An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to Khan as an outspoken advocate of discrimination against Muslims. He is an outspoken opponent of that discrimination. The article has been corrected.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan offered on Thursday remarks rare for the leader of a large, Muslim majority country, reaffirming his support for Beijing’s policies toward Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region.
Much of the international community had condemned the mass detention and efforts at forced assimilation of Uyghurs, which the U.S. State Department has described as “genocide.” More than 1 million Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority group, have been sent to what Beijing calls “vocational educational and training centers,” but which human rights groups say are detention camps, where extensive abuses have been reported.
“Because we have a very strong relationship with China, and because we have a relationship based on trust, so we actually accept the Chinese version,” Khan said in remarks marking the Chinese Communist Party’s centennial celebration. “What they say about the programs in Xinjiang, we accept it.”
Since China launched a sweeping crackdown in Xinjiang in 2017, many human rights advocates and world leaders have sounded alarm bells. The issue has gained particular traction in many Muslim-majority countries.
But not with Khan. Speaking to Chinese reporters visiting Islamabad for the centenary, Khan said he finds it hypocritical that other human rights issues — such as the conflict in Kashmir between India and China — are not afforded the same attention.
Khan’s stance on the Uyghurs stands out amid his advocacy against Islamophobia in the region. An outspoken opponent of discrimination against Muslims, Khan wrote last year a letter addressed to leaders of Muslim countries, urging that they work to “end cycles of violence bred of ignorance and hate.” Pakistan is the world’s second largest Muslim-majority country, after Indonesia.
Analysts said the remarks make sense in the context of Pakistan’s relationship with China, on which it depends for political and economic support. “Pakistan just can’t afford to go against China on such a sensitive issue,” said Filippo Boni, a scholar of China-Pakistan relations, “especially at a time when the West is very much focused on the Uyghur issue.”
Announced in 2015, one of the most conspicuous elements of the relationship is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor — a $60 billion set of Chinese infrastructure investment in Pakistan, including a $6.8 billion railway upgrade and new highways, as part of the Belt and Road initiative. Projects are still underway. During the coronavirus pandemic, Pakistan was early to express solidarity with China, and China has sent vaccine doses to Pakistan.
In addition to his comments about Uyghurs, Khan praised China’s political system, Al Jazeera reported. “Up until now, we were told that the best way for societies to improve themselves is the Western system of democracy,” he said. But the CPC has brought an “alternative” and “unique model.” Khan has voiced similar views in the past. When pressed by Axios’s Jonathan Swain about his silence on the Uyghurs, Khan said any issues Pakistan has with China are discussed “behind closed doors.”
