Video essay by Ryan van der Lienden and Pushpita Dhar
In 2018, the world's eyes were opened to the Chinese government's unjust mass
detainment of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in reformation camps on the basis of
countering religious extremism. The Uighurs are the Muslim, Turkic-speaking natives of the region Xinjiang in North-west China, who have been dealing with the oppression of the Chinese Communist Party since the 1940s. For decades, Uighurs have migrated out of China in hopes of not only finding safe refuge, but places where they can keep their culture alive, build support for their cause and continue to fight for their home.
Social media has been essential to Uighur diasporas in connecting with one another,
bringing a platform for their voices, and for organizing their activism. While research of the current Uighur plight is extensive, as the news caster mentioned at the start, there is a lack of reporting on the dangers Uighur diasporas face online from Chinese surveillance and espionage. In that regard, our video essay attempts to answer the research question: How do Uighur migrants utilise social media to navigate the threat posed by digital surveillance by the Chinese state?
Watch the full video here:
A home left behind
It's the mid-1940s. Ethnic conflict between Uighurs and Han Chinese is on the rise. Unrest between the two communities has been brewing in Xinjiang for two centuries, but drastically increased in the mid-20th century. Recent satellite imagery presents damning evidence of the destruction and damage of mosques in the region since 2017.
State policies have been key in altering the demographic composition of Xinjiang, with the Chinese government implementing work and migration policies that favour the Han Chinese over other ethnic groups, leading to mass migration within Xinjiang. This brought about some of the earliest waves of Uighur migration outside China, starting in the 1980s, exponentially rising after 2016, where we all learnt what happened.
New networks and surveillance
When the crackdown in China intensified in 2016, some of the first casualties were
popular, independent Uighur-run websites. The government's intent was to eradicate the Uighurs history, language and culture so they could begin their campaign of reformation.
While this disrupted communication lines for Uighurs in China and abroad, the community found creative ways to navigate the online space to celebrate their culture and push their cause, while also trying to avoid surveillance. Stealth filming of videos, conversations on gaming apps, and using signs with messages during video calls are some ways of evading official surveillance.
These actions work against the 3symbolic bordering ́ of the state, which uses technology to erase Uighurs' visibility and keep them out of 3zones of prosperity ́ (Chouliaraki, 2017). The state's use of digital technologies also reinforces existing unequal power relations, leading to digital authoritarianism, in which it controls media infrastructure and tools of surveillance (Polyakova & Meserole, 2019).
Against this surveillance, online communities and forums are a way for members to document human rights violations and the occupation of territory in Xinjiang, primarily through sharing and resharing news articles. Initiatives such as the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) try to establish a platform for Uighur stories and help the diaspora conduct research through verified sources, while a handful of Facebook groups and Instagram are a way for the diaspora to hold on to a shared culture and engage in activism, raising awareness around human rights abuses.
With all that said, we must consider how much opportunity is erased for the Uighur diaspora by the threat of digital surveillance, heavily restricting how Uighurs can use social media to their benefit. The reach of the state Refugee espionage ́, according to the Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Organisation, is defined as 3incidents where the authorities of foreign states carry out intelligence activities against diaspora communities, refugees, political dissidents and regime critics who have sought safety in other countries ́ (UNPO, 2021, p.1).
On June 4th, 2009, Babur Mehsut, a Uighur migrant with Swedish nationalism was detained by Swedish police on the charges of refugee espionage. He was later convicted by the Stockholm District Court for infiltrating the World Uyghur Congress and giving sensitive information of other Uighurs to a Chinese Intelligence Officer disguised as a journalist and diplomat. In 2017, Zhanargul Zhumatai, an artist and former editor, was among other Uighurs and Kazakhs being sent to the reformation camps in Xinjiang. Zhumatai was detained for the crime of visiting Kazakhstan and having Instagram and Facebook on her phone.
These incidents were not isolated. For years, there have been reports from Uighur
migrants and advocacy groups about undercover Chinese authorities reaching out to and
threatening migrant Uighurs through both off- and online means. The spies are not always Chinese individuals either. Like Babur, there are other cases of Uighurs infiltrating Uighur communities under the order of the Chinese government (Mooney & Lague, 2015). Migrants don't only have to worry about spies from China, but also spies within their own people.
Surveillance is not something members of the community can simply shake off, but find new ways to negotiate, against the "transnational repression" of the home country, that is, repression of the diaspora through the deployment of authoritarian practices (Moss, 2016).
Conclusion
Social media use in the Uyghur diaspora varies throughout the community. The extent of their social media usage can be based on factors like the fear they have of being reached by Chinese authorities and how much contact they have with their families.
Additionally, Uighur members utilise a number of creative ways to try to overcome Chinese surveillance tactics, like using aliases, or communicating non-verbally. The platforms they use also matter, with some social media used for activism while others, like the Uyghur Human Rights Project, are used for trusted news sharing.
It is clear that no matter how much threat the Uighur diaspora faces from the Chinese Communist Party, the Uighur community will not allow for their culture to disappear and will continue to keep fighting for a better future.
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