The Hill’s Top Opinions: China’s cost-free Muslim gulag

View Online  Opinion Monday, September 5 ©  AP Happy Labor Day. This is Daniel Allott with The Hill's Top Opinions. Last week the United Nations' human rights office released a report detailing serious human rights violations in China's Xinjiang province. The report calls on Beijing to take "prompt steps to release all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty."   BRAHMA CHELLANEY writes that the crimes against the Uyghur people and other ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang include mass incarceration, reeducation camps, forced sterilization and abortion, torture of detainees, slave labor and draconian curbs on freedom of religion and movement — not to mention what Chellaney refers to as "Orwellian levels of surveillance and control over many details of life."   China's actions in Xinjiang represent the "largest mass incarceration of people on religious ground since the Nazi era," Chellaney writes. And yet, "China has incurred no international costs."   Though China's abuses have been ongoing for years, it's hardly surprising that they haven't attracted much attention in the West. Many people are still unfamiliar with who the Uyghurs are (a Turkic ethnic group), where Xinjiang is located (in Western China, bordering Russia, India and Afghanistan, among other countries) and even how to properly pronounce "Uyghur" ("wee-ghur" or, better yet, "ooy-Gh-oor").   But the lack of accountability is mostly due to China's status as a rising economic and military superpower. Chellaney, a geostrategist and author of nine books, notes that two successive U.S. presidents have labeled the repression in Xinjiang "genocide" and "crimes against humanity" but that China's communist government has suffered no repercussions. "Western actions against China have largely been symbolic," he writes. Even Muslim-majority countries have remained mostly silent.   Chellaney is pessimistic that things will change anytime soon. "With China a rising power, there seems little prospect that Chinese officials behind the Muslim gulag will" be held accountable.   Read Chellaney's entire piece here.   Not subscribed to The Hill's Top Opinions? Sign up here. More Top Opinions Trump may not be able to control the narrative this time By JOE FERULLO, media executive, producer and journalist In the last couple of weeks, Trump has scrambled to shift the narrative around the document stash uncovered at his Mar-a-Lago residence. But nothing seems to stick. 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But the snark with which Chinese officials are greeting Artemis does not demonstrate disdain for the program but more likely fear of the NASA-led international return to the moon effort. Read the op-ed here Quick Takes If history is our guide, Trump's chances of returning to the White House are extremely low   Biden's student loan bailout and the death of skin in the game   Hats off to Hillary: Prosecuting Trump in the shadow of Clinton's emails   Trump must explain what he did and why he did it   Our narrowing options in Ukraine Stay Engaged The Hill's Top Opinions is written by Daniel Allott, an opinion editor at The Hill and the author of "On the Road in Trump's America: A Journey Into the Heart of a Divided Nation."   Views expressed by contributors are theirs and not the opinion of The Hill.   Check out The Hill's Opinion section online for the latest. Interested in submitting an op-ed? Click here. 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