China’s Genocidal Policy Ideas: Where did they Originate?
Where do these genocidal policy ideas and the motivating intention come from? As Maureen Hiebert noted in her book Constructing Genocide and Mass Violence, the “idea of destroying the group starts with a cluster of social and political attitudes, belief, values and practices.” This is 52 also very true in the case of China’s genocide.
The General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, is singularly preoccupied with the “rejuvenation of the Great Chinese Nation,” and noted in his report to his party’s 19th national congress that: “We should do more to foster a Chinese spirit, Chinese values, and Chinese strength, to provide moral guidance to our people.” This implies there is 53 no survival space for other ideological values. As a result, any Uyghurs or others in the East Turkistan colony who do not succumb to the forced transformation into ethnic Han Chinese will be considered a threat—an “ideological enemy,” and as “opponents” that must be eliminated. The idea of the superiority of the Han Chinese belief system that can dominate, absorb, and eliminate any other group is applied as a first step, particularly with the conception of a superior self vs. an inferior other which many Han Chinese settlers have cultivated towards the Turkic peoples in the colony. Once the belief of an enemy is created and established, the intent to eliminate soon follows. In this regard, briefly addressing the colonial history of East Turkistan is significant in this article as women are the symbol of the land, country, honor, and dignity of the Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims culture, who their Chinese colonizers subject to the most direct and symbolic destruction.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Policies against the Uyghur Women - Genocidal Intent
- China’s Genocidal Policy Ideas - Where did they Originate?
- Brief History of Colonization of East Turkistan
- China’s Ideological Tools of Genocide - Punishment in Legalism
- Conclusion
- Bibliography