China not serious about democracy, says East Turkistan Human Rights president

SHAH ALAM – There is no point of observing the improvement of China’s democracy to solve issues pertaining to human rights as the country will not be moving towards democracy.

In an exclusive with Sinar Daily on its Fireside Chat programme on the Uyghur-Chinese conflict, East Turkistan Human Rights Watch Association president Nurmuhammad Majid said China’s behaviour towards democracy could already be observed through how they had been treating Hong Kong these past two years.

This, he said has showed that the country has no aim or agenda to preserve a democratic system.

Nurmuhammad said the tensions between China and Taiwan were a clear observation of China's attitude of not striving for democracy as Taiwan was currently facing a military threat from China.

“China is showing a merciless mentality to its own people,” he added.

He said China had purposely advanced their economic and political expansions in areas such as Southeast Asia, Middle Eastern countries, Africa, Latin America and Central Asia because there had been less engagement with the world’s superpowers like the United States.

“Where there is a Chinese presence or investment, it becomes a problem,” he said.

Echoing Nurmuhammad’s view was International Union of East Turkistan Organisation secretary-general Abduresid Eminhaci who agreed that China’s approach towards other nations was a scheme to influence them with money and to pull them into the debt-trap policy.

“Economically, China is trying to become the protector or the hegemon to influence or control the sovereignty of all the countries in this world,” he said.

For Nurmuhammad, there was no possible way to reconcile with China in this conflict unless international communities were to speak up against the atrocities committed by China against the Uyghur community.

He also said the matter was complicated to resolve because of China’s involvement in the international community as well as its influence in contemporary global politics.

He said a brave country needed to stand up and bring this matter up alongside evidence from the findings of the United Nations, academia and researchers to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

“Then, I have no doubt that the ICJ will find out substantial grounds that China is accountable for the current genocide committed on the Uyghur people,” he said.

He added that although he acknowledged that it may take a long time for the Uyghur genocide to be completely resolved, he was still hoping for international communities to move towards a decisive action policy and give massive support and contribution before the Uyghur people became just another part of history.

Nurmuhammad said Uyghur Muslims were the natives and the inhabitants of East Turkistan, a vast territory located in the Central Asian region.

He said the Chinese occupation of the East Turkistan region started in 1949 and subsequently, Uyghurs and other ethnic groups allegedly faced oppression and human rights violations under the assimilation policy implemented by the Chinese government.

He said the East Turkistan region was now named Xinjiang, a Chinese terminology which refers to the "New Territory".

As of today, he said majority of the Uyghur population were still in their homeland but the Uyghur diasporas were also present in Central Asia, Turkiye, some Middle Eastern countries, Europe, America, Australia, New Zealand and some parts of Japan.