I’ve been troubled by recent news that Frontier Service Group, an internationally known company run by Erik Prince (financial supporter of President Trump and brother of United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos), is planning to open bases in my homeland of Eastern Turkistan to support the Chinese government’s objectives there. Talk about this plan has been circulating for almost two years now. I didn’t prioritize this issue before because I believed U.S. views on rule of law and justice would not allow for such a partnership. But the increasing media coverage of this issue has me worried. I am compelled to speak up.

 

News about Blackwater establishing bases in Yunnan and Xinjiang to support China’s One Belt, One Road initiative has escalated since February. I’m not buying China’s propaganda that this move will further international peace and security or that it will align with U.S. strategic interests. For government leaders who have the foresight to see it, it’s no mystery where China’s One Belt, One Road imitative is headed. China’s strategy in the Middle East, its position on the civil war in Syria, its involvement in the peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, and the dispute in the South China Sea provide ample indication of what China’s interests are. In this article, I’ll briefly examine why China needs and wants Blackwater in Eastern Turkistan. 

 

First, I’ll highlight that the land where Blackwater plans to build bases is actually Eastern Turkistan not Xinjiang (new frontier in Chinese). Eastern Turkistan is the homeland of the Uyghurs and not the Chinese; China recognized this when it renamed the region Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. China has occupied this region since 1949, and because it’s an occupied region, Chinas has never been totally confident of its control over Eastern Turkistan. The Uyghurs have been struggling for their right to self-determination and independence for almost 70 years now. China now insists that the region always belonged to China and continues to use both violent and nonviolent means to oppress the Uyghur people and cement its control in the region.

 

China’s crackdown on the Uyghurs has dramatically evolved in the last decade. And so has the Uyghur people’s struggle–it has evolved from a struggle for independence to a struggle to preserve their very existence. China’s fight today is to completely cement its claim and authority in the Uyghur region, to swallow up Eastern Turkistan and make us forget it ever existed. And the battleground for that struggle is the very region where Blackwater plans to establish bases. And that initiative –One Belt, One Road –that Blackwater plans to support? It’s an important part of China’s battle strategy. 

 

Blackwater’s decision to establish bases in Eastern Turkistan and support China’s initiative clearly indicates it’s taking sides in this battle. And it’s not the oppressed Uyghurs’ side. Our international justice system is still evolving and we need to look no further than China’s role in the international community for proof that the system needs repair. China, a tyrannical occupier state, has a permanent seat in the United Nation’s Security Council. We realize the influence China has in the international arena and don’t expect UN members to take our side and support the rights of the people of Eastern Turkistan. But we do expect the United States, a country that has played a leading role in international peace and security efforts, and the West to remain neutral if they can’t side with the oppressed.  

 

Those who pay close attention to the political climate in China understand that it’s not Taiwan or the South China Sea that most concerns China –it’s the Uyghur issue. Despite its relentless crackdown on the Uyghurs and extreme efforts to suppress news about it, China hasn’t been able to hide the plight of this people yearning for independence. As the think tank New America reported last year, China treats Uyghur national identity and culture as security threats. Over the past 10 years, China has escalated and intensified the crackdown on Uyghurs to destroy the threat. China’s war on Uyghur identity and culture is driving desperate Uyghurs across borders –in search of refuge from oppression –and when the international community fails to come to their aid, sometimes into conflicts (Syria) they have no stake in. 

 

Uyghurs in Eastern Turkistan are struggling to protect and preserve their identity, culture, and freedom of religion. While the struggle has been mainly peaceful, some have used violent means to seek retribution and sanction the Chinese government for wrongs committed against the Uyghur people. The Uyghur diaspora has been actively engaged in education and advocacy efforts in Turkey, America, Germany, and other democratic nations to shed light to the plight of the Uyghur people. The Uyghurs in Eastern Turkistan and abroad, whether they struggle for independence or mere existence, look to the U.S. and the West for hope. 

