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Bangladesh power plant violence sparks fresh anger against Chinese as locals accuse them of cover-up

Just Earth News | @justearthnews | 21 Jun 2019, 09:22 am Print

Bangladesh power plant violence sparks fresh anger against Chinese as locals accuse them of cover-up

Beijing, June 21 (JEN): While the international community is appalled by the treatment of Ugyur Muslims in its territory by the communist China, a recent clash in Bangladesh displayed how people in this South Asian Islamic nation are annoyed with this Asian giant over covering up deadly industrial accidents involving Muslims. China seemed to be inevitably drawn towards hostilities with the Muslims in different parts of the world. 

While China cosies up to Pakistan to gain a geopolitical edge vis-a-vis India, its treatment of Muslims within China and outside is drawing criticism. From Bangladesh to Balochistan (seeking freedom from Pakistan), the anger against China is growing.

This week a Chinese national was killed during a clash between hundreds of Chinese and Bangladeshi workers at Patuakhali area of the south Asian nation where a partly-built China-funded power plant is being constructed.

The clash actually erupted after the death of a Bangladeshi workers at the site, local media reports said.

After hearing the death news, the other Bangladeshi workers charged at the Chinese workers, Md Manirul Islam, officer-in-charge of Kolapara Police Station, told The Daily Star.

“Then, the Chinese workers retaliated, triggering a clash. Five Chinese nationals were injured,” he said. Injured Chinese national  Jang Yang Khang died at a hospital later.

Police said around 1000 policemen reached the spot to restore calm after the clash erupted.

Firms from China have invested in Bangladesh in recent times in sectors which include bridges, roads and power plants but along with investments the anger and tension are rising over Chinese ways.

According to a BBC report, in some areas, the large number of Chinese workers has led to tensions with local communities.

About 6,000 workers - 2,000 of them Chinese - are employed at the plant in Patuakhali, about 200 km (124 miles) from the capital Dhaka, police told the British media.

The locals even accused that the Chinese were trying to cover up the incident that took place at the site and involved Muslim workers.

Violence in the past:

Tensions involving local people and Chinese-funded projects have spilled over before. In 2016, police opened fire on villagers in south-eastern Bangladesh as they protested against the construction of two China-backed power plants. Four people were killed, reported BBC.

Twitter users react to the incident:

One Aaron Halegua, whose Twitter profile says he is a lawyer, said: "More dead #workers along the #BeltandRoad as hundreds of laborers from #China and #Bangladesh clash; fighting prompted by another Chinese firm trying to cover up a worker death -- like in the #Saipan case."

Lawyer Aaron Halegua:

Another Harveen tweeted: "Such conflict is happening in many parts of Africa as well. BBC News - Bangladesh and China power plant workers in deadly mass brawl."

Sadia, a netizen, even initiated a hashtag which read '#boycottchineseproducts'.

Sadia Iqbal: "#Bangladesh and #China power plant workers in deadly mass brawl he [sic] large number of Chinese workers has led to tensions with local communities. however, see it also as a bid for Chinese geo-political and strategic influence.#boycottchineseproducts ."

How China's CPEC project pits it against Balochs

China for quite sometime is a close ally of Pakistan and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is one of the highly publicized projects under Beijing's "One Belt One Road" initiative, which the Chinese government calls  "a bid to enhance regional connectivity and embrace a brighter future", involving 65 nations to build a network of roads and sea routes.

But Chinese investment projects in Balochistan are resisted by the groups in the region which is wracked by an insurgency for separation from Pakistan. Balochistan is at the heart of  Chinese investments in the infrastructure projects in Pakistan.

The project led to escalated Pakistani oppression on the Baloch people seeking freedom.

Naela Quadri Baloch, the Vancouver-based activist for a free Balochistan, said never in the history of the region and its resistance to outsiders were their women abducted or raped like Pakistan is doing now to crush their movement, drawing from the support of China which is building the economic corridor through their territory to further its grand strategy of trade dominance.

With the help of China now, Pakistan is trying to finish us. They are killing us, abductions, rapes and disappearances are common, they stopped water and electricity for Baloch people," she said, referring to the CPEC project's implementation.

How China treats Uyghur Muslims:

The Turkey government recently described Beijing's controversial mass "re-education" camps of Uyghur Turks in China's western region of Xinjiang as 'a great shame for humanity.

Country's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy issued a statement on the matter and asked China to close its detention camps, which the Asian giant describes as "re-education" camps.

"Practices violating the fundamental human rights of Uighur [also spelt as Uyghur] Turks and other Muslim communities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region have worsened, especially during the last two years, and have been brought to the agenda of the international community," read the statement.

China has been slammed for its persecution of  Muslim minority groups and large-scale internment in camps where they're said to be undergoing "re-education" programmes.

The Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnicity who live in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Uyghurs primarily practice Islam.

Recently, Nurmuhammad Tohti, a prominent Uighur writer, who had been held at an internment camp in China’s Xinjiang region, died, media reports said.

Berna Ilchi, Tohti’s granddaughter, told Voice of America they had not been able to confirm whether Tohti died inside the camp or later at his home because the family in China could not elaborate on circumstances of his death, fearing their phone was tapped by officials.

“We called grandmother [this week] to see if the news of my grandfather passing away that we saw on social media was true. My grandmother said he had passed way eleven days ago,” Ilchi said. She added that she did not know whether her grandfather was tortured to death or medically neglected while he was at the internment camp. 

“The truth is that they put a 70-year old man, my grandfather, with diabetes and heart disease inside a concentration camp, and they cannot deny this,” she said.

She added that soon after her phone call, Chinese state authorities inquired about the foreign phone call her family received in Xinjiang.

“What my grandmother did was simply answer a phone call from her family telling them about the passing away of her husband. Why should that be scrutinized?” she asked.

PEN American Center, which was a nonprofit  founded in 1922 and headquartered in New York City to defend and celebrate free expression in the United States and worldwide, condemned the death and said in a statement: "The death of Nurmuhammad Tohti, a renowned writer in Xinjiang’s Uyghur community, after he was reportedly denied medical treatment for diabetes and heart disease in an internment camp, is an appalling and tragic loss at a time when China is trying to erase the cultural and intellectual life of the Uyghurs and others."

“The inhumane treatment reported at the internment camps is a grave illustration of the severity of China’s violations of free expression,” said Summer Lopez, Senior Director of Free Expression Programs at PEN America. “Tohti’s death is a tragic loss to the Uyghur literary community, at a time when the government is attempting to abolish their cultural and intellectual life.” 

In western Xinjiang Province, the Chinese government has deepened their crackdown against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

While authorities claim they are acting to combat Muslim extremism, numerous observers—including PEN America—have reported that the government’s policies are instead aimed at suppressing the cultural identity of Uyghurs and other minorities.

The governmental crackdown has included the detention of massive numbers of Uyghurs and others into “re-education camps,” where they are compelled to learn “patriotic education” and are subject to widespread abuse.

PEN America has documented various other cases of Uyghur writers, intellectuals, and cultural figures, who have been targeted by the state, including Freedom to Write Award honoree and scholar Ilham Tohti, journalist Gheyret Niyaz, historian Tohti Tunyaz, and researcher and writer Rahile Dawut among others.

According to a recent report by the Uighur Human Rights Project, a Washington-based reporting and advocacy organization since April 2017, the Chinese government has interned, imprisoned, or forcibly disappeared at least 435 intellectuals as part of its intensified assault on Uyghurs and erasure of their culture. This group is likely a small fraction of all Uyghur intellectuals suffering serious human rights violations.