“Where are the millions of Uyghurs being executed? Where are the dead bodies?” These are the sort of adolescent-level questions that arise from CCP propagandists when Uyghur activists use the word genocide to describe the cultural genocide taking place in occupied East Turkistan. The primary issue with such questions is their disturbingly narrow understanding of what genocide means. Genocide is not just about the extermination of millions all at once. That is not how the Cambodian genocide took place; that is not how the Bosnian genocide took place, and that is certainly not how the Holocaust took place. It is a complex process that has several defined stages. Dismissing the severity of the Uyghur crisis based on mere semantics is a deflection tactic, one that shifts the focus from accountability to a game of words.
To understand the nuances of genocide, one must first refer to the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention (1*). The Convention defines genocide as acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. These acts include 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, and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. The definition recognizes that genocide can manifest itself in different ways and does not strictly require the mass extermination of a group at a single time. The intention to harm or destroy a particular group is at the heart of the crime.
Genocide Watch has further elaborated on the process of genocide by identifying ten stages (2*) that societies go through leading up to it. These stages include classification, symbolization, discrimination, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, persecution, extermination, and denial. Each stage provides an opportunity for intervention. We see that the CCP ticks every box (3*) from their classifying of Uyghurs as an extremist minority to their full fledge denial citing the need to educate the Uyghurs to combat “Separatist Terrorism” – which is a joke of an excuse that was discussed in a previous article (4*). There are also different types of genocide. The term "cultural genocide” – which was coined by the Polish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, focuses on the eradication of a group's culture, heritage, and identity. This involves erasing their history, languages, customs, and religions. Most of the literature on genocide today agrees with Lemkin’s postulation – which is that cultural erasure is at the center of all forms of genocide (5*). In the case of the Uyghurs, there have been reports of authorities demolishing mosques, forcing Uyghurs to abandon their traditional customs and religion, and replacing Uyghur language education with Mandarin – all of which clearly constitutes cultural genocide.
Deflection via semantics and the insistence on a monolithic definition of genocide is a tactic the CCP employs to avoid international scrutiny. But understanding the full scope of the term and its various manifestations makes it evident that what the Uyghurs are enduring is indeed a form of genocide.
- "Ratification of the Genocide Convention." United Nations, www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide-convention.shtml.
- Stanton, Dr. Gregory. "Genocide Watch- Ten Stages of Genocide." Genocide Watch, www.genocidewatch.com/tenstages.
- "10 Stages of Genocide — China’s Organized Mass Detentions of Uighurs Muslims." Medium, medium.com/the-collector/10-stages-of-genocide-chinas-organized-mass-detentions-of-uighurs-muslims-9fcb73fef8cd.
- "Separatist Terrorism or Scapegoat Tactics?" Uyghur Truth Project, uyghurtruthproject.org/blog/separatist-terrorism-or-scapegoat-tactics.
- Roberts, Sean R. The War On The Uyghurs. Princeton University Press, 2022.
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