people, invite its people to virtuous life and get them closer to God, through which the ruler was made responsible for the material happiness of the state.

The Life-Sentence of the Liu Xiaobo of Uyghur

When the government fails to do this, the revolutionary must.

“I have no enemies,” so said Liu Xiaobo. Ilham Tohti, Uyghur economist and advocate of harmony between the Hans and Uyghurs, is of the same mind.

Ilham Tohti proposed to make the anniversary of the Urumqi riots the ‘Day of Racial Harmony” and organized cultural exchanges between the races during the summer holidays.

In 2014, however, he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. The Communist Party’s idea of Han supremacy and the motion to ignore harmony and forgiveness is the proof of their ambition to complete their totalitarian state.

Enver Can, President of the Ilham Tohti Initiative, is trying to get Ilham Tohti nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. If he succeeds, it is sure to ignite the flame of independence in the Uyghur people and help bring democracy into China.

External Aid Required to Save Uyghur

For this to happen, however, the region needs external aid.

Luckily, America’s new security strategy recognizes China as a competitor in national security strategy, and will most likely apply pressure in trade. They have also shown the intention to protect minority religions and cultural heritages, possibly formed with the people of Tibet and Uyghur, and Inner Mongolia in mind.

What can Japan do?

China’s treatment of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is showing us what China is capable of doing to countries under their rule. Let us pray that appropriate pressure on China and focus on a potential Nobel laureate in Uyghur will bring to light the atrocious ambitions that China harbors.（Hanako Cho)