There has been a lot of disheartening news come out of China over the past several months and seems to be coming progressively worse. Countless human rights violations have been noted but the one I will talk about is in regards Muslim Uighur minorities. Uyghurs are a Turkic-speaking minority ethnic group that are heavily prevent in Asia and northwestern China. The Chinese government has reportedly established 400 internment camps that many are referring to as concentration camps. The government is referring to the camps as re-education programs or vocational training centers with the primary goal of combatting terrorism. The government was also reported to be burning religious books a little over a year ago, and this news does not seem to help China’s case.
The first point making this systemic is it has been directly enacted by the government. It is complete discrimination based on religion. Not only to mention freedom of speech is also being violated. The citizens basically don’t even have freedom of thought. Their preservation of their religion is being taken away by the burning of books and now practicing outwardly could put those in camps. It seems like the government is trying to dismantle thoughts that don’t agree with their in the short term to impact the long term. I am unsure what other countries are able to do about this but something needs to be done. Countries taking actions may ultimately hurt the global economy but that is not an excuse not to react. Basic human rights are much more important. It has also been very tough to receive accurate information from China and many in the country are unsure what is going on due to the mass amounts of censorship. The government is highly involved in controlling the media in their favor and the negative effects are massive.
We can see just how much control the Chinese government truly has from all of these instances, many referring to it as a communist regime. This making not only the internment camps, but many of these issues heavily rooted systemic injustices. China also seems to continually hide these problems, knowing the acts they are enacting are wrong and systemically deep.
References
Sverdlov, Leon. “China builds nearly 400 camps for Muslim Uighur minority” The Jerusalem Post. 26 Sept 2020. https://www.jpost.com/international/china-builds-nearly-400-camps-for-muslim-uighur-minority-report-643660.
Graham-Harrison, Emma. “China has built 380 internment camps in Xinjiang, study finds”. The Guardian. 23 Sept 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/24/china-has-built-380-internment-camps-in-xinjiang-study-finds.