{"id":742,"date":"2021-06-25T13:59:02","date_gmt":"2021-06-25T10:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/?p=742"},"modified":"2021-06-25T13:59:03","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T10:59:03","slug":"china-is-buying-muslim-leaders-silence-on-the-uyghurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/china-is-buying-muslim-leaders-silence-on-the-uyghurs\/","title":{"rendered":"CHINA IS BUYING MUSLIM LEADERS\u2019 SILENCE ON THE UYGHURS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Vox News<\/a>. 23 June 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Below is an artcile published by Vox News<\/a>. Photo:Wakil Kohsar\/AFP via Getty Images.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the world increasingly speaks out against\u00a0China\u2019s genocide of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, the quietest voices continue to belong to the leaders of Muslim-majority countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Look no further than Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan\u2019s interview this week with Axios\u2019s Jonathan Swan. Swan asked why the premier, who often speaks out on Islamophobia in the West, has been noticeably silent on the human rights atrocities happening just across his country\u2019s border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khan parroted China\u2019s denial that it has placed roughly 2 million Uyghurs in internment camps and then evaded the issue over and over again. \u201cThis is not the case, according to them,\u201d Khan said, adding that any disagreements between Pakistan and China are hashed out privately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a jarring statement. Instead of offering a pro forma \u201cYes, of course we\u2019re concerned by this\u201d before moving on, Khan chose instead to minimize the problem altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why would Khan do such a thing during a high-profile interview, with his self-enhanced image as a defender of Muslims on the line? The prime minister gave the game away later in the interview: \u201cChina has been one of the greatest friends to us in our most difficult times, when we were really struggling,\u201d Khan told Swan. \u201cWhen our economy was struggling, China came to our rescue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has given Pakistan billions in loans to prop up its economy, allowing the country to improve transit systems and a failing electrical grid, among other things. China didn\u2019t do that out of the goodness of its heart; it did so partly to make Pakistan dependent on China, thus strong-arming it into a closer bilateral relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That relationship has helped Pakistan avoid economic calamity. But as of right now, it doesn\u2019t have the funds to pay China back. That could spell trouble for Pakistan, as China has a history of taking a nation\u2019s assets when it doesn\u2019t pay its debts, like when it took over a Sri Lankan port in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To avoid a similar fate, and perhaps keep the money flowing, Khan likely didn\u2019t want to badmouth China in public. \u201cChina is Pakistan\u2019s only lifeline out of debt,\u201d said Sameer Lalwani, director of the South Asia program at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look elsewhere in the world and the story is essentially the same. Even the leaders of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey \u2014 who often portray themselves as the defenders of Islam and of the ummah, the global Muslim community \u2014 are choosing to prioritize their economic relationship with China over standing up for the Uyghurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the short term, they may get more funds from the relationship with China, but in the long run, the price they pay is in their reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khan is the latest Muslim leader to give China a pass on the Uyghurs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

George Mason University\u2019s Jonathan Hoffman, who studies Middle Eastern politics and geopolitical competition, told me Khan\u2019s statements are in line with the trend of Muslim leaders turning away from China\u2019s gross human rights abuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They \u201crepresent a broader pattern in the region where the plight of the Uyghurs is sidelined as China has quickly become the largest oil consumer, trade partner, and investor,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That helps explain some of the actions by Muslim-majority nations and their leaders in recent years, which Hoffman wrote about in May for the Washington Post:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt were among 37 countries that signed a letter to the U.N. Human Rights Council praising China\u2019s \u201ccontribution to the international human rights cause\u201d \u2014 with claims that China restored \u201csafety and security\u201d after facing \u201cterrorism, separatism and extremism\u201d in Xinjiang.<\/p>

When Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited China in 2019, he declared that \u201cChina has the right to take anti\u2010terrorism and de\u2010extremism measures to safeguard national security.\u201d And a March 2019 statement by the Saudi\u2010based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) praised China for \u201cproviding care to its Muslim citizens.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The most egregious example of how China has bought loyalty, compliance, and silence, though, may be Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2009 \u2014 as Chinese authorities cracked down on Uyghurs amid ethnic violence in Xinjiang, and long before there were credible reports of arbitrary imprisonment, torture, and forced labor \u2014 the Turkish leader spoke out about what was happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe incidents in China are, simply put, a genocide. There\u2019s no point in interpreting this otherwise,\u201d Erdo\u011fan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now his tune has changed. In January, Turkish police broke up a protest led by local Uyghurs outside China\u2019s consulate in Istanbul, and the government stands accused of extraditing Uyghurs to China in exchange for Covid-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why such a shift? You guessed it: Money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Turkish economy was in a downturn well before the coronavirus pandemic, but China has come to the rescue. Erdo\u011fan and his team have sought billions from China in recent years, and China became the largest importer of Turkish goods in 2020. Saying anything negative about the Chinese government \u2014 especially on the Uyghur issue \u2014 could sever the financial lifeline China provides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, the pressure from the pro-Uyghur public in Turkey has forced a slight shift in the Erdo\u011fan regime\u2019s rhetoric in recent months. In March, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his administration has brought up the plight of the Uyghurs in private discussions with Chinese officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, that falls far short of what the world should expect from Muslim leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vox News. 23 June 2021 Below is an artcile published by Vox News. Photo:Wakil Kohsar\/AFP via Getty Images. As the world increasingly speaks out against\u00a0China\u2019s genocide of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, the quietest voices continue to belong to the leaders of Muslim-majority<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":743,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions\/743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}