Stora tråden om Kina

Controls on religious activity have slackened
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“Religious freedom is enshrined in China’s constitution,” said a student, Omar Adilabdulla

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...a headmaster tells us that the Uyghur language continues to be protected, pointing to their minority language classes.

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Over grilled lamb and yogurt, we watched grinning Uyghurs dressed in traditional gowns dance and sing. Dou turns to me.
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“See, we can’t have genocide here,” Dou said, gesturing to the performers. “We’re preserving their traditional culture.”

"But there is no doubt about who rules, and evidence of the terror of the last four years is everywhere.

It’s seen in Xinjiang’s cities, where many historic centers have been bulldozed and the Islamic call to prayer no longer rings out. It’s seen in Kashgar, where one mosque was converted into a café, and a section of another has been turned into a tourist toilet. It’s seen deep in the countryside, where Han Chinese officials run villages."

"Uyghurs live trapped in an invisible system that restricts their every move. It’s near impossible for them to get passports, and on planes to and from Xinjiang, most passengers are from China’s Han Chinese majority."

"one village we stop in, an elderly Uyghur man in a square skullcap answers just one question – “We don’t have the coronavirus here, everything is good” – before a local Han Chinese cadre demands to know what we are doing."

"Uyghurs who live outside Xinjiang must register with local police and report to an officer on a regular basis, their moves tracked and monitored. Many Uyghurs living in Xinjiang aren’t allowed to leave the region."

"Information on Xinjiang within China is heavily censored, and state media now promotes the region as a safe, exotic tourist destination. As a result, Han Chinese outside Xinjiang remain largely unaware of the restrictions that Uyghurs face, one of a number of reasons why many in China are supportive of Beijing’s crackdown."

"Controls on religious activity have slackened, but remain tightly bound by the state. For example, the authorities have allowed some mosques to reopen, though hours are strictly limited."

"The government boasts that nearly a thousand Uyghur titles are published a year, but none are by Perhat Tursun, a lyrical modernist author, or Yalqun Rozi, a textbook editor and firebrand commentator. They, like most prominent Uyghur intellectuals, have been imprisoned."

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Agence France-Presse

Canadian couple witnesses to China's 'methodical' repression of Uyghurs

Gary and Andrea Dyck spent a decade in China steeped in the local Turkic Muslim culture and described their repression

During the decade they lived in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, Canadians Gary and Andrea Dyck had a front-row seat to Beijing's "very methodical" repression of the Uyghur people, which Canada's parliament and others have declared to be genocide.

The Dycks, who are fluent in Uyghur and Mandarin, settled in Xinjiang in 2007 and ran a composting business for agricultural waste.

Targeting of Uyghur culture that Gary called "very methodical" started with restrictions on Islamic traditions, and expanded later to include rules on food, clothing, and even language.

The couple said some versions of the Koran were banned, and eventually all books in the Turkic language.

"In a prominent market I saw a sign posted that said it's not allowed to speak Uyghur," Andrea said.

Next came the internment camps.

Gary said: As the camps were being built, and people were being taken away months later, there was no pushback, there was no fight because there was so much security and they were overwhelmed as a people.

Gary said a wall around it was 15 feet high, topped with barbed wire, and monitored by security cameras as well as guard patrols.