China and the Uyghurs | DW Documentary

More than a million Uyghurs, “reeducated“ through forced labor, detention and sterilization. Is a quiet genocide taking place behind the walls of these “camps“? And just what plan is being pursued by the government of the Xinjiang region? China’s Uyghur policy is a kind of quiet genocide: arbitrary detentions, torture, slave labor, cultural vandalism, the reeducation of children and adults, forced sterilizations. Beijing maintains an iron-fisted stranglehold on the Xinjiang region, which is only autonomous by name. The foundation stone for the worst oppression since World War Two was laid in 2014 by President Xi Jinping in a speech delivered behind closed doors to high-ranking Communist Party officials. In it, he called for an all-out “struggle against terrorism, infiltration and separatism” using the “organs of dictatorship” and showing “absolutely no mercy.” Under the pretext of combating radical Islamism and poverty, the Communist Party of China is working on the complete annihilation of Uyghur culture. Years passed before the international community voiced its concerns. Undeterred by the threats from abroad, Beijing continues to pursue its persecution of Turkic-speaking and primarily Muslim minorities. What’s the reason for this bitter oppression? After all, it concerns not just China, but ultimately the future of freedom and democracy worldwide. What are its historical roots? These are some of the questions answered in this documentary, with the help of archive footage, specialist views from China and beyond, as well as reports from Uyghurs who’ve managed to escape internment camps.