New Delhi: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan recently said that he has been silent on the repression of Uighur Muslims because “China has helped us [Pakistan]”. Khan was speaking to Foreign Policy magazine, and was asked why he had not said anything about Uighurs even though he was a vocal critic of anti-Muslim actions in India and elsewhere.
First, the Pakistan prime minister claimed that the scale of the Uighur issue was different. “One main reason is that the scale of what is going on in China—and frankly, I don’t know much about it, I just occasionally read about it—is nothing compared to what is happening in Kashmir,” he said. Earlier on in the interview, Khan had sharply criticised the Narendra Modi government’s actions in Kashmir, including the removal of special status.
When pressed further, and told by the interviewer than between one and two million Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang were being detained, Khan admitted that Pakistan’s relationship with China may have something to do with his silence.
“…look—China has helped us. China came to help our government when we were at the rock bottom. So we are really grateful to the Chinese government, and we decided that whatever issues we will have with China, we will deal with them privately. We will not go public,” he said.
Khan, and Pakistan finance minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh who was also present for the interview, did not agree that Pakistan may be falling into a debt trap with China, as the US has warned.
Also read: Beijing’s Cultural Genocide in Xinjiang
While not much was known about just how bad things are for Uighurs in China, government documents leaked by the New York Times revealed that the clampdown against Muslims in Xinjiang has been massive. United Nations experts and activists say at least one million Uighurs and members of other largely Muslim-minority groups have been detained in camps.
The Chinese government is also reportedly using widespread surveillance tactics in the province. In addition, Muslim families are reportedly being forced to redecorate their homes to make them more “Chinese”, and threatened with being sent to internment camps if they do not comply.
According to the leaked documents, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for an “all-out ‘struggle against terrorism, infiltration, and separatism’ using the ‘organs of dictatorship,’ and showing ‘absolutely no mercy’.”
Also read: The Language of the Uighur Holocaust
Khan brought up India multiple times during his interview with Foreign Policy, and criticised Modi for not sitting down for talks. India has said over the last few years that it will not engage with Pakistan until there is poof that the government is cracking down on terrorists operating on its soil and on terror funding.
The Pakistan prime minister also said he was worried that India might increase bombing around the Line of Control to “distract attention” from the nationwide protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.