We’ve seen lots of evidence,including a BBC documentary on the detention camps and the leak of official Chinese government documents which show that China’s President Xi Jinping personally urged his officials to “show no mercy” in implementing the campaign. The campaign’s name? “Strike Hard”.
So what’s new about the UN report? “What was new were the first-hand interviews,and that does corroborate previous findings,” says the Asia director for Human Rights Watch,Elaine Pearson. “These are most serious offences – the report clearly says they may be crimes against humanity.”
Also new is that this is a report of the UN,and could now form the basis of formal resolutions in the UN. Naturally,“the Chinese government will fight this tooth and nail,” Pearson says.
Is Beijing practising the gravest possible crime against humanity:genocide? The government of the US has said so. So have the parliaments of Canada,the Netherlands,France,Britain and Lithuania. Neither Australia’s government nor parliament has done so. Yet. The two major parties have been anxious to avoid upsetting China’s rulers.
So what does Australia do now? According to the tiny Australian Uighur community of some 2500 people,and human rights activists,this is what Australia should do.
First,Australia has a new tool in its policy kit designed for precisely such human rights outrages –Magnitsky sanctions. The parliament passed these into law last year. They allow the foreign affairs minister to impose sanctions on named offenders,the foreign government officials who commit violations.
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This would mean Penny Wong could ban individual officials from travelling to Australia,from owning property in Australia,and from stashing cash and other assets in Australia.
Why should the world’s worst torturers be allowed to enjoy the benefits and liberties of a country dedicated to protecting individual rights? In the words of a government explanation,these sanctions are to “ensure that we do not become an isolated,attractive safe haven for such people and entities,and their ill-gotten gains”. What a good idea!
Second,Australia could ban any goods,such as clothing and textiles,made with the use of forced labour. That’s one of the many abuses inflicted on the Uighurs by Xi’s regime. Labor has promised to review the toothless existing Modern Slavery Act and give it some teeth. Bring it on.
Third,Australia should do more to support theAustralian Uighurs who are put under unconscionable pressure by Chinese Communist Party operatives and agents here in Australia. They are surveilled,followed and harassed in Australia. The Chinese regime pressures them to return “home” to China.
Fourth,“Australia could be doing more to create a broader coalition of governments concerned about the violations,” Pearson says. Pointedly,she calls on the Muslim majority nations of Malaysia and Indonesia to do more. They have spoken out against abuses in Myanmar but fall silent when China is mentioned.
These are all modest yet practical and positive steps that Wong and her colleagues in like-minded countries should consider. Would Xi respond with yet more sanctions against Australia? Maybe. But maybe not;the earlier ones have only backfired on Beijing.
Longer term,Australia needs to dilute Beijing’s coercive economic capability over us. The big new regional trade agreement for the region – the CPTPP – which excludes China and the US,could be the forum for intensifying trade between what trade expert Tim Harcourt calls “friendlies”.
Conducting less trade with hostile autocracies and more trade with friendlies “is not first best,but in a world where one partner is hostile,it’s all you’ve got”.
One thing is certain. On the current trajectory,Xi’s regime is succeeding. As Kadeer tells me:“I believe the Chinese Communist Party is achieving its goal. Their final goal is the total extermination of the Uighur people.”
Peter Hartcher is international editor
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