3. Orwell in Xinjiang
Two features this week give great, if terrifying, insight into the massive and growing surveillance state China has built in Xinjiang to control the Uighur population.
In "How China Turned a City Into a Prison," three New York Times reporters document in photos and videos the techno-totalitarianism in Kashgar, Xinjiang. One of the reporters, Paul Mozur, gave more details in a long Twitter thread:
Snapshot of a culture under siege. Our attempt to show what it feels like in Xinjiang right now. Blanketed with surveillance technology and checkpoints, the ancient Silk Road city has the feel of an open-air prison.
Darren Byler, an anthropologist at the University of Washington whose work focuses on Uighur issues, and what he calls "terror-capitalism," details the use of technology in Xinjiang in Ghost World:
The surveillance and predictive profiling systems that targeted Alim and the many Uyghur Muslims he met in detention are the product of a neo-totalitarian security-industrial complex that has emerged in China over the past decade. Dozens of Chinese tech firms are building and marketing tools for a new “global war on terror.”
The U.S. government is pressing allies to confront China over what is happening in Xinjiang (Financial Times), and members of Congress are pushing the Trump administration to sanction China over its Xinjiang policies (RFA).
On March 27, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that he met with several Uighurs in exile, including Ferkat Jawdat. According to him, that meeting has already led to retribution from Beijing:
After I met with @SecPompeo, China stepped out their game and sent my aunt and her husband to the prison in another city for 8 & 9 years. I heard they also threatened my other relatives.
Why it matters: Trade is just a small piece of the increasingly difficult relationship between China and the developed world, and as human rights take a higher priority on the agendas of many developed countries, their relations with China are only going to get more contentious.