By Dr. Rais Hussin

Malaysia is a friend of China. All the stories that Malaysia was the first country from Southeast Asia to recognize China, more precisely the People's Republic of China, as early as 1973 are true.

In contrast, South Korea established its full diplomatic relationship with China only after the end of the Cold War in 1992. As for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Malaysia is a founder on August 8 1967, the entity went one step further to convene the Asean Regional Forum in 1994, which invariably included all the great powers, especially the United States, Russia and China too.

China's excellent diplomatic behavior included the ascension to many international instruments to curtain the spread of chemical, biological and radiological weapons (CBRN).

But since the September 11th attacks of 2001, China has acknowledged the problem of "catastrophic terrorism" too, a word coined by Ashton Carter, a former US Secretary of Defense who is a professor of political science at the Kennedy School of Government.

Whereas the US does have a problem with Guatanomo Bay, where suspected terrorists are detained, usually without due process of the US law, the US detention orders are subjected to legal challenge.

Had President Barack Obama been more decisive —- he wasn't —- Guatanamo detention center would be abolished by now. President Donal Trump with something in the region of 72 days left in his tenure before he is expected to be widely defeated on November 3 2020, opted to keep it, however.

Come what may, the issue is not over one prison center over another. It is about policy. In the case of China, leaked China Cables to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism, no doubt a respectable body with some 289 of the best journalists on board, are beginning to discern a wide scale crack down of the Uyghur Muslims, often on the most frivolous reasons, such as having a WhatsApp App installed on one's phone, traveling to Hajj, or, making calls and visits to their relatives in Istanbul, for that matter, the Muslim world ; which is comprised of 57 countries.

Due to Sino-US tensions, and Sino-India spat, any through journalistic accounts of these reporters on the problems of China's blanket crack down on Uyghur Muslims, especially Kashgar, have been dismissed as "fake news," or "propaganda".

This has created a serious conundrum. China is in deep, and serious denial, that it is in contravention of the Geneva Convention. Indeed, scholars such as Dr Andrian Zenz, a German scholar who is an expert on Tibet, and now Xinjiang too, has found more and more evidence of forced sterilization of the female Uyghur Muslims incarcerated in the detention camps. Such a policy verges on sheer cultural genocide, we the right to have one's next generation is denied.

To be sure, students who returned from Istanbul, or, any Islamic colleges/universities abroad, would also have their passports confiscated and sent to what Chinese Communist Party called the "re education" camp.

Granted that China's Belt and Road Initiative involves 67 countries, of which 30 of them are predominantly Muslim, it is high time that China examine its gross mistreatment of the Uyghur Muslims. They should focus on winning their hearts and minds. Not by sending people into camps, to be "brainwashed" into party loving members. The number of prisoners now hover between 1 million to 2 million people out of 12 million indigenous people in Xinjiang. But regardless how one sees it, this is not a "policy" but a blunt political instrument akin to using the hammer to kill a fly, ethnic and cultural cleansing. China must stop this. The world must ensure China stops this.

(Datuk Wira Dr. Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff is the President/CEO at EMIR Research, an independent think tank focused on strategic policy recommendations based on rigorous research.)