Earlier this year, Kazakh authorities arrested Sayragul Sauytbay — an ethnic Kazakh but a Chinese national — for illegally entering Kazakhstan and prepared to send her back to China. During her trial Sauytbay explained that she had fled Xinjiang, where she had worked in a ‘prison’ that claimed to be a political camp to ‘educate’ Kazakhs. She denounced China for the persecution of Kazakhs and Muslims. The court ruled against extradition and allowed her to stay in Kazakhstan.

This change of heart is unique. Others have made similar condemnations of China’s treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, and China regards such people as traitors and wants them extradited. In most cases, relevant countries have complied with China’s request and abstained from criticising China.

Some Western commentators writing on Xinjiang’s political re-education camps — where Muslims are indoctrinated against what China calls ‘extremist, separatist and terrorist’ ideologies — accuse China of serious human rights abuse. Most of the camps’ inmates are ethnic Uyghurs or Kazakhs, who in Xinjiang number respectively about 11 million and 1.6 million.

United States Vice President Mike Pence gave a remarkably aggressive and hostile speech on 4 October 2018, in which he made an all-round denunciation of China that some interpret as signalling a new Cold War. Xinjiang did not loom large in Pence’s catalogue of accusations, but was mentioned: ‘Survivors of the camps have described their experiences as a deliberate attempt by Beijing to strangle Uyghur culture and stamp out the Muslim faith’.

Chinese spokespeople say that the aim is not to suppress Uyghur culture or stamp out the Muslim faith but to eradicate terrorism and make Xinjiang safer and more stable. The high degree of surveillance in Xinjiang is indeed striking. Most of the local population seem in no doubt that this behaviour is necessary to make Xinjiang safe from terrorism. They point to the multiple terrorist incidents over the last few years as well as to reports that thousands of young Uyghurs are being trained as terrorists in Syria and elsewhere.

There are also many signs of Uyghur and other ethnic cultures in areas of Xinjiang society like arts, architecture and diet. So while Islam is under extreme pressure in Xinjiang — amounting to persecution — the claim that China is attempting to ‘stamp out the Muslim faith’ is unfair. All the same, China’s response to the threat of terrorism in Xinjiang is excessive.

The governments of Muslim-majority countries have been largely silent about Xinjiang. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has taken no stand, even though 53 of its 57 members are Muslim-majority. In a speech to the United Nations late in September 2018, Pakistan’s newly appointed Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi made no mention of Xinjiang, instead praising Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ‘path-breaking’ Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Three reasons — economic, geopolitical and a shared opposition to separatism and terrorism — help to explain Muslim-majority countries’ lack of criticism about Xinjiang.

Despite the US-driven trade war, China’s economic influence remains strong. China is pushing the BRI hard and actively courting many Muslim-majority countries. The BRI certainly has its shortcomings. But as Qureshi’s comment indicates, governments are still keen to be involved in the BRI because they believe that the investment, infrastructure and trade it can bring are beneficial to their economies and societies.

Muslim-majority countries also don’t think that it is in their best interests to demonise China in the way of Pence’s condemnation. Their energy and resources are already taken up by many other, long-standing geopolitical tensions that show no signs of waning anytime soon, such as those between India and Pakistan. The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in early October 2018 has only deepened a plethora of complex and often poisonous relationships within the Middle East that help to divert attention away from China.

Turkey is of particular interest concerning a shared opposition to separatism and terrorism. Many of Xinjiang’s minority nationalities are ethnically Turkic, the most populous of these being the Uyghurs. In July 2009, following a major riot in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi, then Turkish prime minister and current president Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused China of genocide against the Uyghurs. When China reacted angrily, Erdogan retreated.

Turkey since enjoys positive, if sometimes unstable, relations with China. In return for Turkey’s compliance or silence over the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China opposes Kurdish separatism. Turkey’s volatile relations with the United States and Germany — about 5 per cent of the German population are of full or partial Turkish origin — also helps to maintain friendly dealings with China and keep Xinjiang off the agenda.

The threat China faces from terrorism and separatism in Xinjiang is genuine. But the international community is doing little to quell China’s extreme and concerning counter-terrorism response. The emerging China–US cold war may convince Chinese leaders that the United States is trying to bring down the Chinese Communist Party, only exacerbating their sense of insecurity. And while the governments of Muslim-majority countries can hardly like what is happening to Muslims in Xinjiang, other issues are at play in their relations with China.

Colin Mackerras is Emeritus Professor at Griffith Business School, Griffith University.