Over the past several years, there have been a growing number of reports noting aggressive campaigns of surveillance, intimidation, internment, and indoctrination in areas of China where ethnic groups have sought more autonomy. These observations come at precisely the same time that China is seeking a greater role in the world through the Belt and Road Initiative and other large-scale projects.
With this backdrop, the lesson aims to familiarize students with different ethnic groups in China and specifically with recent developments concerning the Uighurs of the Xinjiang region in northwestern China. It is here where the Chinese government has reportedly carried out mass incarceration of the population and pursued assimilation of the area through the migration of Han Chinese. This lesson employs an article from Gene A. Bunin and three video reports from the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, and BBC and incorporates an emphasis on analysis and debate. A central question that the topic invites for student discussion and debate is whether students and their own societies have a responsibility to intervene to protect oppressed populations when governments like China commit grave abuses against particular minority groups.
The activities take around 90 minutes to complete and can be extended. I use it with high school students in my junior and senior Human and Region geography courses. I have observed that the topic not only enhances knowledge of the degrading situation of minority groups in China and empathy but also promotes student critical reflection and debate on how they might want their own government to respond to the situation.
Student Preparation for the Lesson
The first part of this lesson can be completed as a homework assignment. Students should read the insightful article on Uighurs in inner China and Xinjiang Autonomous Region by Gene A. Bunin ("How the “Happiest Muslims in the World” are Coping with Their Happiness") and published on Art of Life in Chinese Central Asia and later republished in the Guardian. An accompanying worksheet has been prepared to guide students through the reading and provide opportunities for critical engagement and analysis.
Part One - 15 minutes
As a hook for the lesson, it would be beneficial to begin by eliciting students' pre-knowledge on the people of China, including information regarding minorities, religious practices, autonomous regions, etc... This University of Washington webpage provides numerous useful maps and photos for introducing some of this information. After this general introduction, it is now possible to laser in on the case of Xinjiang and the Uighurs. As a starting point, students can share what they learned from the homework assignment regarding what it means to be Uighur and the restrictions they encounter in daily life and how Uighurs seek to maneuver around these obstacles. The teacher may wish to pose the issue of the Chinese government facilitating the migration of millions of Han Chinese into the region and allow students to formulate hypotheses on the motives behind such moves.
Part Two - 20 minutes
For the remainder of the lesson, students will use this worksheet as a guide. The Wall Street Journal video ("Life Inside China's Total Surveillance State") provides an insightful introduction to the importance of the region from a Chinese geostrategic perspective and the central elements of the surveillance system that has emerged and the context in which this has taken place. After viewing, students should discuss plausible motives behind the creation of this draconian system. What is terrorism and are the Uighurs really terrorists or are they simply standing up for freedom? Is the enhanced surveillance really about safety or is something else afoot? In collecting information about different aspects of the system and the ways in which they impact the daily life of Uighurs, students should also be encouraged to reflect on how our own security structures differ from that in Xinjiang.
Part Three - 20 minutes
Before watching the Atlantic video ("China is Surveilling and Threating Uighurs in the U.S.") focused on the lives of Uighur refugees living in the US, it would be useful to allow students to articulate their ideas about the difficulties that Uighurs might be expected to encounter even after leaving China. After watching, the teacher should ensure that students hold an understanding regarding the underlying reasons behind the fear of Uighurs that have escaped (e.g. concern for the well-being of family) and how the Chinese government uses that fear to its advantage. Students may also wish to compare/contrast the case of Uighur efforts to foment a national identity to other such ongoing movements (e.g. Scotland, Catalonia) and the differences in approaches by governments. Why didn't the Chinese government want to allow Imim and others like him to write about the Uighur national identity? Is it legitimate for minority groups within a country to articulate their own national identity?
Part Four - 20 minutes
The next part of the lesson, via a BBC video ("Are Muslim Uyghurs being brainwashed by the Chinese state"), takes students into the re-education or internment camps that are functioning to incarcerate a tenth of the Uighur population. Through personal testimonials and the reporting of various sources of corroborated evidence, students learn how the detainment facilities are indoctrinating the population. Question for consideration: Is this genocide/ethnic cleansing that is taking place? How are the re-education camps similar to/different from other initiatives throughout history?
Part Five - 15 minutes
The final section of the lesson is devoted to critical engagement with the topic through a debate over the question of the responsibility to protect. For students: In light of the oppression taking place - and potentially genocide - and the call for sanctions by some policymakers in the United States and around the world, should countries indeed take the route of punishing China through economic and/or political sanctions? What are pros and cons to such moves? What are pros/cons to doing nothing?
Further Learning
Students may wish to delve deeper into Uighur culture through exploration of their art, literature, and history. The Art of Life in Chinese Central Asia website provides excellent resources for such an engagement. Students can also learn more about the role of the Chinese bingtuan or military corps in facilitating government control over the Xinjiang region. Or they can further explore the degrading conditions of the detention facilities through personal testimonials. This lesson provides a hook for exploring the stories of other autonomous regions or areas with other special arrangements in China, including, for example, Tibet and Hong Kong.