The Uyghur Genocide in China

    In 2014, the Chinese government launched a campaign targeting Islamic extremists in the country; however, the campaign has developed into genocide against all Uyghur Muslims, who are being treated as a disease that requires eradication. To carry out their planned destruction, their ethnic cleansing campaign, the Chinese government has locked up about two million Uyghur Muslims in internment camps across the Xinjiang region in China. CNN shared in an article published this past March, “former detainees [in the internment camps] allege they were subjected to indoctrination, sexually abused and even forcibly sterilized.” Nonetheless, individuals and countries worldwide are reluctant to designate the crisis genocide. In pursuit of a clear answer, the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights researched and published a detailed report, also this past March, about the crisis; the report is titled “The Uyghur Genocide: An Examination of China’s Breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention.” The Genocide Convention was the first human rights treaty adopted by the United Nations, and it includes a list of various crimes; the breach of a singular point from the list constitutes genocide. In violation of the first point, which forbids the killing of members of the targeted group, the Chinese government has mass murdered prominent Uyghur leaders either by execution or long-term imprisonment in internment camps. The second point prohibits “causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to members of the group,” yet the report shares that the internment camp detainees are subject to “consistent and brutal torture methods, including beatings with metal prods, electric shocks, and whips.” The third and perhaps most significant point outlaws the complete destruction of the victimized group. The Chinese government has evidently breached through the mass internment of and murderous treatment towards Uyghur Muslims, therefore resulting in the tragic conclusion that China is perpetrating genocide. 

    Unfortunately, there is a general lack of awareness and action about the genocide worldwide. A mere twenty-two nations condemned China’s cruel treatment of Uyghur Muslims a year after finding out that the Chinese government was holding the Uyghurs in internment camps throughout the nation. In an article in the Guardian published in July of 2019, Nury Turkel, chairman of the Uyghur Human Rights Project in Washington, offered his insight on the silence, “[China] is a big country, kind of a reckless country, governments are often very careful to take a stand.” The United States is a prime example, considering China is one of its largest trading partners. The United States would face severe backlash for continuing to trade with China after declaring that the country is committing genocide, leading the United States to avoid the term, genocide. China is working towards eradicating the Uyghur people from its population, yet no one is talking about it because our government and governments worldwide refuse to tap into empathy and use their power to spread awareness about and take action to prevent the genocide.

Sources

Diamond, Yonah. “The Uyghur Genocide: An Examination of China's Breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention.” Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, Mar. 2021, newlinesinstitute.org/uyghurs/the-uyghur-genocide-an-examination-of-chinas-breaches-of-the-1948-genocide-convention/.

Lyons, Kate. “The World Knows What Is Happening to the Uighurs. Why Has It Been so Slow to Act?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 26 July 2019, www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/27/the-world-knows-what-is-happening-to-the-uighurs-why-has-it-been-so-slow-to-act.

Westcott, Ben, and Rebecca Wright. “Exclusive: New Report Claims Evidence of Beijing's 'Intent to Destroy' Uyghur People.” CNN, Cable News Network, 10 Mar. 2021, www.cnn.com/2021/03/09/asia/china-uyghurs-xinjiang-genocide-report-intl-hnk/index.html.