Analyzing Past Genocides to Determine Effectiveness of International Intervention in the Uyghur Genocide

Abstract

Located in northwestern China, The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) is Chinese territory populated predominantly of Sufi Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic groups. The largest ethnic group, amounting to approximately 12 million inhabitants, is the Uyghurs. Inhabited mainly by Uyghurs, Xinjiang is also inhabited by ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Uzbeks. Nonetheless, Uyghurs only make up 0.12% of the entire Chinese population. The high concentration of ethnic populations in Xinjiang has been a concern for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which is largely monocultural to the mainly Han Chinese and Mandarin-speaking demographic. The CCP launched its “Strike Hard Against Violent Terrorism Campaign” in order to combat the growing issues of separatism and terrorism which has yielded the detainment of nearly 1.8 million ethnic inhabitants of Xinjiang. This paper will compare the Uyghur Genocide to 4 of the past notable genocides in the 20th Century and determine what level of international involvement would be most effective. This paper asserts that the Armenian Genocide displays the best guide in terms of international involvement, but highlights the circumstantial nature of addressing genocide, in that, due to the large scope of genocide not all genocide can be addressed the same exact way.