Their deaths in a fire triggered China’s biggest protests in generations, but few people seemed to know the victims were Uighur families torn apart by Beijing’s crackdown in Xinjiang.
On Nov. 24, 10 people died in an apartment block blaze in Urumqi, the northwestern region’s capital, with many around China blaming a grinding COVID-19 lockdown for scuppering rescue efforts.
The news unleashed long-simmering resentment over Beijing’s health curbs, setting off widespread demonstrations that helped tip the government into reversing its strict coronavirus measures.
Photo: AFP
For the protesters, those who died in the fire were martyrs of China’s “zero COVID” policy.
However, interviews with relatives of the victims show they felt the fire was only the latest tragedy to strike their community.
Abdulhafiz Maimaitimin, a Uighur who left China in 2016 and now lives in Switzerland, lost his aunt, Qemernisahan Abdurahman, and four of her young children in the fire. Her husband and son, along with Maimaitimin’s father, were arrested by Chinese authorities in 2016 and 2017.
Maimaitimin and his family believe they were spirited into a sprawling network of detention centers where China has been accused of detaining more than 1 million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities.
“My aunt waited several years for [her loved ones] to be released, but died without seeing them again,” 27-year-old Maimaitimin said.
After allegations by Washington and others of genocide, a UN report in August said that torture claims were credible and that the detentions might constitute crimes against humanity.
Beijing says the facilities are voluntary vocational schools designed to eliminate extremist thought.
The mainly Uighur area of Urumqi where the fire erupted appeared to have been under strict COVID-19 curbs since August.
“Perhaps if my aunt’s husband and son had been there, they could have used their strength to save them, but maybe not, since the door was locked from the outside,” Maimaitimin said.
Other residents and relatives of the deceased have made similar claims and alleged that lockdown barricades slowed the emergency response.
Authorities have denied the accusations.
Memmetli Abbas, a Uighur living in Turkey, said his daughter and granddaughter only escaped by alerting a local official who let them out.
However, the pair were later “questioned with regard to the fire”, he said. “I don’t know where they are.”
Abbas said his family’s grievances also predate the blaze. His oldest son has been in prison since 2017 after returning from a trip overseas, and his nephew was taken away to a camp the same year, he said.
“I don’t know why he’s being held, but I believe he’s there because he’s Uighur and he’s Muslim,” he said.
The deaths ignited fury in Urumqi and inspired action in other cities.
Notably, protesters in Shanghai gathered at Wulumuqi Road — named after Urumqi in Mandarin — as the wave of rallies peaked on the weekend of Nov. 26 and 27.
Silent vigils, calls for solidarity and anti-lockdown slogans expanded into demands for freedom of speech and even Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) resignation.
“We are all Xinjiang people,” demonstrators in Beijing chanted.
However, awareness of the victims’ ethnic background remained limited in a country where the government strictly controls the press and censors social media.
The protests were fueled largely by frustration over “zero COVID,” rather than solidarity with the Uighurs as such, experts said.
“It’s an attempt to avoid [a disaster] happening to them next, rather than an attempt to show ... empathy or understanding with Uighurs,” said David Tobin, a lecturer in East Asian Studies at the UK’s University of Sheffield.
The demonstrations did not appear to address the “racialized dimension” of health restrictions in Xinjiang, he said.
He cited an enhanced security presence, heavier-handed measures, and a lack of essential supplies in Uighur areas under “zero COVID” as examples of the even heavier tactics deployed there.
Meanwhile, years of persecution deterred ethnic minority citizens from joining the protests themselves, Turkey-based Uighur activist Jevlan Shirmemmet said.
“Why do you think no Uighurs took part in the Urumqi demonstrations?” he asked. “Because they can’t go out. They’re either too scared or ... they’ll be branded as terrorists if they do.”
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing and was reunited with his family, who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen on Friday last week descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above
RSS