Tribune. A flame building on the night of November 24 in Urumqi (Xinjiang), the capital of the Ouïgoure region, released Chinese citizens from a long dystopian night. A barricaded ouigour district, locked doors, a building mainly occupied by Uighurs, literally out of reach of the emergency services which are hampered in their intervention, due to strict containment.
That night, the ordeal of these uïgoure families confined for almost four months, hungry, deprived of care, trapped between four walls, has suddenly become the nightmare of all Chinese citizens.
This tragic event, which would have caused the death of forty -four people and made many wounded -while the authorities recognize only ten deaths -triggered everywhere else in China, for example on Urumqi Street in Shanghai, A wave of demonstrations brought by students in universities and exasperated citizens, brandishing white leaves in standard [symbol of the lack of freedom of expression]. As promising that it is, this “White Paper Revolution” should not obscure what the terrible event of Urumqi highlights in the first place.
Because don’t be mistaken. Urumqi’s fire is not only the effect of a drastic policy of fighting COVID-19 on the scale of China. Urumqi is the capital of an “autonomous” territory mostly populated by Uïgours that the Beijing regime has persecuted since its invasion in 1949 with a colonial logic of forced sinization of the population. Zero covid policy has been applied there in a particularly unbearable way.
Since August 10, Uighurs have been subject to total confinement, forcing them to live in famine and care of care by refusing food and medication by the authorities. Since 2017, China has carried out a genocidal and concentrational policy against the uighter population, which parliaments of eight democracies have recognized as genocidal crimes and crimes against humanity.
The fight against the COVID-19 is based on a series of systemic persecution which has the effect of disciplining bodies and minds. This logic of confinement is now spread outside the concentration camps, forced work factories and prisons and extends even in the homes, which have become fatal prison cells. In October, thousands of Uighrs had testified on Douyin (Tiktok in China) of the dramatic situation of the famine which caused the death, in particular, of children and fragile people.
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