 

So why does China want Blackwater in Eastern Turkistan? Is it because it lacks the technical knowledge? Is China’s own army is too weak? No. Most of the acts of violent resistance and retribution in Eastern Turkistan are carried out by Uyghurs armed with knives and axes. The Chinese Army isn’t so desperate that it can’t resist sporadic knife and axe attacks. Are their social media censors incompetent? Far from it. Following the 2009 Urumchi Massacre, China shut down the internet for almost nine months. Today, China employs more than a million individuals to police the internet. They don’t really need help from The U.S. in the national security department. Chinese security forces are certainly more informed of the situation in Eastern Turkistan than Erik Prince. So what does China want with Blackwater? What will help them make Uyghurs kneel before the party and surrender? It’s psychological warfare. 

 

The historic reality is that Eastern Turkistan belongs to the Uyghurs. And the Uyghur struggle lives because of a dream that one day Eastern Turkistan will be free. The Uyghurs’ strength is psychological – it’s hope. As Muslims, our first hope is in God’s grace and justice. As a Turkic people, we hope Turkey will not stand for the suffering of the Uyghurs. And as member of humanity, we hope that America – a champion of human rights with the might to tell China to stop – will stand with the oppressed. With Blackwater at its side, China will strike that pillar of hope that keeps alive the Uyghur struggle for identity and independence. Blackwater will become a weapon of China’s psychological warfare against the Uyghurs. The American company will destroy Uyghur hopes of international justice. Together, China and Blackwater will alienate Uyghurs from the world, leaving them alone and defenseless. And China will use the Blackwater name to justify its crackdown on Eastern Turkistan, Tibet, and inner Mongolia. It means to spin its crimes against humanity into a joint security operation with America. 

 

China’s One Way, One Belt initiative will drive Uyghurs out of their homes and lands and jobs, degrade the environment, hamper democratization, and further jeopardize human security in the region. Those considering support for this initiative should deliberate knowing that they may well become accomplices to genocide. Such support is inconsistent with American values.

 

I understand that my use of the word genocide may seem like an exaggeration to those who aren’t experts on the region. I ask that you take a glance at some of the news coming out of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region: practically no Uyghurs in government; a Chinese dominant education under the guise of a bilingual policy; and an economy in Urumchi dominated by Chinese despite its larger Uyghur population –in 1949, less than four percent of Urumchi was Chinese, but today the Chinese make up 40 percent of Urumchi’s population and dominate almost all formal institutions there. 

 

Blackwater has changed its name multiple times, but the company’s makeover attempt has been unsuccessful – we still know it as Blackwater. China doesn’t need Blackwater’s weapons or experience; it wants Blackwater’s negative reputation/influence. Blackwater has tried to change its name to escape the negative reputation associated with it, but in its publicity efforts, China refers to Frontier Services Group by its old name – Blackwater. 

In 2014, when several men armed with knives and axes attempted an attack, China sent hundreds of drones to destroy them. Later when 12 men armed with sticks and knives carried out an attack in Aksu, China burned them alive with their wives and children. The country that crushed its own people with tanks in 1989 probably doesn’t need Erik Prince to tell them how to quash what China considers national security threats. China does need someone to cleanse its hands, up its intimidation game and psychologically destroy the Uyghurs. And it has chosen Blackwater for that job. 

 

Blackwater probably has a lot to gain by joining forces with China. But at what cost? The psychological destruction of a people. And that’s be no small sacrifice. It’s the sacrifice of more than 20 million people’s struggle for existence and independence. It’s the sacrifice of their homeland – one-sixth of the territory China claims on the map. It’s the sacrifice of the cradle of Eastern civilization. While Blackwater’s interests may be with China, the American company’s partnership with China is contrary to American’s strategic and reputational interests. 

I’d like to make a plea to Erik Prince here. Mr. Prince, don’t do this. Don’t choose to support a tyrant’s war against the oppressed. Don’t destroy your reputation and soil America’s. Don’t help China violate our human rights and international law. Don’t go down in history as the Prince that helped mighty tyrants take down a nation of helpless souls.