Xinjiang, the northwestern province of China provides a useful example. The province is a typical central Asian region with numerous subcultures that have existed and interacted over thousands of years. They are difficult to define and even harder to separate geographically. Xinjiang has a population of about 23 million including Kazakhs, Han, Kyrgyz, Uyghurs, Tajiks, Tibetans, Turks, and others.

About 11 million of the residents are Uyghurs, an ethnic Turkic people. The mostly Muslim Uyghurs have been singled out by Chinese authorities. Since Jenping took power, the government has made elimination of Uyghur culture a priority. Use of Uyghur language in schools, public places and in religious services has been banned. Ownership of the Qur’an and other religious texts is similarly outlawed. As many as 1 million Uyghurs (10% of the entire population) are currently incarcerated in re-education camps where they are forced to learn Mandarin Chinese, praise the government and Chinese culture while shedding traditional customs. Those who resist re-education or are deemed to have “failed to learn” receive additional punishments such as prolonged solitary confinement, deprivation of necessities, and torture. Political prisoners are thrown in with hardened criminals which results in further abuse. Reports have come from relatives of prisoners that conditions have declined in detention centers recently from a lack of food and other necessities to declining health care. Ominously, the Chinese government has established boarding schools for the children of detained parents ringed with barbed wire fences where children as young as five endure re-education designed to destroy their cultural heritage.

Outside the prisons, Chinese authorities have divided Xinjiang with frequent checkpoints used to restrict travel within the province. Communication with outsiders is banned. Intense government oversight includes video surveillance, wiretapping, internet data collection, monitoring and even programs requiring Uyghurs and other minority ethnic groups to host state officials in their homes. The inhabitants of Xinjiang must also attend mandatory flag raising ceremonies and state-run political denunciation meetings where individuals are encouraged to report others for non-compliance with governmental policies. The Chinese government has severely restricted religious practices and have according to Human Rights Watch virtually outlawed the practice of Islam.

Implications of Chinese Repression for Americans

Reviewing the conditions in China should be shocking to any American. We enjoy freedoms and privileges that our Constitution and government actively enforce by statute and in the courts. One of the more difficult tasks in teaching American History and civil rights is making students understand just how unique and rare our system is in history and in the modern world. It is true that the American system has not always been just or equitable, but conditions today are exceptional. We exercise our rights without even thinking about it, much less worrying about governmental backlash.

Many of the tactics employed by the Chinese government are not new, though modern technology makes them far more effective and intrusive. Our founders saw these tactics used by the British and shortly after winning the Revolutionary War, took steps to prevent the very governmental repression now occurring in China.

If the Soviet Union and Cold War served any positive purpose, it would be a strong reminder about once a decade of what life would be like without a Bill of Rights (1948 Berlin Airlift, 1956 suppression of the Hungarian reform movement, the Berlin Wall (1961-1991), 1968’s Prague Spring repression, and martial law in Poland in the early 1980s). The First Amendment ensures Americans can all choose which religion they wish to follow (including no religion at all). Americans can openly follow the tenets of that religion privately and publicly. The government cannot set restrictions on reasonable practices nor legally define religious doctrine.