“TOO SCARED”
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 Nov 27.
Silent vigils, calls for solidarity and anti-lockdown slogans expanded into demands for freedom of speech and even President Xi Jinping’s resignation.
“We are all Xinjiang people!” chanted demonstrators in Beijing.
But 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 fuelled largely by frustration over zero-COVID, experts said, rather than solidarity with the Uyghurs as such.
“It’s an attempt to avoid (a disaster) happening to them next, rather than an attempt to show … empathy or understanding with Uyghurs,” said David Tobin, a Xinjiang scholar at Britain’s University of Sheffield.
The demonstrations did not appear to address the “racialised dimension” of health restrictions in Xinjiang, he added.
He cited an enhanced security presence, heavier-handed measures, and a lack of essential supplies in Uyghur 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 Uyghur activist Jevlan Shirmemmet said.
“Why do you think no Uyghurs 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.”
“HELPLESS”
Overseas protests have created some space for Uyghurs to inform Chinese nationals about the crackdown.
One participant at a New York vigil said he initially did not know the victims’ ethnicity at all, as he blamed the Chinese government’s limits on freedom of speech for his lack of information.
“I’ve heard their stories and tend to believe them. But I cannot verify them,” he said.
“And I feel super helpless, because I don’t feel we can possibly find any way to help them.”
When hundreds gathered in London last month, activist Rahima Mahmut unfurled a flag associated with Xinjiang independence.
While some attendees from China’s majority Han ethnicity – many of them students at British universities – bristled, many seemed receptive to hearing more, she said.
Many protesters “really didn’t know that these victims were Uyghurs … or what is happening to Uyghur people”, she told AFP.
“Nevertheless, this kind of unity and bravery is a baby step to learning more and demanding more.”
But a Uyghur attendee at another rally, who said that some of her family were detained, was sceptical.
She said the protests were “too little too late” and might even provoke a backlash against her community.
“For us, everything started in 2017,” she said, referring to the year Beijing intensified its crackdown on the Uyghurs.
“I once wrote on social media, ‘It’s been five years,’ and a non-Uyghur friend commented: ‘Why? COVID has only been here for three years.’ I was so angry.”
Source: CNA
