With all the chaos going on in the world, certain issues including genocides are hidden, and are executed silently. Mass media refuses to cover it, or is limited in its coverage, and the suffering continues behind closed doors.
China is the world’s second most populous country with a growing population of 1.4 billion. The nation’s largest ethnic group, the Han, makes up 91 percent of the nation’s population. But what many don’t know is that the nation of 1.4 billion contains three other large minority groups. The Uyghurs (11 million), Mongolians(5.2 million), and Tibetans(3.6 million).
Since President Xi Jinping came to power on March 14th, 2013, he has made it his clear goal to create a unified China. This is a China made only for the Hans, and that pushes others out. Out of the three largest minorities in China, the Uyghurs, China’s Turkish mostly Muslim population, are the most persecuted. Due to the security increases and locked-up borders of the Xinjiang Province, the indigenous home of the Uyghurs, this has left them trapped and oppressed.
China’s attempt to keep this issue quiet speaks loudly to the world. Visitors to the region are given strict regulations and are only allowed to stay in certain hotels and cities licensed for hosting. Government officials often confiscate religious texts and items such as Qur’ans, Bibles, and prayer mats. According to a January 2021 Human Rights Watch report, over 1.3 million Uyghurs have been detained in what they call, “Concentration camps”. The creation of these camps began in 2017 by President Xi Jinping himself, and later, was managed and continued by Chen Quanguo. Chen Quanguo, a former CCP policy maker, Politburo member, and committee secretary, leads the region’s party committee and government.
Survivors and Human Rights Organizations have described horrific forms of torture that take place inside the walls like waterboarding, mass rape, sexual abuse, sterilization, hard forced labor, political indoctrination, and many other forms of torture. According to The Guardian, based on satellite footage, over 380 internment camps have been built by China inside Xinjiang province alone. The Uyghurs are locked up, re-educated, and converted to faithfully serve the Chinese regime.
Just Security, an online forum that analyzes global democracy, security, foreign policy, and human rights, reports that the forced sterilization of Uyghur women is one of the many tactics used by the Chinese Regime to reduce the Uyghur population. This practice isn’t new in China, as seen in history through the one-child policy, which was implemented in 1980 but due to the elderly population, ended in 2016. Sterilization has become much more targeted towards the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
According to LSE, the United Kingdom’s Department of Social Policy, Uyghur women are forced to undergo regular pregnancy checkups. They are given an unknown injection without being told exactly why or what is inside the mysterious substance. Uyghur women have reported losing their periods and not being able to bear children after being given the injection. Another recent discovery has emerged from research conducted by Foreign Policy, in which they found that China also forces Uyghurs into recent hard labor activities such as picking and handling cotton and other industrial needs within the camps.
Despite these many human rights violations, over 8,600 American companies such as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Walmart, and Microsoft currently operate locations in China.
The Chinese Regime must be held accountable for these atrocities and human rights violations. With the recent visit of President Xi Jinping to San Francisco on the 14th of November 2023 and the lining of Chinese flags across the city of San Francisco in welcoming support of the dictator, it is clear how truly silent this issue has become. With China controlling a little over 12% of global trade and American debt to China rising above 859 billion, it isn’t financially smart to take a stand against the Chinese Government. Why are our politicians silent? Why are we silent?
