Posted on 11/23/2018 1:34:17 PM PST by Eddie01
BANGKOK, Thailand -- China's government sent more than one million majority ethnic Han Chinese to live uninvited in the homes of minority Uighur families in Xinjiang province and report if the Muslims display Islamic or unpatriotic beliefs which need to be forcibly reformed.
"Had a Uighur host just greeted a neighbor in Arabic with the words 'Assalamu Alaykum'? That would need to go in the notebook," and reported to China's authorities, said American anthropologist Darren Byler.
"Was that a copy of the Koran in the home? Was anyone praying on Friday or fasting during Ramadan? Was a little sister's dress too long or a little brother's beard irregular? And why was no one playing cards or watching movies?" Mr. Byler said, describing traditional Muslim behavior which China's civilian monitors added to the dossiers.
Mr. Byler's 5,500-word investigative research was published by New York-based Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations on October 25.
About two weeks after publication, the ruling Chinese Communist Party newspapers Global Times and People's Daily confirmed Mr. Byler's report.
"Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has implemented the pairing and assistance program between officials and the ethnic minority citizens to promote communication and interaction among different ethnic groups in Xinjiang," Global Times reported on November 7.
According to statistics published by People's Daily, as of September 2018, "some 1.1 million civil servants have paired up with more than 1.69 million ethnic minority citizens, especially village residents," Global Times said.
The "pairing" program was expected to continue indefinitely.
Informants who lived uninvited in Uighurs' homes regarded themselves "as relatives" and included officials from "the central government and military departments, including the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and Xinjiang Armed Police Corps [who] have made over 49 million visits to local residents," the People's Daily statistics revealed, according to Global Times.
Mr. Byler said in his report:
"This spring, as an anthropologist returning to a province where I had spent two years researching Han and Uighur social life, I met and interviewed Han civilian state workers in predominantly Uighur urban districts and towns across southern Xinjiang.
"Over my time there and in conversations online, both before and after my visit, I spoke to around a dozen people about the experiences of [government-appointed Chinese] 'big sisters and brothers' in Uighur and Kazakh homes. They ranged from civilian surveillance workers who performed these visits themselves, to friends and family members of these surveillance workers.
"Some of these people were Han friends that I first built relationships with in 2011 when I began my fieldwork in Urumchi," the capital of Xinjiang province, said Mr. Byler who received a Ph.D. from the University of Washington's anthropology department in 2018.
"Others, primarily friends and family members of those directly involved in the program, were acquaintances I made outside of China. Still others were people I met in Urumchi and Kashgar [Xinjiang’s second-largest city] in 2018."
More than one million monitors lived and ate with targeted Uighur families for one week.
An additional 110,000 monitors lived in Uighur homes for 90 days while other monitors stayed in "sensitive villages" for more than 10 months, he said.
"Visit the People, Benefit the People, and Bring Together the Hearts of the People!" is the program's official slogan.
Monitors tried to ingratiate themselves as "relatives" even though everyone knew the "indoctrination and surveillance" program was hunting for perceived "terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism."
Muslims deemed suspicious were reported to authorities who would usually force them into prison-like "counter-extremism training centers" and other facilities which Beijing insists are benevolent "vocational training centers."
Mr. Byler said "the mobilization of more than a million Chinese civilians -- most members of the Han ethnic majority -- [was] to aid the military and police in their campaign by occupying the homes of the region's Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, and undertaking programs of indoctrination and surveillance, while presenting themselves as older siblings of the men and women they might then decide to consign to the camps."
Adults and their children had to answer any questions the monitors asked about their personal life, religious beliefs, patriotism, and similar activities of their relatives, friends and neighbors.
To trick Uighurs into dropping their guard, a monitor would "offer a host a cigarette or a sip of beer," because devout Muslims avoid smoking and alcohol.
"A hand could be extended in greeting to a little sibling of the opposite gender, staying alert for signs of flinching," because Muslim females are often taught not to shake a male stranger's hand.
Chinese monitors "could go out to the market for some freshly ground meat, and propose that the family make dumplings. And then wait and watch to see if the Uighurs would ask what kind of meat was in the bag," because most Muslims shun pork.
More than 10 million Uighurs live in northwest China's resource-rich Xinjiang province, which is about five times the size of Germany, and many speak a Turkic language.
Smoldering demands for independence, and the appearance of a tiny number of China's Uighurs allegedly fighting as Islamist insurgents in the Middle East, have stoked fears in Beijing.
In 2014, about 200,000 Chinese Communist party members began arriving in Xinjiang for "long-term stays" in Uighur villages, Mr. Byler said.
Two years later, an additional 110,000 civil servants began "90-day stays" in the "homes of Uighurs whose family members had been imprisoned or killed by the police."
