Purges of Officials in Xinjiang underscore plight of Uyghur

China’s latest crackdown on the Uyghur peoples of Xinjiang targets officials who are labelled as “two-faced”. More than 70 Uyghur have been detained in Korla, the second largest city by population. These officials have been purged, in what may be seen as a continuation of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign being extended to Xinjiang. The latest operation that began on 15 July against the Uyghur who are working as officials in the Chinese system is being termed as the “dark forces” crackdown and the purge is being applied to those who are disloyal and do not follow directives of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Radio Free Asia reports that this operation is part of a larger investigation and jailing of those deemed to be disloyal to China and the CPC.

Thus far, over 200 Uyghur deemed problematic have been investigated in the city of Korla. It is striking that the current operations began on the same date when the Third Plenum of the Central Committee kicked off in Beijing, revealing some pre-planning. Notably, the new term coined to describe the so-called disloyal Uyghur officials also requires investigation of whether the accused showed sympathy to the Uyghur cause and was in touch with other Uyghurs. One police officer told RFA that “Since the beginning of the crackdown on ‘dark forces,’ more than 200 suspects have been investigated, [and] 76 of them were determined to be two-faced.” All these measures are part of China’s efforts to mainstream and ‘Hanize’ the Uyghur peoples, as also intensify ideological control over Xinjiang.

The latest crackdown is one of the many of measures China uses to suppress what it views as “ethnic separatist forces,” “terrorist forces” and “religious extremism” in Xinjiang. Just for perspective, it is noted that the total population of Xinjiang is around 26 million, of which 12 million are Uyghur. Kazakh, Hui, Kyrgyz, Uyghur and members of the other Muslim ethnic minority groups constitute around 15 million in Xinjiang, or approximately 58% of the total population. The remaining population is largely constituted by Han Chinese (42%),

To understand how China continues to put pressure on the Uyghur, one must watch the new documentary by Portuguese film maker David Novack titled “All Static and Noise” which is currently being screened in Australia. The documentary reveals the inside stories of survivors and their families in China’s Uyghur ‘re-education’ camps. What is one seeing now in Xinjiang is the “re-examination” method to “identify and punish those who do not fulfill their duties in key areas”. This crackdown was initiated on 14 July by a working group known as “Combating Dark and Evil Forces”. This method was first used by authorities in 2016 to purge Uyghur writers, artists and researchers by raising questions about their loyalty to China. In essence, re-examination means looking at the past work of the Uyghur and identifying things that could be potentially labelled as anti-state.

The purging of Uyghur officials in the city of Korla took place under a state of continuing emergency in place since the end of 2023. RFA reports that while the “attack on dark and evil forces” in other Chinese provinces targets gangs and criminals, in Xinjiang the local authorities go after Uyghur in political and government positions, especially top Uyghur cadres, state employees and CPC members. During the “dark forces” crackdown in Hotan, called Hetian in Chinese, authorities investigated and punished leading Uyghur cadres deemed “two-faced” for purportedly protecting “national separatists” and “religious extremists.”

In the past, the term “re-education” was used to describe the actions taken by the CPC against the Uyghur under the Strike Hard campaign in Xinjiang. “Re-examination” also earlier targeted ordinary Uyghur and who were jailed for so-called “religious extremism” by their practice of Muslim faith or studying the Quran. Much of the academic groundwork for exposure of the “re-education camps” in Xinjiang comes from the work of Adrian Zenz, the Austrian scholar. However, a 2017 article by Darren Byler, an anthropologist which reports on a speech by a CPC official on Xinjiang is also of importance, as it inspired the film “All Static & Noise.”

The Byler article reported that Communist officials gathered thousands of students and faculty at the gymnasium of Xinjiang University to ‘explain’ their version of the ‘Global War on Terror’. In the course of this exposition they painted the Uyghur and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang as ‘terrorists’ guilty of ‘separatism.’ At that event, the Xinjiang University Party Secretary, referring to the Uyghur, declared that ‘all static and noise would need to be eliminated’. This is the source of the title of David Novack’s documentary. In an interview with the magazine FilmInk, Novack said, “The film’s intention is to reappropriate this language, to make louder the voices of resistance and inspire the masses to challenge the hate that sits behind this inflamed speech.”

Notably, Novack’s film was banned in China even before it was completed! Just imagine how paranoid the Chinese must be for them to have ban the documentary, even before its final release. Novack was also shadowed and tailed by Chinese police and intelligence, wherever he went to document his story. He added that his team faced obstacles in distributing the film, saying, “I couldn’t possibly sell this film to Netflix as the OTT streaming platform is broadcasting or streaming in China.”

The all-pervasive nature of the Chinese state is clearly evidenced in Xinjiang where authorities continue to use the tools at its disposal to persecute the Uyghur peoples. This makes it even more difficult to detect and report the persecution of the Uyghur. The CPC wishes to wipe out the identity and culture of the Uyghur and it is with this objective that it has carried out the re-education campaign. With Xi Jinping in power, it appears likely that Xinjiang will provide the rationale to declare a new normal in the handling of ethnic minorities in China. That seems to be the objective of the latest drive to purge Uyghur officials.