Video Above: A quiet suburb of Adelaide is a safe haven for 1,500 Uighurs.
The startling details of a New York Times investigation exposing the Chinese government’s crackdown on ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region have been sternly condemned in Australia.
Quoting from what The Times said is more than 400 pages of leaked internal Chinese Communist Party documents it revealed President Xi Jingping’s decree for “absolutely no mercy”.
China has rejected international criticism of its mass-internment camps in Xinjiang and denies mistreatment of ethnic minorities saying they are responses to fight Islamic extremism.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne labelled the New York Times reports “disturbing” saying they reinforced Australia’s resolve to raise their human rights concerns with Beijing.
Uighur security personnel patrol near the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar in western China's Xinjiang region. Source: AP
“I have previously raised Australia’s strong concerns about reports of mass detentions of Uighurs in Xinjiang,” she said in a statement.
“These disturbing reports … reinforce Australia’s view and we reiterate those concerns.”
Labor’s foreign affairs spokesperson Penny Wong echoed the government, calling the report “gravely disturbing”.
Labor's Penny Wong speaks to the media on Monday. Source: AAP
“We are deeply concerned about reports of arbitrary detention ... We are deeply concerned about the treatment of Uighurs,” she said.
But Senator Wong dismissed recalling Australia's ambassador to China, saying Australia “needs to continue to engage with China on points of difference”.
The Times reported on the clampdown, in which authorities have corralled as many as a million ethnic Uighurs, Kazaks and others into internment camps over the past three years.
The bombshell documents were leaked by “a member of the Chinese political establishment” revealing a series of internal speeches made by Mr Xi and other Chinese officials.
Residents line up inside the Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center in western China's Xinjiang region. Source: AP
They detailed an inside view of the Chinese Communist Party's crackdown against Muslim minorities including how to handle students who return home to find their relatives detained.
Officials were advised to tell students their relatives had been “infected” by the “virus” of Islamic terrorism and be placed in quarantine.
Australia has consistently called for China to cease the arbitrary detention of Uighurs and other groups.
But it has now been revealed, a human rights partnership with China has been “quietly” suspended.
First reported by The Australian, the Human Rights Technical Co-operation Program aimed at advancing human rights reform was suspended after more than two decades in August.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne called the details of the New York Times report "disturbing", Source: AAP
The decision comes amid concerns over Beijing's mass detention program, its treatment of democracy protests in Hong Kong, and banning of two Australian MPs critical of its actions.
Beijing blocked Liberal MP Andrew Hastie and Liberal Senator James Paterson from a study tour to China – calling on them to “repent” from their criticism against the Chinese Communist Party.
Andrew Hastie said the New York Times report only reaffirmed his concerns over Beijing's human rights record.
“The New York Times report is most troubling because it reveals exactly what the regime is thinking on the inside,” he said.
“The key takeaway for me is that those who are interned and those who are being re-educated are infected as they say with unhealthy thoughts.”
The New York Times report detailed a series of internal speeches Mr Xi gave to officials during and following a 2014 visit to Xinjiang. That came after a stabbing attack by Uighur militants at a train station which killed 31 people.
Liberal MP Andrew Hastie. Source: AAP
The documents show the Chinese leadership's fears were heightened by terrorist attacks in other countries and the US drawdown of troops from Afghanistan.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Charlie Lyons Jones said the evidence of the mass detention camps is now irrefutable.
“This is the first evidence that we have seen of internal communist party documents that refer to the concentrated transformation through education program that the Chinese government is prosecuting,” he said.
“The dehumanising language which is used in many of these documents should be of profound concern to any Australian who supports human rights."
Senator Payne said this followed "deeply disturbing" video released in September that seemed to show hundreds of blindfolded men being transported in Xinjiang.
Additional reporting: AAP, Nick Baker
