OpinionMalaysia’s quiet resistance against Uygur extraditions to China worth emulating
- Putrajaya’s approach doesn’t poke Beijing in the eye, but still shows it is not oblivious to the plight of Uygurs in Xinjiang
- It’s a move that will come with little immediate cost to countries deciding to do likewise, as the likelihood of a Uygur exodus into their borders is highly unlikely
According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW), Uygurs in the Xinjiang region have been subject to serious human rights abuses such as mass arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances and torture in custody. Beijing has denied such allegations, maintaining that the camps provide Uygurs with vocational training.
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Germany and allies call for acceptance of Uygurs and slam China on Hong Kong’s national security law
The Jamestown Foundation, an institute for research and analysis, said in a 2017 report that a Uygur exodus began following the 2009 riots in Xinjiang that led to the deaths of nearly 200 people.
As a journalist who arrived in its capital Urumqi a day after the unrest and spent several days covering the riots, I heard from local Uygurs how difficult it is for them to travel to other parts of China.
One Uygur man said that apart from being described as “untrustworthy thieves and robbers”, it was a challenge for Uygurs to find jobs in the country, given the widespread discrimination by the predominant Han Chinese population. Uygurs checking into hotels would often be turned away, or could even face being interrogated by local police – tipped off by the hotel staff, he said.
Restrictions on Uygurs tightened further after two incidents in 2013 and 2014 – in the first, a car said to be driven by extremists from Xinjiang crashed into Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and in the second, a group of knife-wielding men attacked passengers in Kunming, Yunnan province.