File photo: China’s Uyghurs Protest against Genocide in China. China is committing genocide against Uyghurs other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang US Secretary of States Antony Blinken said” April 23, 2024.
By: Ya Libnan Editorial Board
China’s treatment of its Muslim communities—most notably the Uyghurs in Xinjiang and increasingly the Hui across the country—has been documented by international human-rights organizations, UN experts, and multiple governments as a systematic campaign of repression that amounts to crimes against humanity and, by several legal definitions, genocide.
This is not a political accusation. It is a conclusion drawn from survivor testimony, satellite imagery, leaked government documents, and China’s own official policies.
A Campaign of Repression by Design
Since 2017, more than one million Muslims have been arbitrarily detained in a vast network of internment camps euphemistically described by Beijing as “re-education” or “vocational training centers.” Former detainees report political indoctrination, psychological and physical abuse, and coercion to renounce their faith and cultural identity.
Under the policy of “Sinicization,” Islam is being forcibly reshaped to conform to Communist Party ideology. Thousands of mosques have been demolished, closed, or “rectified,” stripped of domes and minarets to erase their Islamic character. Public expressions of faith are restricted; Muslim names are banned; fasting during Ramadan is discouraged or prohibited; and children are barred from religious education and mosque attendance.
Xinjiang has also become one of the most heavily surveilled regions in the world. AI-powered facial recognition, DNA collection, biometric databases, and intrusive smartphone monitoring have turned daily life for Muslims into a permanent security screening.
At the same time, credible reports document widespread forced labor in industries such as textiles and agriculture, along with coercive population-control measures targeting Muslim women, including forced sterilization and contraception aimed at suppressing birth rates.
Beijing’s Defense—and the Reality
China insists these policies are necessary to combat extremism and ensure national security. But collective punishment, cultural erasure, and demographic engineering are not counterterrorism tools—they are instruments of repression.
Domestically, state-backed narratives have fueled open Islamophobia. Anti-Muslim rhetoric flourishes on Chinese social media, often tolerated by censors, while voices defending religious freedom are silenced.
A Stark Moral Imbalance
What makes China’s actions especially indefensible is the glaring moral imbalance at their core.
China has benefited enormously from trade, energy security, and diplomatic legitimacy provided by Muslim-majority countries. Its global expansion has been supported by oil and gas from the Middle East, massive infrastructure investments under the Belt and Road Initiative, and deepening partnerships with countries such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Iran.
Yet at home, Beijing treats millions of Muslims not as citizens, but as a problem to be erased.
Mosques are demolished. Faith is criminalized. Families are torn apart through mass detention and forced labor—while China signs billion-dollar deals abroad and presents itself internationally as a responsible partner and even a peacemaker.
Economic cooperation does not grant moral immunity. Prosperity built on silence does not excuse injustice.
A Call to Conscience
Governments may choose pragmatism. But people must choose principle.
If the Muslim world speaks forcefully about justice elsewhere, it cannot remain silent about Xinjiang. Silence in the face of mass repression is not neutrality—it is complicity.
It is time for Muslim societies, religious leaders, civil organizations, and ordinary citizens to demand that China treat its Muslim population with dignity, equality, and basic human rights.
Faith should never be erased to secure trade deals.
Human dignity should never be negotiable.
History is watching—and so are the victims.
