1097 China coerces Uighur women into marrying Han men

China coerces Uighur women into marrying Han men

Newsletter published on December 31, 2019

(1) Uighur women are kidnapped by the state and forced to marry Han men
(2) China coerces Uighur women into marrying Han men
(3) Xinjiang 'Pair Up' Campaign Highlights Power Imbalance Between
Chinese 'Relatives,' Uyghur Hosts
(4) China coerces Uighur women into unwanted marriages

(1) Uighur women are kidnapped by the state and forced to marry Han men
From: Eric Walberg <walberg2002@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: china

 >Human Rights: We must support Tibet, and call upon China to respect
 > fundamental human rights both in Tibet and within China.

arguably it's even worse for uighurs. i met a 20-yr old uighur refugee
at the islamic conference. he managed to escape. all uighurs are now
persecuted, even the ones who were assimilated. men are rounded up for
slave labour in central/ whever china. young woman are kidnapped by the
state and forced to marry chinese men (one child policy and infanticide
means huge imbalance m-f). han chinese live in uighur homes.
it's insane. stalin was an angel comparatively.
and of course high tech security means tracking everyone.

re sanders, a replay of the corbyn tragedy. but sanders is a tepid
zionist so maybe the anti-s card finally won't work. an exciting time.

(2) China coerces Uighur women into marrying Han men

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/cosleeping-10312019160528.html

Male Chinese 'Relatives' Assigned to Uyghur Homes Co-sleep With Female
'Hosts'

2019-10-31

Male Han Chinese "relatives" assigned to monitor the homes of Uyghur
families in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR)
regularly sleep in the same beds as the wives of men detained in the
region's internment camps, according to sources who have overseen the
forced stayovers.

Since late 2017, Muslim—and particularly Uyghur—families in the XUAR
have been required to invite officials into their homes and provide them
with information about their lives and political views, while hosts are
also subjected to political indoctrination.

The "Pair Up and Become Family" program is one of several repressive
policies targeting Uyghurs in the region, which have also seen the build
out of a vast network of camps, where authorities have held up to 1.5
million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities accused of harboring
"strong religious views" and "politically incorrect" ideas since April 2017.

RFA's Uyghur Service recently spoke about the program with a ruling
Communist Party cadre in Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) prefecture's
Yengisar (Yingjisha) county, who said that 70 to 80 families in the
township he oversees have Chinese, mostly male, "relatives" that stay
for up to six days at each household—many of which have male family
members in detention.

"The 'relatives' come to visit us here every two months … they stay with
their paired relatives day and night," he said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.

"They help [the families] with their ideology, bringing new ideas. They
talk to them about life, during which time they develop feelings for one
another."

In addition to working and eating together, over the course of the week
that they spend with their Uyghur hosts the officials even sleep in the
same bed as family members, the cadre said, particularly during the winter.

"Normally one or two people sleep in one bed, and if the weather is
cold, three people sleep together," he said.

When asked whether any families have spoken out against male officials
staying at their homes, particularly in situations where no male family
members are present because they have been detained in camps, the cadre
said that on the contrary, "they are very keen, and offer them whatever
they have."

"We also try to help them to make proper [sleeping] arrangements," he said.

Reports suggest that Uyghurs who protest hosting "relatives" as part of
the Pair Up and Become Family program, or refuse to take part in study
sessions or other activities with the officials in their homes, are
subject to additional restrictions or could face detention in the camp
system.

According to the cadre, if a household does not have a bed, family
members and "relatives" all sleep on the same sleeping platform, with a
small amount of space between one another.

"If the width of the room is three meters (10 feet), the platform tends
to be approximately two and half meters (eight feet)," he said.

"If everyone can fit, they all sleep there."

The cadre said he had "never heard" of any situations in which male
officials had attempted to take advantage of female members of the
households they stayed in, and suggested "it is now considered normal
for females to sleep on the same platform with their paired male
'relatives.'"

The head of a local neighborhood committee in Yengisar county, who also
declined to be named, confirmed that male officials regularly sleep in
the same beds or sleeping platforms with female members of Uyghur
households during their home stays.

"Yes, they all sleep on the same platform," the committee chief said,
adding that it is considered acceptable for "relatives" and hosts to
keep a distance of one meter (three feet) between them at night.

No women have complained about the situation of co-sleeping, he said,
and local officials have promoted the practice as a means by which to
"promote ethnic unity."

'Forced assimilation'

According to New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), in December 2017,
authorities greatly expanded the October 2016 Pair Up and Become Family
drive—which saw more than 100,000 officials visit mostly Uyghur homes in
southern XUAR every two months—to mobilize more than a million cadres to
spend a week living in homes, primarily in rural areas.

