Uighurs in China are used as a tourist attraction

China has closed the infamous re-education camps for Uyghurs. According to Beijing, the re-education has been successful and the ‘students’ can resume their normal lives. But many Uyghurs were moved to regular prisons or subjected to forced labor.

China journalist Roland Smid traveled for a week through the home region of the Uighurs, Xinjiang. He saw that China wants to forget the camps. Instead, Xinjiang should become a tourist attraction.

A type of prison

The old re-education camp on the outskirts of Urumqi city is deserted. Barbed wire on top of the fence and an empty watchtower are reminders of what happened here. A bunch of kids play soccer in a car park outside the fence. “It was like a prison here,” said one of them. That’s all they know about it.

But camps like this were determining the news of this area for years. For example, in 2021, a majority in the Dutch parliament called the situation a ‘genocide’ of the Uyghurs who were under great oppression, an ethnic minority in China. China denies it.

China opened the first camps in 2017. Uyghurs had to come here for what China called “training” in things like Chinese culture and language. The Uighurs are said to have divided opinions about their own state.

They are also said to adhere to Islamic fundamentalism. According to Beijing, the camps were friendly. They learned skills they could use later on in the job market, was the official story.

But thousands of testimonies from former prisoners and documents released to the New York Times, among others, paint a very different picture. Chinese leader Xi Jinping wanted to include the Uyghurs at all costs. Torture and (sexual) violence was the order of the day. This is what people who were in the camps and escaped from China say.

Uyghurs were arrested for the smallest crimes and sent to a camp. They had to abandon their faith and pledge their allegiance to the ruling Communist Party. There were camps like the one in Urumqi all over the region. It is estimated that around 1 million Uyghurs were imprisoned at its peak.

During our visit to Xinjiang it is clear that fear is still very much alive. Uyghurs do not want to talk on camera. That is too much of a risk for them. We are followed everywhere. When we get into a taxi, we quickly see the following cars in the rearview mirror. When we get out, plainclothes officers follow us.

Although the officers do not come close, they are still in sight. The Uighurs we are talking about see this as well, and are therefore on their guard. They tell us that life here is getting better and better. Camps? Re-education? They say they never heard that.

Almost all the Uighurs we are talking about tell the same story. They say that they do not value their religion much and they hardly ever go to the mosque. And although Islam has traditionally been very important here.

The mosques were the center of social life. Now most are closed, or open only on Friday evenings. And then only Uyghurs can enter with a special permit. The Chinese flag flies in front of the gate, which has communist slogans painted on it. Soldiers with heavy armor watch from a distance.

A display of terror

As part of our trip, we were invited to a special exhibition on the ‘war on terror’ in China. We found the place with special equipment in the middle of an event hall that disappeared. Filming or photography is prohibited. Because, as one guide says: “This is a sensitive issue.” She tells us that terrorists made this area dangerous for years.

There were attacks with bombs, guns and knives. The guide shows display cases full of these weapons. She also shows video material, which would be evidence of the motives of the Uyghurs’ terrorism. But most of the videos are from the IS terrorist movement, from Syria and Iraq. Gloomy images of, among other things, headaches. When asked what this has to do with Uighurs, the guide simply says that terror is ‘international’.

Forced labor

Now that the camps are closed, all Uyghurs are walking around freely again, China says. But many Uighurs abroad who lost contact with their relatives around 2017 still don’t know much. The communication is still closed. Some are told that their father, brother or son has been transferred to a regular prison.

China is also sending Uighurs in large groups to factories elsewhere in China. They are sent to work there, so that they can adapt to the other Chinese. Human rights groups talk about forced labor because the Uyghurs simply cannot refuse.

At the same time, Xinjiang is entering a new phase: the phase of mass tourism. China is encouraging Chinese people from the east of the country to go on holiday to Xinjiang. The region has a lot to offer tourists: beautiful mountain landscapes, vast deserts and charming ancient cities, such as Kashgar. This city is flooded with tourists from big cities like Shanghai and Beijing. They all want to taste a lamb kebab made by Uyghurs, and watch a traditional Uyghur dance.

Censorship

The tourists we are talking about deny human rights violations. It is difficult for them to know about this, because the Chinese Internet often censors this kind of news. The average Chinese have never heard of re-education camps for Uighurs. “People here live in harmony,” says one of them.

But that harmony comes with a price, which is that camera surveillance is everywhere, just like armed soldiers and police. Journalists are being followed everywhere because China wants to make sure that Uyghurs don’t tell them anything ‘wrong’. In an unguarded moment, an old Uyghur street vendor in Kashgar reveals that he cries inside every day. He has lost his faith, and every day he has to see tourists treating his city like an amusement park. “But I can’t do anything about it,” he cries.