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Chamber and committees

China’s Treatment of its Uighur Minority

  • Submitted by: Kenneth Gibson, Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party.
  • Date lodged: Monday, 15 July 2019
  • Motion reference: S5M-18230

That the Parliament notes with alarm the reported oppression by the Chinese Government of the estimated 13 million Muslims of Uighur Turkic ethnicity in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region through its operation, Strike Hand; understands that this is being run by the police and intelligence services, with the government sending an estimated one million Han Chinese to live in the homes of Uighur people to monitor their beliefs and behaviours; believes that they are entering information gathered in an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that also analyses biometric data and facial expressions of Uighur Muslims in public, via CCTV cameras; understands that the Uighurs are being forced to download a government data app that allows the authorities access to the content of their mobile phones, are subjected to rigorous checks in public places and have QR codes installed on the front doors of their homes, allowing police officers outside to pull up the entire file on any persons registered at the house; recalls the use of methods of identification of minority ethnics and religious groups throughout history, such as the yellow Star of David and White Armband, which were followed by full-scale genocide; understands with great concern that an estimated one million Uighurs have already been arrested and are currently being held without trial in around 1,200 so-called “re-education” and forced labour camps; believes that millions of Han Chinese people have been encouraged to migrate to Xinjiang in order to dilute the Uighur population and further consolidate Chinese control; acknowledges that several western manufacturers have allegedly purchased cotton from the forced labour camps; unequivocally condemns both the oppression of ethnic and religious minorities such as the Uighurs, and the development and use of AI for such purposes, and urges the UK foreign secretary to call on the Chinese Government to end this operation immediately and to cease what it sees as this oppression of the Uighur people.


Supported by: Angela Constance, John Finnie, Bill Kidd, John Mason, Sandra White