Life in Xinjiang under COVID-19

Perhaps, you have heard about what happens in Xinjiang. The recent "Xinjiang Cotton" incidence brought the place to worldwide attention. Media says that it is a place where "An ethnicity is disappearing", "A place with no human rights", and many other negative comments.

Xinjiang is a very beautiful place, where I have been to once. The cover picture is a small village in North Xinjiang in autumn. It was so pure and unprocessed by human that it becomes a rare piece of beauty in the world. However, being able to reach there may not be easy and pleasant.

Recently, I got a chance to talk to a resident of Xinjiang, China and who experienced COVID-19 in Xinjiang. Inevitably, Xinjiang was also affected by COVID-19, just as most other parts of the world, although the impact was more from the people than from the virus itself.

This story is based on my talk with her roughly a week ago. During this time I integrated her daily life in Xinjiang under COVID-19 into a recount, including a 30-day "city blocking" when everyone was required to stay at their house, and typical daily life after the city blocking ended.

"City blocking" means that no entry and exits are allowed in the city, whether it be air, road, or train. Inside the city, apart from governmental vehicles, police and inspectors, no one is allowed to step out of home. In case anyone needs anything, that will be sent directly to their home by committee of the residence place. All commuters are required to either stay away from the city or stay at the same place inside the city for the whole period of blocking. All work needs to be paused or switched to online. The city is "dead" in the most literal sense. In China, where the population density is very high, city blocking is the most direct and effective way to manage a large population, especially when the first round of COVID-19 broke out in Wuhan. By January 2020, the COVID-19 just appeared and was unpredictable, causing much terror among citizens due to its quick transmission rate and high mortality rate at the time. In order to limit the spread of COVID-19 to the whole country, the government decided to lock down Wuhan and strictly control local transportation until the virus became under control. The lockdown terminated at April 8, 2020 and airlines, trains, and roads returned to normal.

But Xinjiang was different. The provincial city, Urumqi, was locked down when there were no more than ten cases.

The supervision to residents was surprisingly strict during the time she spent in the city blocking. There were tapes on the door which prevents people from exiting their house. Of course, the door could still be opened, but the snapping of tapes would reveal that the resident had come out of their house properly and hence had violated the regulation. The residential committee would then come to the house for interrogation, which would bring to the specific family additional attention by the committee. In the most strict case, a steel rod was fixed up in front of the door, making it impossible to open, and I wondered how the residents would exit their home after the city blocking ended. Perhaps, the committee would never allow the residents to exit their home again.

"I was almost mad at the end of the whole month of segregation." She said, "I nearly failed to make it through this time." As a matter of fact, she was not the only one who found this time so intolerably tedious. Quite a few number of people, especially those who were suffering from mental diseases or experiencing difficulties in life, did not manage to get through this month of segregation. She showed me some screenshots of posts on Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese online forum where people can engage in discussions and post about literally everything. The posts were about people who committed suicide by jumping from the window of their homes, due to depression resulted from the long term of isolation. These posts, however, were quickly deleted, partly to prevent other people from imitating similar behaviors. Also deleted were people's complaint about the forced isolation and pictures showing how the tightly the doors had been sealed. The reason for this is likely to prevent opposition to the control and overall, the party in the whole. People's discontent was high and depression was common, but they could not spread it and let other people know.

During the period of the city-wide quarantine, everyone in the household was required to eat a Chinese herb medicine called "LianHuaQingWen Capsule" daily, regardless of whether one was ill or not. The effectiveness of the medicine was uncertain and side effects might have occurred if one took it without any symptoms. Although not prescribed, the medicine was given without advice from medical practitioners.

In short, the price of locking down was high, and she did not tell me the reason for this strict control. "Although many people knows", she said.

When COVID-19 got controlled and the lockdown was over, the province is still under the strictest regulation in China, and the regulation is getting more and more intense these years. Metros are just opened in Urumqi, but passengers are required to take off their shoes and pass the screen, which is equally as strict as the security check for airplane check-in. Even during periods of COVID-19, alcoholic hand sanitizers are forbidden, because they are flammable. In hotels, malls, and any other places where there can be a chance of terrorism attack, the ID card is compulsory for any people entering, in some places security checks are enforced, especially if you are a minority group (All ethnicities apart from the Han are minor ethnic groups). All in all, the supervision is extremely strict, in order to prevent the subversion by a very small number of extremists.

The fundamental reason for all these strict regulations is complicated, but has to trace back to an incident in 2011 by a small number of Uyghur, a minority group in Xinjiang, which led to several hundred injuries and deaths. Also, in 2014, in Kunming, the provincial city of Yunnan Province, several extremist Uyghurs killed 29 people with knives in the train station, to express discontent of the government. The acts of these extremists brought Xinjiang immediate attention by the Chinese central government, and increasingly strict regulation and control. Surveillance cameras are used on streets to monitor and identify faces of people who are considered "potential terrorists". Many people, especially the minority groups, have their passports forfeited so that they are not allowed to exit the country and "connect with other Islam extremists in the Middle East countries". In the most literal sense, residents in Xinjiang are under strict control and monitor.

The government claims that this is in order to prevent subversion and maintain integrity of the territory, which the Western media criticizes as "depriving human freedom and rights", or even "An ethnicity becoming extinct". The ideology conflict is sharp, and could well be sharper as China places stricter regulations in Xinjiang in the future and its relationship to the West worsens.

However, among all the complex issues of ideology conflict and the government's attempt to eliminate the extremists, one thing is certain: The ordinary people in Xinjiang are experiencing a hard time.