Freedom and control in Xinjiang Premium

Xinjiang, the north-western province in China, is home to more than 50 ‘ethnic minorities’, most of whom are Uyghur Muslim. Chinese Communist Party has been accused of persecuting the community and attempting to erase their culture.

Nine musicians dressed in bright outfits assemble on stage at the centre of an accordion museum in Yining city in Xinjiang province, China. It is June 17, the day of Eid-Ul-Adha, and everyone is in celebratory mood. Thousands of tourists and locals have gathered on Liuxing street despite the heat to enjoy street food, watch graceful performances, and drink chilled fresh juice and beer.

In the museum crammed with instruments, each musician holds an accordion. Before bursting into song, they introduce themselves, not by name but by ethnicity – Uyghur, Kazhak, Mongolian, Uzbek, and so on. Then, in chorus, they shout cheerfully in English, “We are all part of the Chinese nation.”

The proclamation of national unity and the carefully curated diversity on stage, particularly on the occasion of Eid, is significant. Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, located in northwestern China, is home to 56 ethnic groups, including the Uyghur, Kazakh, Mongol, Manchu, Uzbek, Xibe, and Russian, who are all termed “ethnic minorities” by the state. The vast province is home to followers of many religions such as Islam, Taoism, Buddhism, and Christianity.

For years, China has faced accusations from human rights groups of committing crimes against humanity of mostly Muslim ethnic groups in the region. According to several reports, including by the United Nations Human Rights Office, and Human Rights Watch, the Chinese were detaining Uyghurs, who form the majority of the ethnic minorities, in “detention centres” and subjecting them to abuse.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has rubbished these claims. It has repeatedly argued that these are not “detention centres” but “education and vocational training centres”. A booklet issued by the State Council Information Office says these centres were established with the “goal of educating and rehabilitating people guilty of minor crimes or law-breaking, and eradicating the influence of terrorism and extremism.” In 2019, however, the Chairman of the Xinjiang regional government announced that these centres would be gradually wound down “if society no longer needed them.”

Various studies have also claimed that the population of the Han Chinese, the country’s dominant ethnic group, has grown in the region, while the Uyghur population has declined ever since the People’s Republic of China took over the province in 1949.

However, official data show that the Uyghur population, which was 3.6 million in the first national population census of 1953, grew to 11.6 million (222%) in the seventh census of 2020. The increase has been attributed in part to the fact that Uyghurs and other minorities, along with the rural population, were exempt from China’s decades-old one-child policy.