China conducting 'secret lockdown' in region where Uyghur minority lives, leading to starvation

China has imposed a ‘secret lockdown’ in Xinjiang, a region that is home to around 12 million of the Uyghur ethnic minority. The lockdown has apparently been in place since early August. In scenes similar to the lockdown in Shanghai earlier this year, it is alleged that people are on the brink of starvation, as reported by The Telegraph.

Surviving on bread and instant noodles

According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), an official said that as many as 12 people died within 20 days of the lockdown being imposed due to starvation or lack of access to medicine.

One elderly Uyghur man told RFA that 'we have to pay government officials to bring us medicine and other food items' and that they only had bread to survive on for days as 'we can’t afford meat and vegetables'. Indeed, another resident named Azad said he had been surviving on instant noodles for two weeks, as reported by The New York Times.

Campaign for Uyghurs has cited videos allegedly showing trucks full of Uyghur naan bread being thrown away as waste, while fruits and vegetables are left to rot in warehouses.

Han Chinese and Uyghurs banding together

What's more, residents' complaints shared online are reportedly being censored by the Chinese government. This is apparently bringing Han Chinese and Uyghurs together, according to Bloomberg. Arfat Erkin, a student at the University of Virginia who is originally from Yining, said:

A lot of Chinese people right now are feeling how we felt because they’re seeing government censoring their information.

Robbie Barnett, former head of Columbia University’s Modern Tibetan Studies Program who has written about the region since the 1980s and also researches Xinjiang, explained:

It’s far riskier for Uyghur or Kazakh people to post criticisms of the government than for, say, Chinese in Shanghai. That’s because in Xinjiang members of minorities have been disappeared or imprisoned for much more minor actions.

Lea, a 21-year-old Uyghur university student, said that it’s vital that Han Chinese reveal the grave conditions that are endangering all ethnicities in Xinjiang as 'Uyghurs are afraid to. We’d be taken away.'

At the end of August, the United Nations’ human rights office said the mass detentions and other repressive measures by the Chinese government in Xinjiang 'may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity', as reported by the New York Times.

Sources:

- The Telegraph: 'Starvation fears as China imposes secret lockdown on Xinjiang, home of the Uyghurs'

- Radio Free Asia: 'As many as a dozen dead amid shortages caused by Xinjiang COVID lockdown'

- The New York Times: 'Xinjiang Lockdown Videos Show Rare China Solidarity With Uyghurs'

- Bloomberg: 'Just Bread and Noodles: China’s Covid Lockdown Distress Hits Xinjiang'

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