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Jun Mai

Uygurs became Muslims not by choice but by force, and Islam is not their only religion, Beijing said in a white paper published on Sunday, as it continued its propaganda campaign to justify its controversial policies in the far western province of Xinjiang.
“The Uygur people adopted Islam not of their own volition … but had it forced upon them by religious wars and the ruling class,” according to the document released by the State Council Information Office.
Islamic beliefs were forced on the Uygurs during the expansion of Arabic states. This is a historical fact, the report said, though that did not undermine the Uygurs’ religious rights now.
The report said also that there are Uygurs who hold to faiths other than Islam, and others who do not practise any religion at all.




The paper also took aim at the Uygurs’s historic links with Turkey.
“Historically, the Uygurs’ ancestors were enslaved by the Turks,” it said, citing a history of conflicts between the two groups dating back to the 8th century.
China promotes Xinjiang as tourist idyll
The white paper was issued amid a campaign by Beijing to justify its policies in the restive region, which is home to more than 10 million Uygurs, most whom are Muslim.
Earlier this month, the ambassadors of 22 countries signed a letter calling on Beijing to halt its mass detention of Uygurs in Xinjiang, the first such joint move on the issue at the UN Human Rights Council.
The signatories included envoys from Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Canada, Japan and Switzerland. The United States, which quit the forum a year ago, did not sign the letter.
China responded by issuing a letter signed by the ambassadors of 37 countries, including several Muslim majority states like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, backing its policies in the region.
Beijing said the show of support was “a powerful response to the groundless accusations made against China by a small number of Western countries”.




UN experts and activists say at least 1 million Uygurs and other Muslims are currently being held in detention centres in Xinjiang. China describes the facilities as training and education centres that aim to stamp out religious extremism and provide people with useful skills. It has never said how many people are being detained in them.
The United States has repeatedly criticised Beijing over its policies in Xinjiang.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump met victims of religious persecution from around the world, including Jewher Ilham, a Uygur woman whose father Ilham Tohti was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 after being found guilty of promoting separatism.
“That’s tough stuff,” Trump said after hearing Ilham’s account of her father’s ordeal.

In January, US lawmakers nominated the imprisoned economist, writer and former professor at Minzu University in Beijing, for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize in a bid to pressure China to stop its crackdown on the minority group.
Sunday’s white paper is the latest in a string of similar documents published recently by Beijing as it seeks to defend the legitimacy of its policies in Xinjiang. In a document issued in March, it said that over the past five years it had arrested nearly 13,000 “terrorists” in the region.
Xinjiang camps defended at UN human rights forum
Neither the March report nor Sunday’s white paper mentioned Beijing’s other controversial policies in the region, such as the collection of DNA samples and extensive surveillance on local people.
“Xinjiang has borrowed from international experiences, combined them with local realities, and taken resolute measures against terrorism and extremism,” it said.
The measures have been effective, it said, though did not elaborate.
Over the past year, China has increased its efforts to defend the camps, including organising strictly controlled visits by selected diplomats and journalists to see the people who live in them.
State media has also released videos showing seemingly happy and healthy people inside the camps in a bid to counter accounts of harsh conditions and abuse published by the Western media.


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Xinjiang

Uygurs in Xinjiang didn’t choose to be Muslims, China says in white paper

Beijing has issued a white paper seemingly designed to defend its actions in Xinjiang where as least 1 million Uygurs are being held in detention centres. Photo: AFP

This photo taken on June 4, 2019 shows a man walking past a screen showing images of China's President Xi Jinping in Kashgar in China's northwest Xinjiang region. - China has enforced a massive security crackdown in Xinjiang, where more than one million ethnic Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are believed to be held in a network of internment camps that Beijing describes as "vocational education centres" aimed at steering people away from religious extremism. (Photo by Greg Baker / AFP)

Donald Trump hears ‘tough’ details of China’s Xinjiang camps as he meets detained Uygur scholar Ilham Tohti’s daughter

The Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center, believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, north of Kashgar in Xinjiang. Photo: AFP

(FILES) This file photo taken on June 12, 2010 shows University professor, blogger, and member of the Muslim Uighur minority, Ilham Tohti pauses before a classroom lecture in Beijing. A jailed scholar from China's mostly-Muslim Uighur minority was awarded the Martin Ennals Award for human rights defenders on October 11, 2016, a move swiftly condemned by Beijing. Ilham Tohti has been an outspoken critic of Beijing's policies towards the Uighur minority in their home region Xinjiang in western China, which has seen a security crackdown in recent years prompted by clashes that have killed hundreds. / AFP PHOTO / FREDERIC J. BROWN

Donald Trump and his envoy for religious freedom Samuel Brownback (standing) meet victims of religious persecution in the Oval Office, including Jewher Ilham (far right). Photo: EPA-EFE

‘Stain of the century’: top US diplomat Mike Pompeo lashes out at China over treatment of Uygurs

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivers the keynote address during the second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in the Loy Henderson Auditorium of the State Department in Washington, DC on July 19, 2019. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP)

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands on Thursday, July 18, 2019 at the White House in Washington, D.C. (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/TNS)

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Chinese officials pressured some governments not to send delegates to the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom event. Photo: AP

Australia urges China to let Uygur mother and child leave the country and relocate

An angry crowd clashes with Chinese paramilitary police in Xinjiang. Photo: Reuters

Xinjiang camps defended at UN human rights forum

In an address to the UN Human Rights Council, the vice-governor of China’s Xinjiang region has responded to international criticism of the treatment of Uygur and other minorities. Photo: AFP

China's Xinjiang region's Vice-Governor Erkin Tuniyaz attends the Human Rights Council meeting at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 25, 2019. REUTERS/Marina Depetris

News

China

Diplomacy

Islam was forced on ethnic group ‘by religious wars and the ruling class’, Beijing says in latest report defending its actions in far western region
Uygurs’ ancestors were enslaved by the Turks, document says


Islam was forced on ethnic group ‘by religious wars and the ruling class’, Beijing says in latest report defending its actions in far western region.


Human rights in China

Religion in China

Uygurs in Xinjiang didn’t choose to be Muslims, China says in white paper

Islam was forced on ethnic group ‘by religious wars and the ruling class’, Beijing says in latest report defending its actions in far western region Uygurs’ ancestors were enslaved by the Turks, document says

Islam was forced on ethnic group ‘by religious wars and the ruling class’, Beijing says in latest report defending its actions in far western region

Uygurs’ ancestors were enslaved by the Turks, document says