As analysts and policy wonks debate the recent “tremendous reset” between Anthony Albanese and Chinese president for life Xi Jinping and the meaning of Penny Wong’s recent trip to Beijing, an important question is ignored. Are closer China relations something Australia should aspire to at this time?
Many experts assert that China is committing genocide against its Uighur Muslim population. More than one million Uighurs are held in re-education camps, including young children separated from their parents. The detainees are forcibly indoctrinated with Chinese Communist Party propaganda and forbidden from speaking their language.
Uighur women claim they are forced to have abortions and undergo sterilisation. Statistics show that in 2014, Xinjiang – the province where Uighurs live – accounted for 2.5 per cent of intra-uterine device placements. Just four years later that had skyrocketed to 80 per cent of China’s IUD placements. (Xinjiang makes up 1.8 per cent of China’s population.)
I recently attended a beautiful Uighur wedding. The groom’s parents were unable to attend because China wouldn’t let them leave. Several guests told heart-wrenching stories. One man told me that the last time he spoke to his mother, she asked him not to phone again as phone calls with the West could get her detained. That was in 2017 and he hadn’t heard from her since. Another young man said that when his wife returned to China for a visit, she was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for studying overseas. She was pregnant with his unborn child.
Growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust, with a grandmother who survived Auschwitz, I have always resisted conflating the Holocaust. Holocaust comparisons are generally inaccurate and don’t help further one’s case. The Holocaust stands alone in its calculated brutality. The project to annihilate an entire race was devised in “enlightened” Germany and assisted by willing collaborators spanning the breadth of Europe.
That said, certain parallels are hard to overlook. Tonnes of shaved Uighur hair for sale, concentration camps, systematic destruction of places of worship, allegations of medical experimentation, slave labour and bans on religious Muslims growing beards all evoke aspects of humanity’s darkest hour.
The Holocaust bestowed Jews with a special responsibility to speak out on behalf of those facing religious and racial persecution. The Australian Jewish Association has hosted Uighur speakers, addressed Uighur rallies, made submissions to government and worked to raise awareness. Overseas, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum has sounded the alarm, warning the “Chinese government may be committing genocide against the Uighurs”. The American Jewish Committee has urged President Joe Biden to take action.
I’m not naive. I know there isn’t a single country without human rights concerns. Even Western nations have their issues. Obviously, Australia can’t cut itself off from every country engaged in human rights abuses, but there is a line – it’s just a matter of where it’s drawn.
This year the West drew that line at invading a neighbouring European country. Russia has been made a pariah and rightfully so. Our Prime Minister almost certainly would decline a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Likewise, Australian business leaders would run a mile. In fact, Australian companies have severed all business connections with Russia.
In contrast, Australia’s desire not to rock the boat with China has caused embarrassing scenes. A Uighur delegation, including concentration camp survivors who reported experiencing torture and forced sterilisation, visited Canberra recently and were declined a meeting with Wong.
So why the discrepancy? Our business ties with Russia were minuscule. Severing them imposed no real cost to Australia.
Were Australia to take meaningful steps against China, the economic fallout has the potential to plunge us into recession. China has shown it’s not averse to using economic blackmail to bully Australia. There was talk last year about banning goods produced by Uighur slave labour, a seeming no-brainer, but the bill never passed. Instead, Australia’s trade with China’s Uighur province has increased including solar panels and cotton.
To be fair, Australia has spoken out at the UN. Shamefully, China sits on the UN Human Rights Council and has stymied all action.
I don’t pretend to have the answers but I know Australia can’t carry on like “business as usual”. The line must be drawn somewhere. If it isn’t Tibet, Taiwan or Hong Kong, then surely concentration camps and allegations of organ harvesting cross Australia’s line. Decoupling our economy from China has been spoken about in a national security context and banning goods produced by slave labour seems like a good place to start. Recognising China’s actions as genocide is another.
I can’t predict what the Foreign Minister’s China visit means for Sino-Australian ties, but one thing is clear to me. As a Jew, I will continue to speak out for Uighur Muslims. I can’t stay silent.
Robert Gregory is director of public affairs at the Australian Jewish Association.
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