Mideast: Reactions of Majority Muslim Countries on China's Mistreatment of Uighurs
China’s Muslim population, including the Uighurs, are increasingly finding it unbearable to remain in the country, what are Muslim majority countries doing about it?
China’s suppression of its Muslim population has been an increasingly apparent problem that has called into question how committed the country is to protecting human rights and the safety of its diverse populace. The Chinese government has forced Chinese Muslims, including its major Uighur population, to drop religious-sounding names, have made it increasingly difficult to observe and fast during religious holidays, have been sterilized, detained in concentration camps, and indeed subject to a concerted effort of persecution bordering genocide. But the response of the international community has yet to significantly deter China's abuse of its Muslim population. One notable avenue of international protest is the Middle East, who's states are majority Muslim and surely should have something to say about the Chinese persecution of their co-religionists. But are they saying enough?
A Disappointing Response
It seems as if Western countries are doing more for the Uighurs than the Middle East and other Muslim majority countries. 22 Countries, of which 18 were European, signed a joint statement condemning China’s use of camps to detain Uighurs and unequivocally stating that these countries will not stay silent on China’s human rights violations. Notably, no Muslim majority country was party to this letter. Quite to the contrary, in another joint statement signed by 37 countries, praising China’s “human rights achievements,” half of the signatories were Muslim majority states: including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Egypt.
Turkey’s Flipflopping
Notably absent from the latter statement is Turkey, which has a more complicated relationship with China’s Uighur population, who themselves originally come from Turkic stock. Previously, the Turkish government proved a harsh critic on detainment camps but has become more complacent about the issue as years passed. Many believe China is pressuring Turkey to relinquish its status as a safe haven for Uighurs, and this may very well be true considering Turkey’s recent detainment of Uighurs and its efforts to send Uighur refugees back to China. Turkey’s Beijing embassy has notably not made an effort to visit Xinjiang province where many Uighurs live and face repression and have not even mentioned the Uighurs in the embassy’s annual report. How has China been coercing Turkey and other majority Muslim countries into staying silent on the issue of the Uighurs and Chinese Muslim repression? One factor can well be economic incentives.
The Economic Incentives of Backing China
Turkey, in an effort for better trade relations with China, has effectively stopped its criticism of Muslim persecution in the country. Turkey has received billions of dollars from China after its deteriorating economic condition was made apparent and it may very well be the case that economic incentives trump any sense of solidarity on Turkey’s part. This seems to be the case in other Muslim majority countries as well. As highlighted by an analysis of Muslim majority states capitulation to China, China has become a key partner in Saudi Arabia’s future economic plans and it’s ‘Saudi Vision 2030” and has left Pakistan without reason to criticize the Chinese state owing to its own positive relationship with the country. Like Turkey, these states will continue to favor material incentives rather than ideologically oriented cries to religious solidarity and the like. This of course has negatively affected China’s Muslim population profoundly, who remain in heavy need of assistance considering their saddening predicament. Complaints to the International Criminal Court and other avenues to deterring (or punishing) the Chinese state over its violation of Chinese Muslim human rights can only go so far if Muslim majority countries do nothing to support such motions.
What Does This Say about the Governments of Muslim Majority States?
The states mentioned above, especially Turkey and Saudi Arabia, have prided themselves as state protectors of Muslim rights and beacons of refuge and centers of the Muslim world. Turkey under Erdogan has especially favored trends in political Islam and the reorienting of the Turkish secular public sphere into that of a decidedly more religious atmosphere, one needs only to look at recent moves to make Hagia Sophia a mosque to glean such information. But silence on the mistreatment of Uighurs and other Chinese Muslims calls into question how dedicated such Muslim majority states are to the safety and prosperity of Muslims domestically and across the globe. Indeed, in light of compliancy to China’s violation of human rights on their fellow coreligionists, it seems as if Turkey’s pivot away from secularism to favoring Islam is really more of a political (and indeed aesthetic) move rather than a meaningful and edifying call for the protection of Islamic values and religious freedom.
How will Muslim majority countries answer Muslims across the globe calling for the protection of Uighurs and criticizing the international community for its lack of assistance? This episode of unresponsiveness will surely evoke criticism from the Muslim community, including domestically within the Turkish or other Muslim majority state. Political maneuvering and public relation-type press conferences will surely follow as these countries attempt to save face and underscore their complacency to Chinese Muslim persecution. This, of course, is not normatively desirable in the least but serves as an example of the often lip-service paying regimes of the Middle East and of the very little such governments do for the values and efforts they claim to espouse. More should surely be done for Uighurs and other Chinese Muslims facing persecution, but unfortunately, it is unlikely that the governments of Muslim majority countries will be the ones doing anything about it.
