As documented by the international community and non-government organisations, China's crackdown of Uyghur Muslims in the north-western region of Xinjiang - known to the Uyghurs as East Turkestan - has intensified in recent years, with millions in "re-education camps" and the region facing mass surveillance and state violence.
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On ABC TV's Q&A program this week, Minister of the Chinese Embassy in Australia, Wang Xining, described the camps as "training centres" and that the Western media was giving a "one-sided story".
Watch Wang Xining be questioned on Q&A this week:
But speaking with The Examiner's Adam Holmes, Australian Uyghur leader Nurmuhammad Majid said the ongoing crisis could not be denied.
AH: What is the latest update on the situation in East Turkestan/Xinjiang?
NM: East Turkestan has become a place of hell.
It's been witnessed by journalists, academics, and the international community such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
There has been a dramatic change of the situation for the Uyghur people in the last three years.
Although the Chinese Government has oppression and discriminatory policies for the last 17 years in East Turkestan, the amount of pressure, the amount of intimidation and harassment has reached an unimaginable level in the last three years time.
Chinese investment in the area of national security has built up hundreds of detention facilities aiming to lock up the Uyghur community members, which they see as a threat to the Chinese national security.
But in fact, all the people locked up in the camps are identified as normal citizens - public employees, doctors, teachers, anyone who lives legally, peacefully in the Chinese state.
Then we see the news that the amount of pressure from the Chinese Government to the local communities, whether in the camps, outside the camps, in the communities, or in normal life, is enormous. There's tremendous pressure on the local public.
The people are unable to live freely. Why? Communications with the outside world is completely cut off since 2017.
The one to three million people, according to international accounts, are locked up in the detention facilities where the Uyghur community believes that the number could reach five to 10 million.
We have an increasing level of crisis caused by the Chinese Government, restricting the international access - of media access, tourist access, of journalist access to the region - to make sure East Turkestan becomes a total dystopian state where Chinese security forces, police forces, and the armed forces can do whatever they want to do.
Chinese Government is implementing tougher and tougher policies like legislating a number of laws since 2017 including anti-terror laws.
13,000,000 Uyghur people are subjected to discriminatory policies committed by a state which calls themselves a super power in today's world.
We firmly establish credible evidence that the Chinese Government is actually committing crimes against humanity in East Turkestan by exploiting the resources, assimilated our young generations and also causing huge irreversible damage to our environment and our social structure in our country.
When we compare what is happening to other ethnic or religious communities suffering in different parts of the world, the situation of the Uyghur Muslims living in East Turkestan - the level of the crackdown, the level of the genocidal policies of the Chinese Government - is unimaginable, incomprehensible.
AH: How difficult is it to get information out of the region?
NM: It is becoming an impossible way of getting first-hand experiences, especially from the people who are locked up in the detention centres.
It is also hard to get information from family members or local communities.
However, there have been some brave people who are risking their lives and sending some level of information to the relevant people overseas, or to the journalists.
We have information from international journalists by a huge effort. They established the attitude of the Chinese Government is to wipe out the Uyghur culture, the religion, the faith.
AH: Is there enough awareness in Australia of what is happening?
NM: The Australian Government is well aware, the public is well aware, of the plight and the experience of the Uyghur people.
There has been thousands of media reports in the Australian mainstream media, and our cause has been delivered to federal and state governments in different parts of Australia.
Our community has been delivering the first-hand experiences. Any information that we gain, we are sharing on different platforms with the Australian Government and the public.
We believe that our government is monitoring the situation, because the security and intelligence department of the international community are producing x-number of reports on the situation, but we haven't seen any clear direction of action from other governments so far, other than mentioning that the case is 'horrific', 'shocking' or 'unimaginable'.
AH: Are Uyghurs in Australia at risk of the Chinese Government for speaking out?
NM: The Uyghur community in Australia is always at risk of intimidation, harassment and the harming policies of the Chinese Government - those inside China, and in Australia.