The "home stay" program was extended in early 2018 and cadres now spend
at least five days every two months in the families' homes, HRW said,
adding that "there is no evidence to suggest that families can refuse
such visits."

Activities that take place during visits are documented in reports with
accompanying photos—many of which can be found on the social media
accounts of participating agencies—and show scenes of "relatives"
involved in intimate aspects of domestic life, such as making beds and
sleeping together, sharing meals, and feeding and tutoring children.
There is no indication the families have consented to posting these
images online.

HRW has called the home stays an example of "deeply invasive forced
assimilation practices" and said they "not only violate basic rights,
but are also likely to foster and deepen resentment in the region."

Dolkun Isa, the president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress
exile group, has said the "Pair Up and Become Family" campaign
represents the "total annihilation of the safety, security and
well-being of family members," and that the program has "turned Uyghurs'
homes into prisons from which there is no escape."

In July RFA spoke with a township and a village secretary in Hotan
(Hetian) prefecture who both said that when "relatives" stay with their
families to teach them the Chinese language and extol the virtues of
Beijing's policies in the region—often for around one week—they bring
alcohol and meat that includes pork, and expect family members to
consume them, against the principles of "halal" that govern what Muslims
can eat and drink.

"We are not so insane as to tell them that we are Muslim, so we cannot
eat the things they eat," the secretary said at the time.

Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFA's Uyghur Service. Translated by RFA's
Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

(3) Xinjiang 'Pair Up' Campaign Highlights Power Imbalance Between
Chinese 'Relatives,' Uyghur Hosts
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/campaign-11192019152349.html

2019-11-19

Zumret Dawut

The official "Pair Up and Become Family" campaign in northwest China's
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) highlights a deep power
imbalance based on the personal information shared between  Uyghur
families and the Han Chinese "relatives" assigned to monitor their
homes, according to sources.

Since late 2017, Muslim—and particularly Uyghur—families in the XUAR
have been required to invite officials into their homes and provide them
with information about their lives and political views, going back as
far as seven generations, while hosts are also subjected to political
indoctrination.

The Pair Up and Become Family program is one of several repressive
policies targeting Uyghurs in the region, which have also seen the
creation of a vast network of camps, where authorities have held up to
1.5 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities accused of
harboring "strong religious views" and "politically incorrect" ideas
since April 2017.

Reports suggest that Uyghurs who protest hosting "relatives" as part of
the program, or refuse to take part in study sessions or other
activities with the officials in their homes, are subject to additional
restrictions or could face detention in the camp system.

But in contrast to the control "relatives" wield in these relationships,
in part due to the significant amount of personal information they hold
on their hosts, Uyghur families often know little at all about the
cadres who stay with them aside from their names, two sources recently
told RFA's Uyghur Service.

One source, a village secretary for China's ruling Communist Party in
the XUAR's Hotan (in Chinese, Hetian) prefecture, said that he never
once asked where his Han "relative" works in the more than two years he
has been visiting his home.

"They don't tell us who they work for … [only that] they're from the
prefectural level [government]," he said, speaking on condition of
anonymity for fear of reprisal.

"We could ask, but they wouldn't tell us," he added.

Meanwhile, the secretary said, "relatives" routinely keep tabs on
information related to the registration of household family members, the
number of residents, how any businesses they own are operating, people
who have visited the home, and whether the people who live there
actively pray.

He also said that "relatives" often show up to stay unannounced,
sometimes arriving at 10:00 p.m. or later.

"They want to gather information without any warning," he said.

'Only they can talk to us'

RFA also spoke with Zumuret Dawut, a Uyghur mother of three who in April
last year was detained for months in an internment camp, where she was
forced to recite Chinese propaganda, beaten for providing food to an
ailing fellow prisoner, and injected with unknown drugs, according to an
account she related in September during an event on the sidelines of the
United Nations General Assembly in New York.

While Dawut was released after her Pakistani husband advocated on her
behalf, she was first forced to renounce her faith and promise not to
speak about what happened to her there, and later subjected to official
monitoring at her home and forced to eat pork, against the dietary
restrictions of Islam.

Speaking to RFA recently, she explained that members of local
neighborhood committees in the XUAR explicitly instruct Uyghurs not to
ask for personal information from their Han "relatives."

"If we were really 'relatives' … we should also know what our
'relatives' do, but they tell us not to ask who they are or what they do
for a living," she said.

"Only they can talk to us, and only they can teach us things. They ask
us about all manners of business. But we're not allowed to ask a single
thing of our relatives, even 'where do you work?'"

According to Dawut, new 'relatives' will arrive for a house visit and
"tell us their name, but they don't say anything else."

