FROM the use of the Uyghur language on public buses to passing beautiful mosques on my night time walks to interacting with local taxi drivers and objectively asking about their lives, Xinjiang was everything but what I imagined. Having spent the last five years of my life in Europe and consuming information from primarily Western outlets, my thoughts, understanding, and perception of Xinjiang, China was one-directional, nuanced, and biased. I would often find myself hesitant to talk about the region because terms like ‘concentration camp’ and ‘genocide’ would take the rounds in my head and with such a strong reference to the Holocaust I did not see the logic and reason for ever being in the province.
Despite all these negative thoughts and emotions, I landed in Urumqi in the wee hours of the day and was welcomed by the same glistening sun I had said hello to just two hours earlier across the border, in Pakistan. I had a ton of questions and I wanted answers. The only silver lining I saw to this trip was that I would get to see and experience everything I had heard with my own eyes and that would thereby reinforce all my negative emotions towards Xinjiang, closing the China door for me, forever.
In this light, I first embarked on exploring the infamous ‘Xinjiang problem’. China’s decision to place people in facilities for language and political education. I wanted to know why. To explore I headed to the Xinjiang Islamic Institute. A facility with 1000+ students, this state-of-the-art institution was nothing short of an experience. With a multi-story library with over 50,000 printed books, 29,000 electric books, an on-site mosque, classrooms, and world-class dormitories that I, myself, visited … I was confused but certain that this is not what concentration camps look like by any stretch of imagination.
Through interactions with locals, I quickly learned that in its attempt to combat terrorism and protect Xinjiang’s safety, the state did revise some cultural products, texts, and practices in the province. But did that mean that the Peoples Republic clamped down on people? Well that seemed like a big misconception that quickly started gaining clarity in my otherwise Westernized and rather confused mind. The state made effective immediate changes after some 200-plus terrorist attacks since the 1990s.
Again I had read multiple reports in the last couple of years suggesting that people within these education centres could and would be there indefinitely. Keeping this in mind I spoke to locals: young and old, men and women alike who all said that the vast majority of attendees have “picked up a skill, completed the program, and gone home”. I travelled the length and breadth of Xinjiang; from Urumqi to Yining and met several people. One of them Rukiya Yakup, 26, spent 10 months in the education center where she perfected her Mandarin skills and studied sales. Now she is a real estate sales agent earning over 8000 RMB or over 1100 USD per month… way above the local average. In her own words she said, “I feel much happier now, I’m earning money and have learned new skills. I can now also support my aging parents”.
As aforementioned my main source of gathering China-related news had been Western outlets. I remember seeing the #StillNoInfo trend on social media claiming that many Uyghur students were missing even after the training programs had ended. I asked local government officials and local people about this. I then learned that there were around 100 plus “missing” Uyghurs. Half of them were not verifiable due to incomplete information such as misspelling of names and a third of them are under criminal investigation or are convicted criminals. The rest are actually living normal lives and many of them have never been to the education centres in their lives including 67-year-old Henimhan Tudi (local resident).
Prior to embarking on the trip I had also read and learned that China has detained one to three million Uyghurs, a figure repeated so many times internationally that it is now almost considered a “fact”. However, upon reaching I learned that according to The Grayzone – an independent agency dedicated to investigative journalism, these figures and these claims are largely based on two highly questionable “studies”. The first study formed its estimate by interviewing a grand total of eight people – perhaps not the most accurate sample size. The second study relied largely on media reports and speculation whose founder has famously been quoted as saying “led by god” on a “mission” against China.
Going one step forward I also learned that when it comes to Xinjiang there is not just misinformation but also disinformation. A video I saw a few months ago that got millions of views on X of a supposedly Chinese policeman beating a Muslim for reading the Quran in his house was also on my mind. When I asked local journalists about the same, they told me that the video was actually that of an Indonesian police officer beating a local thief. They also told me that pictures available online that are purported to showcase Uyghur Muslims in detention camps have more than once turned out to be doctored photos; some during a protest in Turkey and others from a migrant shelter in Thailand.
While I explored Xinjiang for myself, I also stumbled upon the most beautiful mosque I have seen in a very long time. This exquisite mosque known as the Shaanxi mosque took roughly 20 years to be built in a Chinese palace architecture style without a single nail in the entire construction of the structure. I later also made my way to the Kazanqi ethnic street to visit the homes of local families. It definitely felt like a homecoming with doors opened with love, care, warmth, and affection. Love, care, warmth, and affection are exactly the feelings I felt while being in Xinjiang for over a week. The people, the culture, the history, and the technological development of the region each require a separate article for there is so much to talk about and so much to debug. Xinjiang opened the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-religious China door for me. It is only a matter of time before the world discovers this extremely beautiful but equally misunderstood region.
—The writer is associate editor and digital team lead at Pakistan Observer