We have direct and indirect intimidation from the Chinese Government.
Here in Australia, they harm our family members, they send us message after message saying to stop our activism.
Although they do not encounter us in the street openly, they do everything in a way that is not shown to the Australian Government, but is known to us.
They intimidate our community members, our activism and our resilience against the Chinese atrocities by means of harming our family members and contacting the Australian Uyghurs from China and causing a direct message to them, warning us to stop our activism.
This is happening to many Uyghur community members in Australia. There have been calls or messages from the Chinese Government, and then some of the families who apply for Chinese visas to visit their family members are rejected.
Australian Uyghurs who travel to China on a legal visa are stopped or locked up or intimidated in China. We have confidence to say that the Chinese Government is harming the Uyghur community in Australia.
AH: What can the Australian Government do to protest what is happening?
NM: There has been strong resistance against the Chinese atrocities from the Western countries including the US, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand.
We believe Australia, as a nation who upholds the values of freedom and democracy, as a nation which fights against atrocities, as a nation that offers protections on the interests of vulnerable communities around the world, Australia is capable of doing many things for us.
Externally, they can put pressure on the Chinese Government using their connections.
According to the Chinese Government, there are millions of innocent Uyghurs detained in detention camps.
Internally, they can offer many support for the Uyghur community in terms of settlement, welfare and safety, then without compromising the relationship between the Chinese Government, the Australian Government and the public can offer a great amount of support by offering offshore humanitarian settlement for those refugees who have fled from the persecution policies of the Chinese Government, and are in different counties - Turkey, Malaysia or other countries - to then be able to settle in this country. Let them have integration, support and protection.
Make sure the Uyghur community in Australia is not vanishing, as intended by the Chinese Government. Make sure that this small number of community members are well protected, and their cause is respected.
AH: There have also been crackdowns on Muslims in Myanmar, India and other parts of the world. Are governments around the world feeling emboldened to oppress their Muslim minority groups?
NM: Interestingly, Western countries are increasingly engaged to pay the cause of the right of the oppressed Muslims in East Turkestan or somewhere else.
Whereas a great number of nations, including the Muslim nations, have increased their level of oppression against minority Muslim or indigenous communities in their respective countries.
We have seen that India is increasingly oppressing the Kashmir Muslims. The Burmese Government ... they increased the level of oppression of Rohingya Muslims. Then there has been the Syrian crisis, which has not been settled well. Millions of refugees are living in different parts of Africa as we speak.
But the plight of the Uyghur Muslims has reached an international crisis level, showing the real need from the international community to protect vulnerable groups including the Uyghurs and other ethnic groups.
Otherwise, we are facing an extinction, a complete vanishing from existence, if the help is not arriving for our people or other vulnerable groups in other parts of the world. We know that other countries are unable to help because of the relations with the Chinese Government, but we call for humanity.
In order to achieve their aims, they are killing off that Uyghur culture that has existed for many thousands of years. They are killing the people who have contributed to the global civilisation for many thousands of years.
They are vanishing all connections - natural, cultural or physical - which has been confirmed by the international community.
That is why we say this is not just a matter of the Chinese Government, rather a serious warning call for humanity with the international community for decisive action - to act now, not leaving it for the next agenda, but rather to take prompt action as soon as possible.
AH: What can ordinary Australians can do to support the Uyghur cause?
NM: Australian people are the people who have the lucky fortune to live in a free country.
They have legislation and a constitution enabling the rights of the citizens.
We have rights to speak, we have rights to write to our politicians, we have rights to go into the street calling on our government and politicians to take action.
Individuals in Australia have the rights to raise this matter to a level of a widespread agenda of the whole Australian community to realise the threat, that amount of pressure, that amount of destruction that is happening to the Uyghur people could be the fate of the Australian public in the future if we are not paying attention to the cause of the Uyghur people.
The situation of the Uyghur people should be taken in a level that Australia and the Australian people as a lesson to take in their minds and actions all the time.