Normative Power China: Why Kazakhstan is Ignoring the ‘Re-education’ Camps in Xinjiang

Abstract

The issue of the Xinjiang re-education camps has not led to universal condemnation of China’s policies. In fact, some of the countries whose citizens are interned prefer not to press the issue at all. This has been the case of Kazakhstan, the largest Central Asian country neighbouring China. Using the concept of normative power China (NPC), this article examines via content analysis of speeches and interviews how and why the Kazakhstani government has followed the Chinese official position. The results suggest that China has been somewhat successful in exerting its normative influence amongst the Kazakhstani political elites.

This work was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (Grantová Agentura České Republiky, GAČR), as part of the research project ‘China’s Regionalising Normative Influence in Asia and Europe’, Project No. 22-12355S.

Disclosure statement:

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This article will refer to these camps as re-education camps. I should, however, note that there seem to have been several types of internment facilities present in Xinjiang, each of them possibly having a different function and a specific official name (Zenz 2018).

2 ‘“Eradicating Ideological Viruses”: China’s Campaign of Repression Against Xinjiang’s Muslims’, Human Rights Watch, 9 September 2018, pp. 14–5, available at: https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/09/09/eradicating-ideological-viruses/chinas-campaign-repression-against-xinjiangs, accessed 9 February 2024.

3 Letter to the UN Human Rights Council, A/HRC/41/G/17, 2019, available at: https://ap.ohchr.org/Documents/sdpage_e.aspx?b=10&se=204&t=2, accessed 7 December 2022.

4 ‘Nazarbayev: Kitai v otlichie ot Zapada “nikogda ne diktuet svoi usloviya”’, Press Office of the Yelbasy, 26 April 2019, 11:40–12.05, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y500oYLnrkw, accessed 7 December 2022; ‘Eksklusivnoe interv’yu Prezidenta Respubliki Kazahstan Kassym-Zhomarta Tokayeva agentstvu “Khabar”’, 29 January 2022, 44.13:46.25, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwzhOH-xcgI, accessed 7 December 2022.

5 ‘Sovmestnoe zayavlenie Rossiiskoi Federatsii i Kitaiskoi Narodnoi Respubliki ob uglublenii otnoshenii vseob”emlushchego partnerstva i strategicheskogo vzaimodeistviya, vstupayushchikh v novuyu epohu’, Kremlin.ru, 21 March 2023, available at: http://www.kremlin.ru/supplement/5920, accessed 23 March 2023.

6 ‘V Turtsii voznikla ideya sozdaniya “turanskoi armii” pri uchastii Kazakhstana’, Tengrinews, 29 October 2020, available at: https://tengrinews.kz/world_news/turtsii-voznikla-ideya-sozdaniya-turanskoy-armii-uchastii-418469/, accessed 2 March 2024.

7 This is how the normative influence is presented in the current theory of NPC. It is, however, not clear how well this picture corresponds to reality. For example, Garlick and Qin suggest that in the case of Central and Eastern Europe, China has attempted to exert its normative influence in a unidirectional way, failing to open a dialogue and adjust its norms according to local needs (Garlick & Qin 2023).

8 Available at: www.kz.china-embassy.gov.cn.

9 ‘Kontrterroristicheskie mery KNR v SUAR podderzhali 54 strany’, Kazakhstan Today, 31 October 2019, available at: https://www.kt.kz/rus/politics/kontrterroristicheskie_mery_knr_v_suar_podderzhali_54_strany_1377890718.html, accessed 2 March 2024.

10 ‘Serikzhan Bilash zayavil, chto pokinul Kazakhstan iz-za davleniya so storony Kitaya’, Vlast, 29 December 2020, available at: https://vlast.kz/novosti/43144-serikzan-bilas-zaavil-cto-pokinul-kazahstan-iz-za-davlenia-so-storony-kitaa.html, accessed 7 December 2022.

11 ‘Prominent Campaigner for Uyghur Rights in Xinjiang Barred from Kazakhstan’, The Guardian, 7 September 2021, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/07/prominent-campaigner-for-uyghur-rights-in-xinjiang-barred-from-kazakhstan, accessed 7 December 2022.