But once there, the visitors will ask what family members have been
doing recently, what food they cook, and even about their sleeping habits.

"They know that they're oppressing the Uyghurs, and because they know,
they're worried and scared, so they don't tell their Uyghur 'relatives'
where they live or what they do—nothing about themselves," she said.

In addition to volunteering personal information about themselves,
Uyghur hosts are expected to cook Chinese-style food for their
'relatives,' ensure that they have clean linen waiting for them, and
even purchase basins for washing ones feet that have the names of the
officials who stay printed on them.

'Pair Up' campaign

According to New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), in December 2017,
authorities greatly expanded the October 2016 Pair Up and Become Family
drive—which saw more than 100,000 officials visit mostly Uyghur homes in
southern XUAR every two months—to mobilize more than a million cadres to
spend a week living in homes, primarily in rural areas.

The "home stay" program was extended in early 2018 and cadres now spend
at least five days every two months in the families' homes, HRW said,
adding that "there is no evidence to suggest that families can refuse
such visits."

Activities that take place during visits are documented in reports with
accompanying photos—many of which can be found on the social media
accounts of participating agencies—and show scenes of "relatives"
involved in intimate aspects of domestic life, such as making beds and
sleeping together, sharing meals, and feeding and tutoring children.
There is no indication the families have consented to posting these
images online.

HRW has called the home stays an example of "deeply invasive forced
assimilation practices" and said they "not only violate basic rights,
but are also likely to foster and deepen resentment in the region."

Dolkun Isa, the president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress
exile group, has said the "Pair Up and Become Family" campaign
represents the "total annihilation of the safety, security and
well-being of family members," and that the program has "turned Uyghurs'
homes into prisons from which there is no escape."

Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFA's Uyghur Service. Translated by Elise
Anderson. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

(4) China coerces Uighur women into unwanted marriages

https://share.america.gov/china-coerces-uighur-women-into-unwanted-marriages/

By Leigh Hartman - Sep 24, 2019

In China's western Xinjiang province, Uighur women are marrying Han men,
but not because they want to. If they refuse, the women and their
families could be arrested or sent to an internment camp.

The Uighurs are a predominantly Muslim, Turkic ethnic minority, while
the Han are China's largest ethnicity. Historically, levels of
inter-marriage were low.

The Chinese government wants to change that.

Coerced marriages are part of China's attempt to eradicate Uighur
culture and assimilate them into the Han-dominated society. It is
another example of the government taking control over every aspect of
Uighur lives — from restricting what Uighurs can name their children, to
how they dress, to what they eat and drink.

A few years ago, the government offered cash payment for inter-ethnic
couples to marry. When that didn't work, authorities promoted
inter-ethnic marriage though online videos showing happy couples and
magazine articles with tips for Han men on how to "win the heart of a
Uighur girl."

But Uighurs outside of China say that in reality, the Uighur women don't
have a choice.

"These [marriages] are being forced," says Rushan Abbas, director of
Campaign for Uyghurs, a Washington human rights organization. "If these
girls say no to these guys, either the girls or their parents will go to
the camp[s]."

As many as 1,200 internment camps are located in Xinjiang. Since April
2017, Chinese authorities have imprisoned more than 1 million Uighurs,
ethnic Kazakhs, ethnic Kyrgyz and other members of Muslim minorities.
The camps are "designed to erase ethno-religious identities," according
to a 2019 State Department report.

People are detained in the camps without trial for everyday activities,
like wearing a headscarf. There are credible reports of deaths in
custody and allegations of forced labor, torture and other degrading
treatment in the camps.


James Leibold @jleibold The Sinophone internet is awash with short
videos promoting Han-Uyghur inter-marriage. This one asserts that
Xinjiang has long been a mixed race region and is now safe and home to
many beautiful and eligible Uyghur women who will appreciate a doting
Han husband

An influx of Han men

Over the past two years, the Chinese government has sent more than 1.1
million officials, known locally as "relatives," to live in Uighur homes
in Xinjiang in order to monitor and report on religious activity and
party loyalty. This, plus the imprisonment of young Uighur men in the
camps, has led to a disproportionate number of Han men in Xinjiang.

In a recent article, anthropologist Darren Byler of the University of
Washington interviewed women in Xinjiang who said they were pressured to
marry these recently arrived Han Chinese men. Gulmira, one of the women
interviewed, said her employer regularly organizes dance parties on
Friday evenings for Uighur women and Han men.

"Recently there are so many people getting married with the relatives,"
Gulmira told Byler. If you refuse, you could go to the camps, she continued.

What China is doing in Xinjiang "is truly the stain of the century,"
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the Ministerial to Advance
Religious Freedom in July.

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