The coronavirus brings new and awful repression for Uighurs in China

Now Uighur activists are presenting evidence that the Chinese authorities’ reaction to the epidemic is causing hunger and panic even outside the camps. There are also separate reports that the Chinese authorities are forcing Uighurs to return to work at factories that had been shut down because of the epidemic — despite the ongoing risks.

The Uyghur Human Rights Project released a briefing Wednesday that included Uighur-language videos and social media posts about the dire conditions in Xinjiang. The videos, which could not be independently verified, show Uighurs confronting a desperate shortage of food. The group says its claims are corroborated by news reports and messages members of the Uighur diaspora have received from family and friends in recent weeks.

“The reports of desperation and agony among Uighurs are genuine,” said Omer Kanat, the group’s executive director, at a Wednesday press conference. “Early this year, as soon as we started hearing about the coronavirus outbreak, Uighurs in the diaspora immediately began to warn that we now face a whole new threat, a threat that could easily wipe out even more of our people.”

In late January, he said, Chinese authorities forced millions of Xinjiang residents into staying quarantined in their homes, with no advance warning and without providing access to food. In one of the videos shared widely among Uighurs, a man is yelling at authorities, “I’m starving. My wife and children are starving.” He bangs his head into a pole and shouts, “Do you want to kill me? Just kill me.”In several of the posts, Chinese-language seals have been affixed to doors to confirm that residents have not left their homes. Another shows an elderly man who is told that he can’t go outside. He responds in the Uighur language: “What’s a person supposed to eat when they get hungry? What should I do, bite a building?”