It's been two years since I left the field and returned to the US to work on writing up my notes and finishing my dissertation project. In that time, I think it's fair to say that the sociopolitical landscape around ethnic politics in China has shifted dramatically. Even as someone who tracks this stuff for a living, I've found it dizzying to keep up. So, before diving back into the blog, I thought it might be a good idea to do a roundup of some recent stories to provide a bit of context. I intend to address several of these individually as the blog gets back on its feet, but for now, here's some of the best coverage of China's ethnic politics since I've been back stateside:
Coverage of the continuing crackdown in Xinjiang, and the proliferation of "patriotic re-education" camps for Islamic minority groups continues to be the largest development in China's ethnic politics over the last few years. Here's a brief synopsis of this coverage:
Early reports of the crackdown began to trickle out in early 2017, describing increased restrictions on public religious practice including bans on headscarves, beards, and giving children "religious" names. More recently, reports indicated that Xinjiang's authorities had prohibited burials, requiring cremation-- a process that Muslims consider haram.
As more details emerged, so too did a clearer picture of the scope and severity of the crackdown (the so-called "People's War on Terror").
Profiles in The Economist, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and from The BBC provide broad overviews of the effects of the campaign. Comedian John Oliver even discussed the situation in Xinjiang as a part of his main story on Xi Jinping's administration on the June 17, 2018 episode of Last Week Tonight.
Further details have leaked out about the kind of surveillance Muslims-- in particular Uyghurs-- face in Xinjiang. Reports of mandatory DNA and biodata collection from Uyghurs, testing of sophisticated facial recognition technology, and the proliferation of ubiquitous security checkpoints throughout Xinjiang's cities has given the world a look at the conditions of daily life under near constant surveillance. In particular, Darren Byler's account of navigating the networks of security clearances and checkpoints in urban Xinjiang gives a particularly illuminating account of how the current surveillance and policing practices of the PRC are being administered in Xinjiang.
Most dramatically, over the last few months the revelation of the existence of a system of "patriotic re-education" camps across Xinjiang has brought the subject of Uyghur rights into the international spotlight. Research done by Adrain Zenz, suggests that possibly as many as 1 million Uyghurs have been detained since 2017.
Accounts from inside the detention centers continue to trickle out.
The Washington Post reported on the camps in May.
The Daily Mail reported that detainees had been forced to drink alcohol and eat pork as a part of their "patriotic retraining."
The Globe and Mail reports that detainees must swear loyalty to Xi and the party.
High profile detainees have included Erfan Hezim, a Uyghur football prodigy, supposedly detained for "visiting foreign countries" in order to take part in training matches. Another account of a Uyghur exchange student at an American university who had been detained over the summer of 2017 upon returning home for summer vacation made headlines in Foreign Policy.
Recently, Buzzfeed News reported that expatriate Uyghurs living abroad have been pressured to spy for China or face the possibility of family members being detained.
A number of scholars including James Leibold, Jo Smith Finley, and David Brophy have written feature pieces on the detention centers, their ideological foundations and motives, and have called for more attention and pressure from the international community in ending this campaign. Sup China's coverage has likened the re-education camps to the strategies employed during the Cultural Revolution,
Nor are Uyghurs the only community facing new obstacles. Hui Muslims have also seen a number of restrictions over the past two years.
Nectar Gan reported that Hui mosques in Yinchuan and Ningxia more broadly have come under scrutiny from the state due to their Arabic style architecture. The government has been attempting to curb the use of foreign styles in building future mosques, and has put limitations on the call to prayer, etc.
Reuters reported that holiday mosque schools-- usually used to help children learn to recite the Qur'an in Arabic had been closed over 2018's Chinese New Year break in a number of Hui communities, leaving residents fearful of further clampdowns in the future.
Many of these restrictions arise amidst a growing climate of Islamophobia. Matthew Erie writes about fears of 'creeping sharia' spreading online-- especially over the issue of halal food. Viola Zhou remarks that online harassment of Hui forums and online communities has increased recently, occasionally spilling out into incidences of real-world conflict. Sup China's Eliot Evans sought out the roots of this Islamophobia and its relation to Han chauvinism. The Sinica Podcast explored this Islamophobia in depth, as guests Alice Su and Ma Tianjie commented on the pervasiveness of the phenomenon with hosts Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn. Viola Zhou writes that amidst all of the other restrictions, Hui communities-- especially those in Yunnan and Gansu-- fear they may be the target of the next campaign.
Obviously this is a lot of information. These are only a handful of the mountain of reporting and scholarship that's been done on the shift in China's ethnic minority policy since the 19th CCP Party congress in Fall 2017. There's plenty to discuss here in the coming weeks and months. I will do my best to keep up with developments as they occur. Stay tuned.