Cross-posted from lemmy.sdf.org/post/43050512

Aziz Isa Elkun couldn’t bear to watch footage of Chinese leader Xi Jinping celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region this week.

Livestreams from Chinese state media showed Xi receiving a red-carpet welcome as locals sang and danced in traditional Uyghur dress.

Elkun fled Xinjiang nearly three decades ago after being persecuted by the Chinese government.

“I couldn’t dare to watch. It was just a second or two… and I stopped,” said 56-year-old Uyghur poet, now based in London.

[…]

Under Xi’s rule over the past decade, mass detention and heavy surveillance of ethnic Uyghur groups have intensified in Xinjiang.

When faced with criticism from abroad, Beijing framed the clampdown in the region as counterterrorism.

During his three-day visit to Xinjiang this week, Xi called for “every possible effort to uphold social stability.”

The Chinese president also met with representatives of all the ethnic groups, expressing hopes “that everyone would join forces and move forward together to build a beautiful Xinjiang,” according to report by the Xinhua news agency.

At the same time, he also hailed the Communist Party’s ethnic autonomy system as “entirely correct” and “effective.”

[…]

Byler told DW that the primary goal for Chinese authorities is to “make Xinjiang a space that’s fully integrated with the rest of the country… a space that’s sort of open for business.”

“To get there,” he added, “they want to turn Uyghurs into a productive workforce.”

[…]

Recent reports also accuse Beijing of running forced labor programs that move hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs from detention centers into textile, manufacturing, and agricultural work.