2023-08-28 16:00:07
Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, China, June 19, 2023. LEAH MILLIS / AP
Returning from the BRICS summit (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) in Johannesburg, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a short stopover in Xinjiang on Saturday August 26. The opportunity to celebrate the “hard-won social stability” in the Uyghur Autonomous Region and to call for « normalisation » of the policy there. In his speech, delivered to Communist Party cadres and reported by state broadcaster CCTV, Xi Jinping “stressed that the priority was above all to maintain social stability” et “to use this stability to guarantee development”. Located in the far northwest of China, the Xinjiang region is the scene of an intense campaign of repression, marked by the internment of more than 1 million Uighurs and other members of Muslim minorities in camps of “re-education”.
The short visit is the second by the Chinese leader since the launch of the “Yanda” (“strike hard”) campaign in 2014, following a series of attacks attributed to Uighur separatist militants. In July 2022, Xi Jinping had already touted the return of “stability and unity” in the area and had taken the time to greet locals and witnessed traditional Uighur dances. With this new visit, the Chinese leader calls on local authorities to stay the course, in what seems to be a new phase in the recovery of the region, now emphasizing assimilation after the crackdown. He particularly insisted on “the need to combine the development of the fight against terrorism and separatism with the normalization of social stability and respect for the law”, according to CCTV, which quoted the president but did not broadcast an audio extract of his speech.
“I think Xi wants to convince the world that the policy in Xinjiang has been a resounding success. His two visits [2022 et 2023] aim to present a confident face to the world, showing that he has not made a mistake, in order to change the international narrative that his government has committed crimes against humanity against the Uighurs” analysis Maya Wang, associate director for Asia of the NGO Human Rights Watch.
“Transformation through Education”
China rejects these accusations, which it has called “lie of the century”. Beijing has, however, acknowledged the existence of camps, at one time called centers of ” transformation through education in official documents, before being officially renamed ” professional formation center “. In 2019, Xinjiang Governor Shohrat Zakir claimed that “ all students who participated graduated “. The following year, a White Paper titled “Employment and Labor Law in Xinjiang” stated that ” each year from 2014 to 2019, Xinjiang provided training sessions to an average of 1.29 million urban and rural workers ».
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