As a Jew, I cannot stay silent while Muslims face the religious persecution my people know so well.
As analysts and policy wonks debate the recent “tremendous reset” between Anthony Albanese and Chinese president for life Xi Jinping and the meaning of Penny Wong’s recent trip to Beijing, an important question is ignored. Are closer China relations something Australia should aspire to at this time?
Many experts assert that China is committing genocide against its Uighur Muslim population. More than one million Uighurs are held in re-education camps, including young children separated from their parents. The detainees are forcibly indoctrinated with Chinese Communist Party propaganda and forbidden from speaking their language.
Uighur women claim they are forced to have abortions and undergo sterilisation. Statistics show that in 2014, Xinjiang – the province where Uighurs live – accounted for 2.5 per cent of intra-uterine device placements. Just four years later that had skyrocketed to 80 per cent of China’s IUD placements. (Xinjiang makes up 1.8 per cent of China’s population.)
I recently attended a beautiful Uighur wedding. The groom’s parents were unable to attend because China wouldn’t let them leave. Several guests told heart-wrenching stories. One man told me that the last time he spoke to his mother, she asked him not to phone again as phone calls with the West could get her detained. That was in 2017 and he hadn’t heard from her since. Another young man said that when his wife returned to China for a visit, she was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for studying overseas. She was pregnant with his unborn child.
Read the article by Robert Gregory in The Australian.