12 ‘Zamglavy MID RK poedet v Urumchi dlya resheniya problem ethnicheskikh kazakhov v KNR’, Informburo, 28 November 2017, available at: https://informburo.kz/novosti/zamglavy-mid-rk-poedet-v-urumchi-dlya-resheniya-problem-etnicheskih-kazahov-v-knr.html, accessed 7 December 2022.

13 ‘Nurymbetov: Kak budut regulirovatʹsya migratsionnye protsessy v Kazakhstane’, Forbes, 17 February 2020, available at: https://forbes.kz/news/2020/02/17/newsid_219168, accessed 2 March 2024.

14 There is a considerable body of Chinese students of Kazakh ethnicity studying in Kazakhstan, partially because the ministries of education of Kazakhstan and China agreed on providing student grants on an annual basis. See, for instance, ‘Kazakhstan i Kitai obsudili uvelichenie grantov dlya kazakhstantsev na obuchenie v Kitae’, Forbes, 26 December 2023, available at: https://forbes.kz/news/2023/12/26/newsid_315144, accessed 4 March 2024.

15 ‘Jeenbekov: vopros ob ethnicheskikh menʹshinstvakh v Kitae—vnutrennee delo KNR’, Azattyq, 13 June 2019, available at: https://rus.azattyk.org/a/29996739.html, accessed 9 March 2024.

16 ‘Kazakhstan vsegda podderzhival Kitai v borʹbe protiv “trekh zol”—MID’, Vlast, 30 March 2019, available at: https://vlast.kz/novosti/32437-kazahstan-vsegda-podderzival-kitaj-v-borbe-protiv-treh-zol-mid.html, accessed 7 December 2022.

17 Letter dated 12 July 2019 to the UN Office at Geneva addressed to the President of the Human Rights Council, United Nations Digital Library, available at: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3853509?ln=en, accessed 5 March 2024.

18 ‘Glava MID Kazakhstana: v “lageryakh” v Sintszyane net etnicheskikh kazakhov’, Azattyq, 4 October 2019, available at: https://rus.azattyq.org/a/30199100.html, accessed 7 December 2022.

19 ‘Xi Jinping vstretilsya s prezidentom Kazakhstana Kassym-Zhomartom Tokaevym’, Xinhua, 5 February 2022, available at: http://russian.news.cn/2022-02/05/c_1310457140.htm, accessed 7 December 2022.

20 ‘Vmeste radi obschego buduschego’, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, 25 January 2022, available at: https://www.mfa.gov.cn/rus/wjdt/zyjh/202201/t20220125_10633550.html, accessed 5 March 2024.

21 ‘President Kazakhstana Tokayev: My ne nazyvaem anneksiei to, chto proizoshlo v Krymu—Nemtsova. Interv’yu’, DW, 3 December 2019, 39:22–42:37, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qS2ds48TRo, accessed 7 December 2022.

22 ‘Nazarbayev: Kitai v otlichie ot Zapada “nikogda ne diktuet svoi usloviya”’, Press Office of the Yelbasy, 26 April 2019, 11:40–12.05, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y500oYLnrkw, accessed 7 December 2022.

23 ‘Eksklusivnoe interv’yu Prezidenta Respubliki Kazahstan Kassym-Zhomarta Tokayeva agentstvu “Khabar”’, 29 January 2022, 44.13:46.25, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwzhOH-xcgI, accessed 7 December 2022.

24 ‘Informatsiyu o “lageryakh dlya musul’man” v Kitae prokommentiroval genkonsul KNR v Almaty’, Tengrinews, 7 February 2018, available at: https://tengrinews.kz/kazakhstan_news/informatsiyu-lageryah-musulman-kitae-prokommentiroval-337040/, accessed 7 December 2022.

25 ‘MID Kitaya oproverglo dannye OON o zaderzhanii v Sintszyane milliona uyghurov’, RIA Novosti, 10 June 2019, available at: https://ria.ru/20190610/1555428474.html, accessed 7 December 2022.

