Secularism with Chinese Characteristics: Xi Jinping's Sinicization of Islam in Xinjiang

Abstract

China has a long history of Muslims, constituting 1.6 % of the total population. However, modern China has a complex relationship with the Uyghur Muslims, the ethnic Turks who inhabit the North-western Province of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The ethnoreligious complexity and indigeneity of Uyghur Muslims created a threat perception at the periphery. Consequently, the State employed wide-ranging strategies to assimilate or Sinicize the Uyghurs since the creation of the People's Republic of China. However, Sinicizing strategies such as the Western Development Program (WDP) alienated the Uyghurs rather than assimilated them. The Urumqi riot of 2009 exemplified the impact of such alienation. The post-Urumqi riot scenario has impacted Xi Jinping's focus on Sinicizing foreign religions where Islam is prioritized. Xi Jinping emphasized providing Chinese orientation to religions and urged them to embrace secularism with Chinese characteristics. Consequently, the Chinese regime normalized the human rights violations of detained Uyghurs in the de-extremification camps in Xinjiang, calling it re-education or skill training. It intends to redefine the space of religion in general and Islamic faith and practices in specific. Based on this context, the article examines the conceptualization of secularism with Chinese characteristics and its impact on the Sinicization of Islam in China. The paper explores the Chinese State's design of social re-engineering of Uyghurs that enables the authorities to control the religiosity of the Uyghurs. The paper employs discourse analysis followed by descriptive and analytical methods. The paper is divided into two parts. The first part deals with conceptualizing secularization and its application in the Chinese context. The second part deals with the Sinicization of Islam in Xinjiang, which results in cultural genocide focusing on the Xi Jinping regime. The paper argues that secularism with Chinese characteristics is nothing but the new version of the old project of Sinicization. However, what differentiates it from the past is its implementation which is more institutional, coercive, and unapologetic with an organized effort of cultural genocide. The State initiated a social re-engineering program to depoliticize Uyghurs, and the de-extremification camps are one of the steps adopted in that direction. It is done by distinctively attributing representations of good and bad Muslims, thereby institutionalizing coercive strategies in Islam's adaptation to modern Chinese society and polity.