The Global Impact of the "War on Terror": The Case of the People's Republic of China and Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

Abstract

In this thesis, I examine the global implications of the "War on Terror" by exploring how China exploits the discourses of the "War on Terror" to justify the internment of Uyghur Muslims. In the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Chinese government is responsible for human rights abuses, violations, and genocide of Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic minority groups. In 2018, it was reported that approximately more than one million Uyghur Muslims and other Muslim minorities in China have disappeared and are subject to arbitrary detention, surveillance, forced labour, forced sterilization, and regulations which restrict religious and cultural expression in supposed "counter-extremism centers" allegedly committed to political indoctrination fighting terrorism (Human Rights Watch, 2021; United Nations Human Rights, 2018). This study explores the processes and practices used to deny the internment of the Uyghur Muslim population. I achieve this through my research question, which aims to explore: How the Chinese government manufactures and justifies its own "War on Terror" by suppressing Uyghur Muslims and simultaneously denying the use of internment camps? I analyzed pro-government national China Daily English newspaper articles from 2001-2020 using qualitative content analysis to answer this research question. As a result, my main argument is that the Chinese government has manufactured and exacerbated a domestic "terrorism" problem by exploiting the discourses of the "War on Terror" to justify its internment of Uyghur Muslims. Simultaneously, the Chinese government has produced a deflection campaign committed to diverting criticisms and denying the use of internment camps under the guise of the "War on Terror." I conclude this thesis by presenting the need for additional research to explore how other countries in the East might also suppress different racialized groups in the context of the "War on Terror."