The Chinese government has imposed 4.4 million years of cumulative imprisonment on ethnic Uyghurs in its far-western Xinjiang region, according to a new report titled Uyghur Race as the Enemy. Published by the Yale Macmillan Center’s Genocide Studies Program, the report sheds light on the high rates of incarceration as part of „racialised atrocity crimes“ occurring in China against Muslim minorities. Urgent action is demanded from governments to prevent genocide and ensure the Uyghurs‘ ability to continue existing as a people.
The Uyghurs are a mostly Muslim, Turkic ethnic group with a culture and language distinct from China’s ethnic Han majority. Since 2017, Chinese authorities have been waging the „People’s War on Terror“ in an effort to stamp out Islamic extremism. At least 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities have been estimated to have been detained extrajudicially in detention camps, which Beijing describes as vocational training centers.
The lead author of the report, Rayhan Asat, a Harvard law scholar and senior fellow with the Atlantic Council, highlighted the harsh punishments meted out to individuals for alleged support of terrorism or extremism. Cases analyzed in the report, based on Chinese court documents, reveal instances of disproportionate sentencing for seemingly minor infractions such as wearing long clothes or sending tuition fees to children studying overseas.
The report’s findings indicate a cumulative sentencing of 4.4 million years based on available data about prosecutions in Xinjiang. Xinjiang legal authorities reported that between 2017 and 2021, a total of 540,826 individuals were prosecuted in the region, making it the highest incarceration rate in the world. However, the actual figures may be higher as Xinjiang authorities have since stopped publishing court data.
In China’s opaque legal system, it is challenging to determine who is behind bars after formal prosecution and who is detained extrajudicially. The official prison population in China is reported to be 1.69 million, but this figure only accounts for sentenced prisoners in Ministry of Justice prisons, excluding pre-trial detainees and those held in administrative detention or camps in Xinjiang.
The soaring rates of incarceration in Xinjiang have had a devastating impact on the Uyghur community, with individuals being targeted for imprisonment based on their connections to Uyghurs abroad. Australian Uyghur community leader Ramila Chanisheff highlighted the plight of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, where family members and friends have been detained without any information on their whereabouts or well-being.
The Chinese government has consistently denied human rights abuses in Xinjiang, despite mounting evidence from journalists, human rights groups, academics, and the United Nations. A report by the UN human rights chief in 2022 corroborated previous findings, concluding that the arbitrary and discriminatory detention of Uyghurs and other Muslim groups may constitute international crimes, including crimes against humanity.
International scrutiny has pushed Chinese authorities towards forms of „lawfare“ and weaponizing criminal prosecutions to justify their actions. However, little has been done by the UN human rights office since its landmark findings in 2022. The need for accountability and action against human rights abuses in Xinjiang remains a pressing issue that requires global attention and intervention.