May you live in interesting times…
Uyghurs who had just arrived for pilgrimage got off his taxi
upon learning he was Uyghur who knew their language
– they knew they’d be reprimanded upon returning to China for speaking with Uyghurs abroad.
Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and every Muslim in the world looks forward to it. Throughout their stay in Saudi Arabia for Hajj, they are brimming with a certain spirituality because they know just how lucky they are to be able to perform this pilgrimage. Muslims from all corners of the world gather under one sky to perform this ritual, where they interact with other Muslims in order to strengthen the bond of faith.
For Chinese Muslims, however, it’s a different story. The recent pilgrimage for Chinese, including elderly Uyghurs and Hui Muslims, to Saudi Arabia revealed how the Chinese government has tried to erect a wall between free Uyghurs living outside China and the Uyghurs from Xinjiang—also known as East Turkistan. Uyghurs residing in Saudi Arabia took to social media to describe how Uyghurs from Xinjiang—who recently came to Saudi Arabia for the annual Muslim pilgrimage—are avoiding restaurants and shops belonging to their fellow Uyghurs.
For the Hui, though, situation is completely different as reports have suggested that they freely visited the Uyghurs living in the Gulf country.
One Uyghur taxi driver in Saudi Arabia revealed that Uyghurs, who had just arrived for the pilgrimage from Xinjiang, looked very scared and immediately got off his taxi upon learning he was Uyghur, who also happened to know their language. They knew that they would be reprimanded by the Chinese government upon returning to China for speaking with Uyghurs abroad.
During the previous years, any Uyghur from China, upon visiting overseas, did not mind seeing Uyghur communities in that country; they could talk to each other and were not afraid of visiting their shops.
However, starting from January of this year, following China’s draconian orders of forcing Uyghurs abroad—including students—to return to their home in China, the wall created between Uyghurs from Xinjiang, and Uyghurs who are free has become more nerve-racking than ever.
This wall first tries to prevent Uyghurs from traveling by creating difficulties in obtaining a passport. Despite the struggle, some Uyghurs manage to get passports by giving bribes of significant amounts to Chinese officials. If that was not difficult enough, things then take a turn for the worst when Chinese officials start taking their family members hostage upon learning that a member is abroad, putting them through hell if they return.
But you can’t possibly carry it out without concealing it under a banner of virtue; for that, the state allows a carefully organised Muslim pilgrimage delegation, consisting of elderly Uyghurs and Hui Muslims, to leave for Saudi Arabia. However, all Uyghurs in this delegation are under strict surveillance and their activities are monitored. Meeting a fellow Uyghur or even saying hello to them is completely out of the question for the ones travelling abroad.
When it comes to online interaction, strict government surveillance and intensive spying makes it nearly impossible for Uyghurs to communicate freely with their loved ones. This makes it increasingly difficult for Uyghur students to get financial support from their parents since they are unable to communicate with their folks back in Xinjiang.
“The Chinese government became aware that I am studying in Turkey. Starting this year, they’re pressurising my parents to ask me to return. I cut all my connections with my family members in East Turkistan and left from Turkey to the US. Now, they don’t know where I am; therefore, the Chinese government can’t do much. Nonetheless, I am still worried about my parents: what if my parents were taken to re-education camp since I did not return. I have no idea,” one of the Uyghur students in the US told me on the condition of anonymity.
“The Chinese government became aware that I am studying in Turkey
… they’re pressurising my parents to ask me to return.
What if my parents were taken to re-education camp since I did not return?”
All online communications are strictly censored and monitored by the Chinese government. In 2016, global watchdog Freedom House ranked China as “the world’s worst abuser of internet freedom.”
To date, countless Uyghur writers, journalists, bloggers or ones who try to reveal the truth by posting pictures or videos showing Chinese oppression are harshly punished and imprisoned. The World Uyghur Congress has published dozens of names that have been arrested, but that is only the tip of the iceberg, as it is very difficult to get the exact number under such restrictions on the flow of information from the Chinese government.
Almost 30 years after the Berlin Wall collapsed, no one is paying attention to this new kind of wall being erected between the free world and the Uyghurs of Xinjiang. From 1961 to 1989, during the existence of the Berlin Wall, more than 5,000 people tried to escape over the wall, leading to over 200 dead.
This wall is different. The sacrifices Uyghurs have made and the countless deaths that have occurred because of it renders it different from an actual, physical wall—it is both cyber and psychological. The wall even stretches to Uyghurs’ minds; it follows them wherever they go. It certainly followed them upon arriving in Saudi Arabia for Hajj. Conquering their bodies is simply not enough, as it tries to conquer their thoughts, words, behaviours and soul as well. It is a wall between disappearance and survival; slavery and freedom; fear and bravery.
Wall in Germany was made with stones but people dismantled it with their own hands.
But how will you dismantle a wall that is not made from stones—but fear?