Chinese authorities have broad based their efforts at ‘forced assimilation’ of the Uyghur Muslims. Surveillance also has been stepped up with the new ‘home stay’ programme. Check posts have mushroomed on roads and at railway stations creating a job boom for security personnel.
“Muslim families across Xinjiang are now literally eating and sleeping under the watchful eye of the state in their own homes,” says a report of the Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has been chronicling repression in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region –home to 11 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities.
Since early this (2018) year, Chinese officials have imposed regular “home stays” on Muslim families in addition to a whole host of “pervasive and perverse” controls on everyday life. There are even restrictions on what name they may give their children. Separatism, terrorism, and extremism are decreed as evils.
Under home stay scheme, Communist cadres and officials spend at least five days every two months in the homes of Muslims; they subject their hosts to political indoctrination, promote “Xi Jinping Thought” and explain the Chinese Communist Party’s (CPC) “care” and “selflessness” in its policies toward Xinjiang. Their other task include a compilation of basic information about their habits, likes, and dislikes, and political views. While on a “heart-to-heart” talks about everyday life, the visiting cadres also warn people against the dangers of “pan-Islamism,” “pan-Turkism,” and “pan-Kazakhism” – ideologies that Beijing considers as threatening.
Home Stay – feedback photos and videos on social networking sites show the most intimate aspects of domestic life, such as cadres and family members making beds and sleeping together, sharing meals, and feeding and tutoring their children.
Rights activists contend that the home stay programme violates rights to privacy and family life, and the cultural rights of ethnic minorities. Officially, however, it is “fanghuiju” – an acronym that stands for “Visit the People, Benefit the People, and Get Together the Hearts of the People.” And billed as an initiative designed to “safeguard social stability.”
Over the past four years, 200,000 officials have been on “fanghuiju” duty.
This surveillance programme has its origins in the “Becoming Family” campaign that was started in Oct 2016. About 110,000 officials visited the largely Turkic Muslim population in southern Xinjiang every two months with a view to “fostering ethnic harmony.” It has since been greatly expanded. Last December, for instance, more than a million party cadres were mobilised to spend a week in rural Muslim families.
“Becoming Family” has become “Home Stay” five months ago. HRW report cites some instances of Home Stay drawn from local news and social media.
•Since March, every cadre in Wensu County (Aksu Prefecture), has been required to stay in the homes of villagers “for no less than eight days a month.” An official article describes how, after a work day at the office, cadres “brought their own bedding” to a minority villager’s home, where they “will stay the night.”
•In Ili Kazakh Prefecture, an official document dated April 1 shows that cadres are required to visit minorities’ homes for five days every two months.
•In Bayin’gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, every family is required to receive cadres for up to 14 days every month.
On return from home stay, the cadres submit to the authorities a report backed with photos. Some of these photos and videos can be found on the WeChat and Weibo accounts of the participating agencies, says HRW. These show scenes of cadres living with minority families, including in “the most intimate aspects of domestic life, such as cadres and family members making beds and sleeping together, sharing meals, and feeding and tutoring their children”. None of these videos or photos are posted by the visited families, and there is no indication that they consented to having them posted online.
From what is in public domain, the Chinese authorities have broad based their efforts at ‘forced assimilation’ of the Uyghur Muslims; the effort is also aimed at making them ‘severing foreign ties’ they may have. Surveillance also has been stepped. Check posts have mushroomed on roads and at railway stations creating a job boom for security personnel.
– YAMAARAAR