The eyes of the world are on Afghanistan right now. The Taliban’s rapid takeover of the country has caused consternation to foreign powers, including the U.S. Worse, it’s put numerous people groups (including women and Christians) at risk. However, one group of people has received much less attention: Uyghur people from China, living as refugees in Afghanistan.
The Chinese government has been carefully improving its relations with the Taliban, Afghanistan’s new rulers, since as early as July. The relationship could be mutually beneficial: China gets to pursue its business interests in the country, and Afghanistan receives some much-needed investments. The Chinese government is unlikely to interfere with the Taliban’s rule or balk at human rights violations.
The collateral damage of this diplomatic relationship? Refugees from China. Much like how North Korea seeks to extradite refugees living in China, Beijing wishes to see Uyghurs in Afghanistan returned to the country. Recent history indicates that Afghanistan’s “close diplomatic ties with China results in persecution of Uyghurs.”
Those close ties appear to be what the Taliban is seeking. It’s unlikely this new government will have qualms about extraditing even second-generation Uyghur refugees to China—regardless of the persecution they’ll face when they arrive.
China’s Xinjiang region, home to a large number of Uyghurs, has also recently been the site of mass detention campaigns—all under the guise of a “war on terror.” Uyghur people have been arrested for seeming overly religious, or for violations as small as “disturb[ing] other persons by visiting them without reasons.” Detainees are sent to internment camps, ostensibly for “voluntary job training.”
The plight of Uyghurs in China has received more press over the past few years, but Beijing continues to deny any human rights abuses. It insists that the detention camps are for re-education or “job training.” However, the Chinese government has increasingly attempted to extradite Uyghurs from countries allied with China. The “war on terror” has resulted not only in mass arrests within China, but also peril for Uyghurs throughout Asia—and now Afghanistan.
The Chinese treatment of Uyghurs sheds light on the predicament of other groups in China, such as North Korean refugees. While North Koreans may not end up in Chinese detention camps, they have no rights under Chinese law and are subject to repatriation to North Korea, just like Uyghurs in Afghanistan and other countries are extradited to China.
China’s new relationship with the Taliban is a bad sign not only for Uyghurs in Afghanistan, but also for oppressed groups within its own borders. Beijing’s willingness to overlook human rights abuses in Afghanistan, and its own treatment of Uyghurs in China, clearly signals that human rights are low on its priority list.
It’s likely that North Korean refugees, and other minority groups within China, including the church, will only face more persecution in the coming months. Both these groups and the organizations that work to help them will need prayer and support more than ever.
