BEIJING >> As soon as a Uyghur athlete helped light the Olympic flame at the Beijing Olympics, the debate began: was it a defiant signal from Chinese leaders or proof that protests around the world were having an impact?
The selection of Dinigeer Yilamujiang for the highest honor of being a final Olympic torchbearer at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Games on Friday night came as a big surprise.
What it meant – because Olympic gestures like this always have meaning – wasn’t clear.
US-based human rights lawyer Rayhan Asat – whose brother Ekpar Asat is one of more than a million Uyghurs jailed by China – was initially appalled.
The images of Yilamujiang, a 20-year-old cross-country skier, holding the torch with Zhao Jiwen, a skier from China’s dominant Han majority – both all smiling – reminded Asat of half-Jewish fencer Helene Mayer, who represented Germany at the Summer Olympics 1936, organized by Adolf Hitler in Berlin.
“I felt like history was repeating itself,” Asat said in a phone interview. “It’s like a new low. That’s how I felt at first.”
But as he thought about it, Asat saw crumbs of encouragement. China has steadfastly rejected international criticism of its crackdown on Uyghurs, treatment the US government and others have said amounts to genocide. China’s hosting of the Games has left many Uyghur exiles feeling like their voices are not being heard.
But the selection of a relatively unknown athlete to light the flame could not have been accidental. Asat said that after her initial outrage has subsided, she assumes China is not as immune to outside criticism as it claims.
“Obviously it cares a lot about outside criticism. That’s why it’s important that we keep criticizing,” she said. “I have the feeling that Beijing is very afraid that it has lost its international reputation.”
China says the detention centers in the western Xinjiang region were built to fight Islamic extremism. Leaders say the camps offered job training and have since closed. Uyghurs abroad say their loved ones are still being held.
Some saw Yilamujiang’s election as a deliberate poke in the eyes of critics.
“It was a very, very conscious decision,” said Darren Byler, an assistant professor of international studies at Canada’s Simon Fraser University, who has written extensively about the camps.
“I think it should be read as China saying we’re not backing down from our stance on what we’re doing in Xinjiang and we don’t care what the world thinks about it,” Byler told The Associated Press over the phone .
The Chinese public was mobilized to support Xinjiang following an international campaign against the use of local cotton amid allegations of forced labour.
“I think this was primarily intended for an international audience, but certainly for the home crowd and a show of defiance and strength,” Byler said.
There has been little official comment on Yilamujiang’s role, although the Communist Party newspaper Global Times wrote today that her Xinjiang origins were “remarkable”.
International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said it does not take into account a torchbearer’s ethnicity when giving its approval, but added; “I think it was a nice concept.”
Of the many human rights issues overshadowing the Games, Xinjiang stands out by far the most.
Human rights groups have dubbed these “genocide games,” and the US and several other Western democracies have cited rights abuses when they staged a diplomatic boycott of the event.
Uyghurs, who are culturally, linguistically and religiously distinct from the Han Chinese, have long resented Beijing’s brutal rule and the influx of migrants who have reaped economic benefits in the resource-rich region.
Resentment erupted in a series of violent incidents, dubbed terrorism by China, with leading President and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping calling for a crackdown. The camp network was built around 2017.
Critics and former prisoners reported strict discipline and harsh living conditions inside. Other reports spoke of families being separated by authorities, mass surveillance and forced birth control being imposed on Muslim women.
China dismisses abuse allegations as “the lie of the century” and says its policies have led to an end to separatist violence. Critics say the result has been a traumatized population, cultural dislocation and ongoing abuse.
China’s policies in Xinjiang should have provoked a stronger reaction from the international community, including an outright boycott of the Games, said Kamaltürk Yalqun, a Uighur who was one of several students chosen to design the Olympic Flame ahead of the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing carry.
“It should be a collective responsibility when such atrocities happen,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking for me to see such a cold reaction from people.”
It is not clear whether Yilamujiang sees a political role for itself. Her social media posts have focused entirely on her desire to compete successfully.
Born in Xinjiang’s northwestern Altay Prefecture, which borders Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia, she was first trained by her father, who was himself a pioneer of Chinese cross-country skiing. The practice of using felt-lined skis for traveling and hunting in the region is believed to date back thousands of years.
Yilamujiang has competed extensively overseas in recent years and today begins its campaign for the Beijing Olympics.
The fact that her parents are both government employees provides the right background to receive the political and financial government support that virtually all top Chinese athletes need.
That, Byler said, “really protects the family.”
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