China is a powerhouse in the global manufacturing industry, as well as an important trading partner with the United States. Today, China also has a restrictive government that continues to oppress its citizens. As much flack as America gets, it can’t get as bad as China. From suppressing the Hong Kong protests to forcing a social credit system on its citizens, China’s government is not one to speak home about. Just recently this year even, China withheld important information on the Coronavirus.

In addition, the Chinese government is holding captive an estimated one million people, primarily Muslim, of the Uighur ethnicity within concentration camps. With this and the aforementioned items, China is giving North Korea a run for its money in regards to human rights violations. But let’s take a closer look at these Muslim concentration camps.

Background

What led to China placing so many people under this destructive lockdown and when did all of this begin? And where? Based on current records of journalism, the idea of placing restrictions on Muslims in the country, if not the use of actual camps, began to take effect in 2014. This has mostly been taking place in the region of Xinjiang. Around this time and in this place, China tried to “de-radicalize” these Muslims. According to Business Insider Malaysia, this was China’s way of de-radicalizing the Uighur people:

Uyghurs have been banned from fasting during Ramadan, refusing to eat pork, refusing to wear shorts, refusing to watch state TV or listen to state radio, wearing burqas, having “abnormal” beards, performing traditional funeral rites, speaking to family members overseas, travelling overseas, and giving their children Islamic names such as Mohammad and Fatima (children under the age of 16 have even been forced to change their names). From Tara Francis Chan at Business Insider, article published in 2018.

That’s right. The Chinese government prevented Muslims from following their everyday religious practices. Acting as if something as simple as a beard or avoiding pork are signs of a terrorist. Things didn’t stop there. Xinjiang became overrun by Chinese propaganda, to the point that the Muslim population there was being “re-educated,” so to speak. The government spied on their people, fearful of them. Chinese officials treated Islam itself like it was a dangerous ideology, and clearly saw it as evil in their eyes. They continue to treat Islam and Muslims this way. Plain and simple, it was racism and religious discrimination at play.

Why did China do this?

While it is obvious that China is doing this out of racism, the next question that comes to mind is “Why did they start doing this in 2014?” It is hard to say what exactly led to this moment, but there are a few leads. In particular, according to Spiegel International, this is partially because of rising tensions between the Uighur Chinese and the Han Chinese. There were events that occurred even before, in 2009.

But what appears to be the ultimate inciting incident is, in fact, an event that occurred in 2014 when terrorists from the Uighur ethnic group killed a lot of people. With this event and others prior, China senselessly must have decided that the Uighur people were a threat. Like some conservatives in America, the Chinese government must have blamed the actions of a few on an entire religious group. In reality, the attacks by the Uighurs were likely only fueled by religious extremism. That doesn’t mean that the average Uighur person’s way of life was extreme in any way. Just that terrorists had misread the sacred texts in Islam. But there is no convincing the willfully ignorant.

The Concentration Camps

China wants to call them “re-education” camps, but they’re far from it. There could never be a good re-education camp, I’d dare say. Most sources can’t seem to put a date on the year of building of the camps and enforcement of camps. If I had to guess, it would be from around 2014 to 2017, but who knows? It may have occurred earlier than that. The government may have started building as early as 2009, when so many Han Chinese people were killed. Then they could have arrested Uighurs in the 2010s after that.

From The Economist

Now what happened in the camps? For one, “de-radicalization” (not really) continued like it did in 2014 before any known use of the camps. But now, it was worse because government officials would abuse the Muslims and force them to continually praise the government. The Chinese government also murdered Muslims by taking out their organs even though they were alive. Why? Due to pure religious prejudice, to “donate” organs, or to sell on the black market? Probably all of the above.

What has been done? What can be done?

With such information out in the wild, you would think that the other countries of the world would have stopped China from continuing their evil practices. Beyond calling out the Chinese government for their actions, it honestly does not feel like all that much has been done. A lot of countries, like the United States, view China as a great trading partner, and money blinds the already-wealthy. There needs to be more that the countries can do. While many countries brought awareness to the issue, it seems that there are as many countries that actually support the Chinese. Strangely enough, some countries showing support for China are countries that have Islamic law where a majority of the population is Muslim. Why would that be? No one knows for certain.

But what can we do? Maybe we can try to reach out to our local and federal politicians. But would that be enough pressure? Probably not. But it’s worth a try. Beyond that, it would be necessary for the highest levels of government to fight (not literally) China and find ways to stop this destructive regime. I’m not calling for our countries to go to war with China. I just think there’s more that our countries can do, even if it’s not entirely clear what we can do. But if the countries of the world work together, perhaps we can free these people from this evil regime that is China.