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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jo Smith Finley
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an online publication that has been published in its final definitive form by FORUM: Surveillance and Repression of Muslim Minorities: Xinjiang and Beyond, 2020.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
In Xinjiang over the past four years, we have seen a series of Han-majoritarian assimilationist policies directed against Turkic Muslims, especially Uyghurs, in the aftermath of the 2009 Ürümchi protest-turned-riot, and especially since the launch of the Chinese government’s “People’s War on Terror” in 2014. Some have argued that these measures constitute “cultural genocide.” The policies include restrictions on the Uyghur language; the replacement of “bilingual education” with “national language education,” namely, Mandarin-only teaching in schools and colleges; desecration and destruction of religious sites; the coercive Sinicization of Uyghur culture; gendered violence, including enforced sterilizations; mass disappearances and detentions; and systematic human rights violations committed in the network of internment camps (involving physical and psychological torture and deaths), high‑security prisons, and forced labor situations. In this article, we first draw on visual data, including images of erasure obtained during a 2018 field trip to the region and satellite imaging, to support the charge of “cultural genocide.” We then consider recent evidence of coercive birth control and ask whether what is taking place in Xinjiang should more correctly be described as genocide, without the modifier “cultural.”
Author(s): Klimes O, Smith Finley J
Series Editor(s): Rachel Harris and Sophia Woodman
Publication type: Online Publication
Publication status: Published
Series Title: Society and Space Magazine
Year: 2020
Acceptance date: 07/12/2020
Publisher: FORUM: Surveillance and Repression of Muslim Minorities: Xinjiang and Beyond
Type of Medium: Online magazine associated with the Department of Global Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
URL: https://www.societyandspace.org/articles/chinas-neo-totalitarian-turn-and-genocide-in-xinjiang
