You’ve heard by now there’s a United Nations report that documents upwards of 1m Uighurs held in captivity in ‘concentration camps’ in Xinjiang?
There is, in fact, no such report.
There’s no smoke without fire though and the story is rooted in an event that took place on August 10th last year. China is a signatory to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination so reports to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on progress with the last such being August 10th 2018.
On the panel who assist the Committee with their work there are a number of experts sometimes called United Nations special rapporteurs who work on behalf of, not for the U.N.; and it was by one of these experts, in questions to China, that the unsubstantiated claims were made.
So, to be clear. There is no United Nations ‘report’, nobody at the U.N. has made the ‘1m in detention’ claim concerning China’s Uighurs and the claims that were made at the Committee meeting were made by a lone voice (joined latterly by another) without evidence or supporting proof in either verbal or written form.
The fact the story has gained such currency over the last few months says more perhaps about those willing to believe it than the likelihood of the story (and related stories) being correct.
[A good example, here’s U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from September 22nd this year as reported in the New York Post complete with incorrect reference to ‘A 2018 United Nations report.. ‘ NYP report]
There’s No Denying, China Has Problems With Its Far West
I don’t want to get into the business here of how China treats it’s Uighurs because I’m not an expert and haven’t studied the issue in detail.
To be clear though do I believe China operates a heavy handed surveillance and administration in Xinjiang? It seems it does. Does it operate re-education facilities that people in the region are de-facto forced to attend. Yes, some, there’s no doubt. Does it also racially profile Uighurs who travel in China and subject them to excessive scrutiny. Yes, I’ve seen this personally on more than one occasion.
So yes, there is an issue in terms of how China deals with it’s Uighurs, no doubt; but let’s put that aside for now and return to the business of extravagant claim.
Mr. Russell’s Teapot
The British philosopher Mr. Bertrand Russell had a thinking trick to help those with strong views understand how the burden of proof lies upon them to substantiate claims. If you say something is so you then have to prove it. A thing is not so until a skeptic can prove otherwise. Got it?
Imagine, said Mr. Russell, I claim there’s a teapot orbiting the earth. A teapot so small it defies detection with even the best telescopes. If I ask you to accept this fact then it’s clear I have to prove to you that it is so.
Bertrand was particularly interested in making people with strong religious convictions understand how, if they claim the world is contained in a dish supported on the back of an elephant, it’s their job to prove it. Skeptics are not automatically ‘wrong’ who doubt such views in the absence of proof.
My point here being that if you claim 1m people are locked up somewhere it’s not good enough to simply say so. Nor is it good enough to claim you’ve been reliably informed or have it on good authority. Sorry, but that’s the difference between fact and slander.
Is It Just Me?
Is it just me or has the volume of China bashing picked up of late? And is it just me or does this mostly seem to be rooted in commentary from the United States? And would it be just coincidental that this anti-China blast has been dialed up at a time when the government of the United States would find support for a trade war that isn’t really having much effect particularly handy?
Of course, I wouldn’t claim as much without proof.
The August 10th meeting was reported in full shortly afterwards and this link will take you to the full text Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Report: August 13th 2018.
You’ll find the claims that set this whole round of fake-news rolling in the section ‘Questions by the Country Rapporteurs’ section and you’re looking for those from Ms. Gay McDougall. If you click that last link you’ll see Professor McDougall has an impressive CV and is no doubt representing what she believes to be facts.
The skeptic in me also notes she is American and based in America which is where I’m also assuming most of her sources are located? Let’s hope one of them doesn’t turn out to be Ron Vara*?
[* Just in case you missed it. An invented source supporting absurd claims by White House advisor Mr. Peter Navarro in the 2011 book ‘Death by China’. More here Ron Vara.]