On Sunday, July 5th at 11 am, approximately 35 people rallied at Town Hall. The demonstration was organised by the Australian Uyghur Association (AUA). After an Acknowledgement of Country, the group held a minute of silence for persecuted Uyghurs, followed by speeches.
“17 years ago, thousands of Uyghurs peacefully marched through the streets of Ürümqi”, AUA Secretary Bahtiyar Bora told the crowd, “demanding an investigation into the killing of Uyghur factory workers in Shaoguan.”
Overnight on June 26th 2009, Han workers and local gangs killed Uyghur migrant workers in the dormitories of a toy factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province. Owned by a Hong Kong-based toy manufacturing company, the Shaoguan factory had abusive working conditions which contributed to ethnic tensions, according to China Labor Watch. A rumour was circulated that a female Han worker had been sexually assaulted by Uyghur workers.
Chinese authorities said two Uyghurs were killed and 118 people were injured, among them 79 Uyghurs. According to a Guardian journalist who interviewed witnesses, a local Han man boasted about helping to kill seven or eight Uyghurs, saying he and others used iron bars to beat Uyghur workers to death. According to videos posted online at the time, Han mobs continued storming Uyghur dormitories as police arrived hours later.
On July 5th 2009, Uyghurs rallied in Ürümqi. Beginning as peaceful protests in Uyghur neighbourhoods of the city, they escalated into anti-Han violence after police detained dozens of demonstrators and attempted to disperse crowds. Uyghur mobs attacked police, tried to storm government buildings, attacked Han people on streets and smashed Han-controlled businesses. At least 197 people were killed, most of them Han.
Uyghur nationalist groups like the Australian Uyghur Association describe the Ürümqi riots as a “massacre”, in reference to the arrests and non-transparent trials of hundreds of accused rioters following the incident.
Mukhlis Mah, a member of Stand for Palestine, spoke at the rally.
“The matter is deeply personal”, Mah cited his Hui Chinese origins. “The Ürümqi massacre was in fact not the beginning, but unfortunately it was a beginning.”
Mukhlis Mah alongside AUA President Mehmet Obul. Photo by Honi Soit.
“Because what we saw after the Ürümqi riots was that the CCP changed its approach to particularly the Uyghur people”, Mah said. “We saw those who complied with the Chinese government being placed into detention camps for no reason. We saw their identity being erased. We saw their language being taken from them. We saw their children being separated from their parents. We saw things that really do not make sense.”
Since at least 2017, Xinjiang authorities have been perpetrating extrajudicial mass detention of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim Turkic groups in “de-radicalisation” camps, in which detainees are forced to learn Mandarin and disavow their “extremist” beliefs. Chinese authorities initially denied the camps’ existence, but later acknowledged them as “vocational training schools”. Detainees are allowed to leave and reunite with their families after “graduating” from the courses, often lasting years. The UN Human Rights Office found in 2022 that the measures potentially constitute crimes against humanity.
“As a person that comes from the Hui ethnicity, I will admit that culturally we have looked at the Uyghur people and said ‘oh these guys I think they are separatists, why are they doing this’. And what the Hui have realised is that in the last 10 years the government is slowly taking away our freedoms as well.” Mah said.
Chinese authorities have led religion reform campaigns to ensure “religion with Chinese characteristics”. Religious scripture may only be taught according to Party-endorsed interpretations. Mosques in Xinjiang have checkpoints that require all entrants to tap their national ID card. Some mosques have been functionally closed and transformed into tourist attractions, such as Kashgar’s Id Kah mosque.
Propaganda about “ethnic unity” in a mosque yard in Xi’An. Photo by Honi Soit, taken last winter.
“They initiated the Unity Law on 1st of July, a few days ago.” AUA President Mehmet Obul spoke to Honi about China’s Law on Ethnic Unity and Progress, “It is a policy of oneness. It doesn’t recognise others… So no other language, no other culture, no other religion can be existent.”
Human rights organisations and diaspora groups have been critical of the law. A Tibetan activist killed himself by self-immolation outside the UN’s New York headquarters on July 2nd.
The law construes a unified identity as “the common community of the Chinese nation” (中华民族共同体), which is mentioned 54 times in the text. It prohibits people from “hindering” the learning of Mandarin, prohibits parents from “imparting beliefs not conducive to progress as a unified nation”, prohibits the “interference with the freedom of marriage of others using religious or ethnic justifications”, and prohibits the dissemination of content “harmful to ethnic unity and progress”.
Acts such as “boycotting public television broadcasts”, “abnormal grooming” and “espousing the concept of ‘halal’ outside the domain of food” are already explicitly criminalised under the 2017 De-Radicalisation Regulation of Xinjiang. Uyghur-only and bilingual instruction in schools have been gradually phased out.
“They threaten people through their family members to deter them from coming here”, Obul said when asked about the rally’s low turnout.
“We hope the Chinese Communist Party comes to its senses and stops this Ethnic Unity Law and all that rubbish. And gives the opportunity to those people – Uyghurs, Tibetans and Inner Mongolians to keep their identity, use their own language. To keep their culture and allow them to practise their religion. Is that too much to ask, for God’s sake?”
