If "Never Again" in reference to the systematic killing of Jews during World War II means anything, it means everything in the fight against China's ongoing persecution of its Uyghur minority, an advocate against genocide told U.S. House members last week.
Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide Director Naomi Kikoler testified before the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party on Thursday, March 23. Her testimony was posted to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's website the following day.
"The words 'Never Again' were meant to be a lasting commitment, no matter how challenging – including when a superpower like China is the perpetrator," Kikoler told committee members. "When most people think of genocide, they think of places like Auschwitz-Birkenau where one million Jews were systematically killed."
The words also apply to what the Chinese Communist Party is doing to the country's Uyghurs, though China is putting its own mark on its own genocide, Kikoler said.
"The Chinese government is using subtler tactics to intentionally destroy the Uyghur people: Mass surveillance and detention, torture, transfer of children, separation of men and women and restrictions on reproductive capacity," she said. "And these are crimes that impact all, but in particular women, who have for too long been overlooked as the intentional targets of genocide. The Chinese government is failing in its legal obligation to prevent genocide."
Kikoler asked committee members to consider what "upholding 'Never Again'" means in the context of the ongoing Uyghur genocide.
"First and foremost, the Chinese government must halt its crimes, release detainees and allow unfettered access to independent monitors into Xinjiang," she said. "The scale of the crimes against Uyghurs is daunting. And we know that confronting the crimes of a powerful perpetrator will be difficult."
The U.S. can't do it alone, Kikoler said.
"We must work with other governments, Uyghur civil society and the private sector to develop a swift, coordinated and global strategy to protect the Uyghur community," she said. "Thus far, no such strategy exists."
Kikoler called upon the U.S. to work with its allies to stop human rights abuses against the Uyghur community and recommended a three-pronged approach that included reducing China's ability to continue on its genocide through actions that include imposing sanctions. Kikoler also recommended pursuing accountability, which she said could be done by an impartial investigation, and granting asylum and in other ways protecting Uyghurs who have fled China.
"On visiting the Holocaust Museum, people often ask themselves, 'What would I have done if I had been alive during the Holocaust?'" Kikoler said. "Let history guide us so that today we ask: 'Now that I know what the Chinese government is doing to the Uyghurs, what will I do?'"
Accompanying Kikoler was Uyghur and Chinese concentration survivor Gulbahar Haitiwaji.
Kikoler was not the only anti-genocide advocate to testify during the hearing. Elisha Wiesel, son of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winning author of "Night" Elie Wiesel, gave his own statement about the treatment of Uyghurs in China. He also recalled to committee members his comments last year to the United Nations on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, when UN members asked him why he had brought up Uyghurs.
Wiesel told committee members that he replied, "We may say 'never again,' but genocide is in fact happening again. And it is happening on our watch."
In his own comments during the hearing, committee member Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) said he especially understands what's at stake.
"As one of two dozen Jewish representatives in the House, I know too well the consequences of failures to confront hate and mass atrocities," Auchincloss said.
The hearing followed last summer's United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) report addressing concerns dating back to 2017 that Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China have suffered. Members of these groups have disappeared, been sent to "re-education camps" and subjected to forced labor, sexual violence and other abuse. OHCHR assessed allegations against China in its analysis of official documents and satellite imagery, as well as interviews with 40 people who have "direct and firsthand knowledge of the situation" in China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
Those interviewed by OHCHR had been detained in "Vocational Education and Training Centers." They testified to not having access to an attorney at any time and that they were not given any alternate option. That testimony contradicts Chinese government claims that the Vocational Education and Training Centers are an alternative to jail time.
The interviewees also reported that they were not allowed to leave the facilities or visit their homes. About half of the interviewees reported they were permitted occasional visits and phone calls with family members, but only under heavy surveillance. The remaining interviewees reported they had no contact with their families, who did not know where they were.
OHCHR found that China's Vocational Education and Training Centers are a form of deprivation of liberty which, according to international human rights law, cannot be arbitrary. Two-thirds of those interviewed by OHCHR described "treatment that would amount to torture and/or other forms of ill-treatment, either in VETC facilities themselves or in the context of processes of referral to VETC facilities," the report said.
Interviewees also reported receiving beatings with batons, including with electric batons, while strapped to a chair. They also reported interrogations as water was poured on their faces, being held in solitary confinement for prolonged periods of time and being forced to sit on small stools for long periods of time without moving. They also reported being constantly hungry, losing significant amounts of weight, being deprived of sleep and not being allowed to speak their native language or practice religion, including praying.
They also had to memorize "red songs" and other Chinese Communist Party official material, according to the report. One former detainee reported, "We were forced to sing patriotic song after patriotic song every day, as loud as possible and until it hurts, until our faces become red and our veins appeared on our face."
Most of the interviewees reported they were forced to take unknown medications regularly during their detainment.
