A Look at Xinjiang’s “Re-education” Camps
Courtesy of Voice of America News
In the landlocked autonomous region of China known as Xinjiang, 12 million Uyghurs are currently living under suppression and the threat of being detained in one of China’s “re-education camps”. China has claimed that the purpose of detaining Uyghurs in these camps is to counter terrorism and extremism. In these camps, Uyghur Muslims go through various forms of mental and physical torture. For example, detainees face sexual abuse and forced abortions. According to Amnesty International, almost every former detainee interviewed of the re-education camps described being tortured and mistreated. It has also been discovered that in these re-education camps, forced mass sterilization and detention are a few of the countless problems that the Uyghur Muslims are facing. Many other human rights groups also believe that China has detained over one million Uyghurs in these camps against their will, showing the prevalence of this issue. Despite large amounts of criticism, China has repeatedly denied any allegations and insisted that the facilities were for “vocational training”.
In response to China’s actions, countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada have announced boycotts of events related to or hosted by China, such as the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. These nations described China’s actions as “egregious human rights abuses and atrocities.” Although many point out that this boycott is at best symbolic, it still brings about awareness of the issue. Additionally, besides boycotting the Winter Olympics, the Trump and Biden administrations placed economic sanctions in order to hurt China and possibly force their government to take action. However, China continues to deny any wrongdoing.
China has also committed multiple human rights violations by using powerful databases to conduct warrantless searches and track people on their own mobile devices. According to the New York Times, the Chinese police took roughly 16,000 people off the street in public that were considered “suspicious” in a one-week period. Children were often separated from their parents and were not even allowed to stay with their relatives; they were sent to boarding schools and other housing institutions.
This issue of Uyghur mistreatment has continued on to be a problem in today’s modern era, and especially with the technological tools used by the Chinese government, this issue is yet to be resolved.
