Worse than Death : Reflections on the Uyghur Genocide

Uyghurs are descendents of Turkic peoples, currently facing genocide committed against them in their homeland, East Turkistan. This land has been colonized by the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, creating a police state and renamed Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). This book explains how Uyghur rights have been diminishing under the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has recently escalated into the cultural genocide of Uyghurs. Since Xi Jinping became president of the People’s Republic of China in 2012, he has clearly defined his political agenda towards Uyghurs of implementing the Four Breaks intended to “break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins.” The situation has now rapidly deteriorated. Millions of Uyghur families have been separated with an estimated 1 million Uyghurs being indiscriminately placed in concentration camps, under the guise of “re-education”. Xi has justified this as a fight against the Three Evils (terrorism, separatism and religious extremism). Uyghurs are subject to forced thought reform, torture, rape, organ harvesting, slave labor, and ultimately death in the shrouded secrecy of the camps. For Uyghurs in exile, they face an endless uncertainty, cut off from their families back home, and are harassed by Chinese security agents with threats against their family back home if they speak out against these atrocities. The world has to date largely remained silent over this genocide due to economic ties with China. In reflecting upon this situation the question remains: Who amongst you has the courage to speak up and act against this totalitarian regime of the Chinese Communist Party, committing one of the worst genocides and human rights atrocities of the 21^st Century?