The newest escalation began in 2017 when more than one million civilians imposed themselves for week-long home stays, "often focusing on the extended family of those who had been detained in the drastically-expanded 'transformation through education' program."
Monitors are instructed to say "they have been monitoring all internet and cell phone communication that is coming from the family, so they should not even think about lying when it comes to their knowledge of Islam and religious extremism," Mr. Byler said.
During his research, the anthropologist discovered some monitors considered themselves altruistic servants helping impoverished, misinformed people realize the error of their ways so Xinjiang would become patriotic and prosperous.
Many Muslims who suffered the surveillance said they felt "infantilized and stripped of their dignity" because the program "undermined the authority of Uighur parents and destroyed families," he said.
Zhu Weiqun, former head of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing, told Global Times: "The pairing and assistance program has been implemented for two years, which is a successful practice for Xinjiang."
I suggest the Uighurs build a Great big Wall to keep out the uninvited guests.
If it gains a Han Chinese ethnic majority, the Uighur threat is eliminated for good.
Welp . . .
China's government sent more than one million majority ethnic Han Chinese to live uninvited in the homes of minority Uighur families in Xinjiang province and report if the Muslims display Islamic or unpatriotic beliefs which need to be forcibly reformed.
I'm sure the 53 Islamic States and the UN will be condemning China about this, at any minute. But first, they'll condemn Israel eight or nine times, along with "populism".
“China doesn’t play with the Islamic threat.”
They do not. There’s a reason why China has existed over 4000 years. And likely will be here another 4000.
While “Come on in!” empires like Europe and the United States will not last the current century.
It’s Mou Sho pork for dinner tonight, Comrade Mohammad. OK with your family?
Awww, sucks to live under a government that FIGHTS BACK.
What a strange and different culture China has. I’m sure, like America, there are subtle differences in the different regions like between NYC, the Deep South, and SoCal. All different.
I doubt our government could get away with putting a million people into the homes of another million without being invited or welcomed like China did.
Can you imagine one million conservatives being placed in (suspected) Islamic homes to spy on them and they knew it? No way would that fly.
Then again I didn’t think America would be so flooded with immigrants from mostly Hispanic countries either yet it is.
Good Lord, that is aggressive, even for a Communist country!
1 Million Han were sent to move uninvited into Uighur Homes.
They are not just peeping and tattling after a brief glimpse.
They are moving in to stay!
Not even George Soros or those on his payroll are proposing this just yet. It may already be going on via CPS (Child Protective Services).
I see why this is being done, because the Muslim Sharia is very threatening in the long term.
In the short term, I could never lived where I wasn’t wanted, where I had bulldozed my way in because of my big shiny Badges. Something tells me the ‘New Tenant’ better watch their back. Their may be an ever so slight essence of Strychnine flavor detected in their rice balls.
Yes, but Christians are next...
It’s almost like what is taking place in Europe, except it’s the Muslims doing the moving in.
Collectivism meets mohammism. Two teams that are willing to kill to win.
Don’t know what caliber Uighur’s favor, but this ain’t gonnna end well. Especially after a little rapin’ and pillagin’ by the “big brothers”
I found this to be a remarkable story on several levels.
Raises interesting questions.
How has this story not found its way into the main stream media?
Why is Islam silent?
This is why Muslim terrorists just tried to bomb China’s embassy in Pakistan. The Chinese don’t play footsie with terrorists, and now they’ll double down on their anti-Uigher measures. Like the Royhinga, the Uighers are far from innocent victims.
This is exactly what they have done in Tibet ( and worse) Invasion by displacement of demographics .
I cannot imagine this ‘technique’ being attempted anywhere else in the world. Well, maybe only two other places, Russia and the Middle East.
It probably also helps the Chinese Govt. that everyone involved (Uighurs too) is of the Asian ethnicity.
SO there is already the unspoken presumption of compliance with authority. It’s like bossing around your least favorite sibling, and the sibling accepting the hierarchy.
To trick Uighurs into dropping their guard, a monitor would "offer a host a cigarette or a sip of beer," because devout Muslims avoid smoking and alcohol.
"A hand could be extended in greeting to a little sibling of the opposite gender, staying alert for signs of flinching," because Muslim females are often taught not to shake a male stranger's hand.
Chinese monitors "could go out to the market for some freshly ground meat, and propose that the family make dumplings. And then wait and watch to see if the Uighurs would ask what kind of meat was in the bag," because most Muslims shun pork.
More than 10 million Uighurs live in northwest China's resource-rich Xinjiang province, which is about five times the size of Germany, and many speak a Turkic language.
Smoldering demands for independence, and the appearance of a tiny number of China's Uighurs allegedly fighting as Islamist insurgents in the Middle East, have stoked fears in Beijing.
Ruh-Roh!
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