26 ‘Posol KNR v RK provel intervʹyu s kazakhstanskimi SMI’, Kazakhstan Today, 9 April 2019, available at: https://www.kt.kz/rus/interview/posol_knr_v_rk_provel_intervyu_s_kazahstanskimi_smi_1377883028.html, accessed 5 March 2024.

27 ‘Posol KNR v RK provel intervʹyu s kazakhstanskimi SMI’, Kazakhstan Today, 9 April 2019, available at: https://www.kt.kz/rus/interview/posol_knr_v_rk_provel_intervyu_s_kazahstanskimi_smi_1377883028.html, accessed 5 March 2024.

28 ‘Zhang Xiao: Fakty o Sintszyane’, Delovoi Kazakhstan, 24 February 2021, available at: https://dknews.kz/ru/shelkovyy-put/166996-chzhan-syao-fakty-o-sinczyane, accessed 7 December 2022.

29 ‘Kitaiskii posol zayavil ob “otbyvayushchikh nakazaniya” v Sintszyane “grazhdanakh KNR”’, Azattyq, 15 March 2021, available at: https://rus.azattyq.org/a/31151472.html, accessed 7 December 2022.

30 Furthermore, although not a concern of this article, Chinese ambassador Zhang Xiao in his interviews also spoke about the two countries as constituting a ‘community of one destiny’, which was mirrored in Tokayev’s vision of his country’s future being tethered to China. See, ‘Interv’yu Chrezvychainogo i Polnomochnogo Posla KNR v RK Zhang Xiao o vizite chlena Gossoveta, ministra inostrannykh del KNR Wang Yi v Kazakhstan’, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Republic of Kazakhstan, 24 September 2020, available at: http://kz.chineseembassy.org/rus/sgxx/sgdt/202009/t20200924_1341960.htm, accessed 7 December 2022; ‘Interv’yu Chrezvychainogo i Polnomochnogo Posla KNR v RK Zhang Xiao kazakhstanskim SMI o video-konferentsii glav MID “Kitai+Tsentral’naya Aziya”’, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Republic of Kazakhstan, 21 July 2021, available at: http://kz.chineseembassy.org/rus/sgxx/sgdt/202007/t20200721_1341947.htm, accessed 7 December 2022.

31 ‘Zayavlenie Chrezvychainogo i Polnomochnogo Posla KNR v RK Zhang Xiao po povodu vyskazyvanii Maikla Pompeo’, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Republic of Kazakhstan, 4 February 2020, available at: http://kz.china-embassy.org/rus/dszc/emba/202002/t20200204_1340804.htm, accessed 7 December 2022.

32 ‘Kytaiga bargan belsendiler sapary ne sheshti?’, Azattyq, 23 August 2018, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUebuUJkchc&ab_channel=AzattyqTV, accessed 28 March 2023.

33 ‘Kazakhstanskii diplomat posetil “lager’” v Sintszyane’, Azattyq, 10 January 2019, available at: https://rus.azattyq.org/a/kazakhstan-diplomat-xinjiang-camps/29700855.html, accessed 7 December 2022.

34 ‘“Sintszyan—prekrasnoe mesto”—mezhdunarodnaya konferentsiya proshla v Kazakhstane’, Delovoi Kazakhstan, 2 August 2021, available at: https://dknews.kz/ru/shelkovyy-put/194814-sinczyan-prekrasnoe-mesto-mezhdunarodnaya, accessed 7 December 2022.

35 ‘Eksklusivnoe intervʹyu Prezidenta Respubliki Kazahstan Kassym-Zhomarta Tokayeva agentstvu “Khabar”’, 29 January 2022, 44.13:46.25, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwzhOH-xcgI, accessed 7 December 2022.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gaziza Shakhanova

Gaziza Shakhanova, Jan Masaryk Center for International Studies, Prague University of Economics and Business, W. Churchill Square 4, Prague 13067, Czech Republic.