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.”
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has fired his national police chief, who gained attention for leading the separate arrests of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on orders of the International Criminal Court and televangelist Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin did not cite a reason for the removal of General Nicolas Torre as head of the 232,000-member national police force, a position he was appointed to by Marcos in May and which he would have held until 2027. He was replaced by another senior police general, Jose
POWER CONFLICT: The US president threatened to deploy National Guards in Baltimore. US media reports said he is also planning to station troops in Chicago US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to deploy National Guard troops to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as he seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration. The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage. Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing. The Guard began carrying
Ukrainian drone attacks overnight on several Russian power and energy facilities forced capacity reduction at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant and set a fuel export terminal in Ust-Luga on fire, Russian officials said yesterday. A drone attack on the Kursk nuclear plant, not far from the border with Ukraine, damaged an auxiliary transformer and led to 50 percent reduction in the operating capacity at unit three of the plant, the plant’s press service said. There were no injuries and a fire sparked by the attack was promptly extinguished, the plant said. Radiation levels at the site and in the surrounding
‘DELIBERATE PROVOCATION’: Pyongyang said that Seoul had used a machine gun to fire at North Korean troops who were working to permanently seal the southern border South Korea fired warning shots at North Korean soldiers that briefly crossed the heavily fortified border earlier this week, Seoul said yesterday after Pyongyang accused it of risking “uncontrollable” tensions. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has sought warmer ties with the nuclear-armed North and vowed to build “military trust,” but Pyongyang has said it has no interest in improving relations with Seoul. Seoul’s military said several North Korean soldiers crossed the border on Tuesday while working in the heavily mined demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas. The incursion prompted “our military to fire warning shots,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff