I left my country in 2000, after 1997, and I’ve been in exile ever since. Since 2017, I’ve been unable to return and have been banned from speaking to my family. You can imagine the pain and suffering I have endured, along with my people.
Listening to the previous speakers about your struggles and those of the Baloch people, I can draw many parallels. There are striking similarities between the atrocities and tactics used by dictators and oppressors throughout history. I truly believe that if you have not yet collaborated with the Uyghurs, Tibetans, and other oppressed groups in China, you should consider doing so. We share common enemies. Today, I want to talk about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
I know many of you are already familiar with CPEC, but I’d like to discuss it from the Chinese government’s perspective and its connection to broader issues of oppression, exploitation, and human rights violations. While CPEC is often celebrated as a symbol of economic cooperation between China and Pakistan, it conceals a much darker reality. It links the ongoing Uyghur genocide with the exploitation of marginalized communities, including those in Balochistan.
CPEC is a double-edged sword. On the surface, it is presented as a transformative project aimed at fostering development and bringing economic prosperity to Pakistan, with new roads, railways, and energy projects. The narrative is one of progress and mutual benefit.
However, beneath this façade lies a troubling truth. CPEC has primarily served China’s interests while plunging Pakistan into deeper economic dependence. The bulk of profits, contracts, jobs, and control over natural resources have gone to Chinese companies and stakeholders. Regions like Balochistan are left with environmental degradation, displacement, and crippling debt.
If you want to understand what it feels like to be colonized by China, look at what has happened to the people of Tibet and what is happening to the Uyghurs in East Turkestan—what China calls Xinjiang, meaning “new territory,” a colony China claims as its own.
As Baloch, you already know the costs. Balochistan houses a strategically important port, and East Turkestan lies at the other end of this corridor. Kashgar, a historic center of the Silk Road, is at the starting point of CPEC. Despite Balochistan’s wealth in natural resources, its people remain marginalized and impoverished, as their resources are extracted and exported without benefiting the local population. This mirrors what has happened to the Uyghurs. The genocide is not just about the Uyghurs asserting ownership of their land, which historically belongs to Turkic people, but about China’s larger ambitions.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) occupied East Turkestan in 1949, just two years after Pakistan colonized Balochistan. This October 1st, the CCP will celebrate its 75th anniversary. The parallels are clear: when they claim they are developing an area or building roads, they are actually exploiting resources. Since the start of CPEC in 2015, we’ve witnessed the largest internment of Uyghurs since World War II, with over a million—possibly up to three million—people locked in re-education camps, which are essentially modern-day concentration camps.
CPEC has worsened this exploitation, with local communities losing their land and livelihoods to Chinese companies under the guise of development.
Balochistan has long been a site of conflict, with its people fighting for greater autonomy. This struggle has only intensified with the advent of CPEC, connecting our plight with that of the Uyghurs. The internment and genocide of the Uyghurs began in 2014, just one year before the start of CPEC, because Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative is his vision for China’s global dominance.
China is not only exploiting the people of Balochistan through CPEC; it is also committing one of the worst human rights violations in the world today: the genocide of the Uyghurs. The UN acknowledged the detention of over a million Uyghurs in 2018, but despite this acknowledgment and reports of crimes against humanity, there has been little action.
These camps, which detain millions of Uyghurs and other Muslim communities, are designed to indoctrinate them into abandoning their language, religion, and identity—to become Chinese or face continued detention, torture, sterilization, and forced labor. This is not an isolated policy but part of China’s broader plan to dominate the region, with CPEC playing a crucial role.
The Uyghur region is a gateway for the Belt and Road Initiative, of which CPEC is a cornerstone. The repression of Uyghurs, exploitation of their labor, and control over their homeland are essential for the smooth operation of these projects.
I won’t go into further details about the Uyghurs, but I invite you to read the UN report and explore the Uyghur Tribunal, led by Sir Geoffrey Nye, KC, which contains survivor testimonies, expert reports, and leaked documents.
When we examine the exploitation of Balochistan alongside the atrocities in East Turkestan, we see a common thread: China’s disregard for human rights in its pursuit of global dominance. Both the Uyghur people in East Turkestan and the Baloch people in Pakistan are caught in the crosshairs of an imperial project that seeks to profit from their lands while erasing their identities.
The international community cannot afford to ignore these interconnected struggles. The genocide of the Uyghurs, the oppression in Balochistan, and the environmental and social costs of CPEC are all part of a larger narrative of exploitation under the guise of economic development.
We must call for accountability—for China’s human rights abuses and Pakistan’s complicity. Acting alone, our voices may be weak, but I believe that if we unite, we can be much stronger.
Thank you. I believe today is just the beginning.
Rahima Mahmut is a Uyghur human rights activist, translator, and singer. She has played a key role in raising awareness about the ongoing genocide against the Uyghur people and has worked closely with survivors, including interpreting testimonies for the Uyghur Tribunal. Rahima serves as the Executive Director of Stop Uyghur Genocide, UK Director of the World Uyghur Congress, and Advisor to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC).
Rahima Mahmut delivered this speech at the 5th Balochistan International Conference of BNM.
