Think tank report exposes China's 'intent to destroy' Uyghurs

Washington [US], March 10 : The Chinese government has breached every single article of the United Nations genocide convention in its treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and bears responsibility for committing genocide, according to a report by a US-based think tank further exposing Beijing's intent to destroy the Uyghurs as a group.
The report published by a non-partisan US-based thinktank, the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy said that the Chinese Communist Party "bears State responsibility for committing genocide against the Uyghurs in breach of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) based on an extensive review of the available evidence and application of international law to the evidence of the facts on the ground."
"This report concludes, based on a clear and convincing standard of proof, that China is responsible for breaches of each provision of Article II of the Convention," the report said
According to CNN, it is the first time a non-governmental organization has undertaken an independent legal analysis of the accusations of genocide in Xinjiang, including what responsibility Beijing may bear for the alleged crimes.
Up to two million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are believed to have been placed in a sprawling network of detention centers across the region, according to the US State Department, where former detainees allege they were subjected to indoctrination, sexually abused and even forcibly sterilized.
"China's policies and practices targeting Uyghurs in the region must be viewed in their totality, which amounts to an intent to destroy the Uyghurs as a group, in whole or in substantial part, as such," the report read.
"The intent to destroy the Uyghurs as a group is further demonstrated by the Government's deliberate targeting of the guardians and transmitters of Uyghur identity for prolonged detention or death, including household heads, intellectuals, and cultural leaders, regardless of Party affiliation or educational status... The intent to destroy the Uyghurs as a group is further demonstrated by the comprehensive Government policies and programs directed at erasing all aspects of Uyghur identity, community, and domestic life, and institutionalizing Uyghur children in state-run orphanages," it added.
CNN reported that Yonah Diamond, legal counsel at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, who worked on the report, said a common public misunderstanding about the definition of genocide was it required evidence of mass killing or physical extermination of a people.
"The real question is, is there enough evidence to show that there is an intent to destroy the group as such -- and this is what this report lays bare," he said.
'Given the serious nature of the breaches in question this report applies a clear and convincing standard of proof," the report said.
Article II of the Genocide Convention defines genocide as follows: Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
"The persons and entities perpetrating the above-indicated acts of genocide are all State agents or organs -- acting under the effective control of the State -- manifesting an intent to destroy the Uyghurs as a group within the meaning of Article II of the Genocide Convention. This report, therefore, concludes that China bears State responsibility for an ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs, in breach of the Genocide Convention," the report read further.
The report pointed out that Uyghur detainees within the detention sites are systematically tortured, subjected to sexual violence, including rape, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment, deprived of their basic human needs and severely humiliated.
According to CNN, the report also attributed a dramatic drop in the Uyghur birth rate across the region -- down about 33 per cent between 2017 and 2018 -- to the implementation of an official Chinese government program of sterilizations, abortions and birth control, which in some cases was forced upon the women without their consent.
CNN further reported that during the crackdown, textbooks for Uyghur culture, history and literature were allegedly removed from classes for Xinjiang schoolchildren, the report said. In the camps, detainees were forcibly taught Mandarin and described being tortured if they refused, or were unable, to speak it.
China has long denied claims of genocide or mistreatment of the Uyghur people, and most recently the country's foreign minister addressed those accusations in a press conference Sunday.
"The so-called existence of genocide in Xinjiang is absurd. It is a complete lie fabricated with ulterior motives," Wang Yi said as reported by The Hill, adding that supposed "anti-China forces" were attempting to "undermine the security and stability of Xinjiang and hinder China's development and growth."
China also declined to provide data on the number of people in the camps. Beijing had initially denied the very existence of the camps, but now claims that they are educational and vocational centres and that everyone has "graduated."
Uyghurs make up most of the one million people who the UN estimates have been held in camps in Xinjiang as part of what the central government calls a campaign against terrorism.
Also, Beijing has rejected calls for an independent UN investigation into Xinjiang's internment program. Journalists and diplomats are not allowed access to the camps outside of tightly controlled government tours.
US President Joe Biden's administration has called China's treatment of Uyghurs genocide, a position recently adopted by Canada and the Netherlands.
China faces sanctions such as a ban on US purchases of cotton and tomatoes from Xinjiang and calls from some Western lawmakers to boycott the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.