Counterterrorism and Confinement: How Chinese Officials Amplified the U. S’s GWOT Policy Against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang

Abstract

This thesis seeks to examine the relationship between the United States9 Global War on Terror (GWOT) and the current repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang conducted by China in the name of counterterrorism. Recent academic literature has discussed how Chinese authorities capitalized on the GWOT political landscape conducive to repression, most notably in Sean Roberts9 new book The War on the Uyghurs. This thesis, however, seeks to consider not only how Chinese officials brought in GWOT counterterrorism strategies, but how such measures were intensified under an authoritarian political regime. Namely, this thesis introduces the import-and-amplify theory to consider how Chinese officials manipulated U.S counterterrorism strategies towards their own efforts in Xinjiang. Although this theory likely applies to multiple sectors of counterterrorism, this thesis chose to focus on mass detention due to its central importance in both U.S and China counterterrorism strategy, but also due to these facilities being subjects of grave human rights violations. To investigate this theory, this thesis introduces a threepart case study that looks at evidence across different sectors of the Sino-U.S counterterrorism relationship. First, the Close Collaboration section investigates two specific instances of high-level cooperation between U.S and Chinese officials that formalized the early stages of a counterterrorisminspired crackdown. Second, the Framing & Justification section discusses how Chinese officials relied on the Bush administration9s rhetoric to legitimize their initial campaign into a more targeted effort against the Uyghurs. The third and last section of the case study, Parallel Policy, draws comparisons between the two mass detention campaigns independently of each other, and demonstrates how Chinese authorities mimicked and expanded upon U.S-led strategies both in terms of detention procedures and treatment of detainees. Taken together, the three segments of the case study provide strong evidence to support the import-and-amplify theory. Not only did officials seek to import successful aspects of U.S policy, but China capitalized on its authoritarian political system, in addition to widely publicized abuses during the GWOT, to perpetuate a more radical counterterrorism campaign that has amounted to accusations of genocide and crimes against humanity. All told, this thesis facilitates a deeper understanding of the pretext used to propel the repression crusade underway in Xinjiang and perhaps find ways to prevent future instances of similar abuse going forward.