The Genocide of Uighurs - Not to be Ignored

After years of the world insisting that such an atrocity could not be possible, evidence now points to the irrefutable truth. Scholars, journalists, and human rights campaigners have finally exposed the human rights abuses in the XinJiang region of China to the wider public. Contrary to the Chinese government’s long denial of the existence of mass detention camps and accounts of rape, abuse, forced sterilization, and torture, it is now known that these inhumanities are in fact taking place on an incredibly large scale, over a million Uighurs being held in camps. This is genocide, it qualifies as such under international law and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. And the Trump administration departed the White House with an uncharacteristic condemnation of such genocide.

However, tensions between the US and China that have been exacerbated as a product of the Trump administration may pose as an obstacle. Biden may be inclined to rectify US-China relations, particularly because the two countries are so economically interdependent. His first call as president with President Xi JinPing raised concerns about the Uighur genocide, which was a commendable first step, though the action essentially halted there. In a CNN Town Hall, he appeared to downplay the events of the genocide, likely in the interest of achieving other priorities with China, namely economic.

What Biden needs to do, as does the rest of the international community, is clearly define a policy towards China in light of its human rights abuses. This could and should include the use of smart power. The US should not go to war with China, it would be far too detrimental on both sides. However, economic coercion ought to be utilized in the form of severe sanctions and tariffs. Diplomacy should of course continue, and more assertively. Without a uniform policy, the US is taking an unacceptably impartial and passive stance.

The US’s lack of competent action does undermine the validity of its ‘police officer of the world’ role, though it isn’t surprising. Particularly when it comes to human rights abuses against Muslim populations, the US is incredibly subpar and displays pervasive hypocrisy. The US occupation of the Middle East and ongoing wars in the region are said to be justified by the cause of humanitarian intervention, but further examination of the situation clearly shows that this isn’t the case. The US instigates violence for its own gain under the guise of humanitarian compassion. The same applies to the current genocides of Rohingya and Uighur Muslims. The US will ceaselessly label and applaud itself as the global advocate for human rights, then turn its back on atrocities whose intervention would pose too much of an inconvenience. This pattern applying mostly to Muslim-targeted humanitarian crises could raise the question of systemic Islamophobia in the US government, but of course, such a deeply rooted bias would not be openly declared by Americans, though it distinctly exists.

Yes, the US’s action plan demands reform, but the country that is actually conducting the genocide must be addressed as well. I’ve spoken to several Chinese-American immigrants about the issue before comprehensive and acclaimed evidence was released. At the time, I was resolute in my belief that a genocide is occurring. Although the available evidence a few months ago did not reveal as much as it does now, what was accessible seemed to coherently point to genocide, or at least an extreme humanitarian crisis. Despite this, I was consistently met with dismissive laughter because to those who had formerly lived in China, it appeared impossible for a genocide to be carried out the stellar government. There was no plausible way that the government could carry out such atrocities and, if they were to, the camps really were just ‘re-education camps’ - not the types that exist in genocides, but the kind where hundreds of thousands of an ethnic minority sit in front of blackboards to soak in lectures about Chinese culture.

Disregard how ridiculous and naive this notion is. It is possible and likely that these individuals’ imaginations were driven by internalized Islamophobia, but the greater issue is the sheer amount of faith placed in the Chinese government. No government should go unquestioned, it is imperative that they are held accountable for their mistakes, but the impression that I received, from this conversation as well as others, is that Chinese citizens struggle to criticize their government, even in the face of blatant faults and when the Chinese government is historically extremely flawed. And this is a cultural and societal matter. Americans are unusually and notoriously outspoken in condemnation of their government, but perhaps this is something that other countries ought to draw upon, at least to some extent. If nothing else, it may prevent an entire genocide from going so unnoticed.