Intro
The Chinese government has never been known for their fairness. Since the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was founded in 1949, there have been countless human rights violations and famines that have claimed over 30 million lives. The PRC started as a communist and totalitarian country, but upon the realization that coldblooded communism doesn’t make economies do well they officially switched to a mixed market economy in 1992, adopting some capitalistic policies that allowed their economy to grow at an impressive and never before seen speed. So impressive that they are now the second largest economy in the world, just barely behind the United States. While the U.S. economy is largely a import-centric system, the Chinese economy is one that sells and exports most of their products worldwide.
But how can an economy grow 387% since 1978 (nearly growing 10% per year)? The Chinese mixed economic system allows for businesses to do just about what they want, but the government applies a heavy hand with restrictions and supervision. Their government has done what any big corporation does when they want profits: exploit the masses. According to the BBC and World Bank, China has apparently made jobs for over 500 million people, which lifted them out of poverty. However, that doesn’t mean people are living comfortably. They are still lower or only just working class, just slightly above the poverty line.

There is always one guaranteed catch to just about every totalitarian government- you don’t get to live in privacy. Everything you do is surveyed and recorded. You can’t criticize the government, protest, or do anything that would make you “undesirable”. A “desirable” person in the People’s Republic of China follows the government’s commands without question, does their job perfectly, denounces the rest of the world, and is Han Chinese. That’s right. In order to be favored by the government, you must be of a certain race. Minorities are not “true” or “ideal” people to the PRC. One group of minorities are the Uighur Muslims that live in the Xinjiang region of China, and they are facing the brunt of a cultural genocide that even more Chinese “undesirables” are facing right now.

Genocide
The Chinese government relies heavily on re-education concentration camps to keep people in check. These concentration camps hold said “undesirables” and officially are just supposed to be what the PRC calls “Vocational training”. Training that includes brainwashing, torture, and forced labor.

People who have been released from camps and left China are now speaking out about what happens within the barbed wire fences. One released person is Jewer Ilham. Ilham spoke to Vox about the camps, and she claimed that people in the camps are being re-educated about the Chinese government and their president, Xi Jinping. However, those “teaching” at the camp are relying on brainwashing tactics and torture in order to strengthen PRC propaganda. Prisoners in the camps are experiencing regular torture from the guards for minor offences, and people who have spoken to the BBC, NBC News, and Vox have all given reports of such punishments. Women who have fled China claim that the most common punishments for women were group rape and forced hysterectomies (sterilization). Tursunay Ziawudun spoke to the BBC about it, and she spoke about a particular event that has scarred her for life. She recalled “They had an electric baton, and I didn’t know what it was until it was pushed into my private parts, and I was tormented with electric shocks.”. This is the level of sexual torture that women there are forced to endure, or they die. Rape is a disgusting crime, and these people are regularly being subjected to it’s horrors every day.
Re-education is enforced with punishment and repetition. “Undesirables” and minority groups are being brainwashed into believing that their way of life and their religions are evil and anti-Chinese, which is not true.

The image beside shows a BBC interview within a camp. The belief that all minority religions are terrorist centric is a belief that is taught in Chinese re-education camps. Brainwashing makes people believe whatever they’re told (after a prolonged time), and Uyghur Muslims and other groups are beaten and told that religion is evil and against the law. Religious customs are being exterminated, with Jewish and Muslim people being forced to abandon their sacred beliefs which include not eating pork products, mixing fabrics, showing hair and several other things. While this may not seem like a big deal to westerners, those are still sacred rules in their lives, but any sort of so called ‘disobedience’ by following these sacred tenets leads to torture, rape, or death.

Nazis and Americans
When the term “concentration camp” is brought up, a person probably thinks of the infamous Nazi extermination camps from the 1930s and 40s. Although these camps share some similarities with the Chinese camps, they are ultimately not in the same ballpark with severity. Nazi camps were made for eradicating entire ethnicities and cultures. These camps are made for labor and brainwashing, without an emphasis on murder. Thankfully, there is a relevant example that is little known to us Americans, and those are American concentration camps that our education and media have failed to acknowledge.
American camps have been used throughout American history to “civilize” natives, immigrants, and minorities. Indigenous people in the U.S. have faced “Civilizing boarding schools”, which were built to kidnap Native children and tell them to go against their tribe’s beliefs and lifestyles. Thus becoming “civilized”. The motto for these schools was “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.”. Tactics from those schools are being used in the Chinese camps, such as rape and torture for brainwashing.
Another terrible American example is happening at our borders today. Immigrants are being beaten and turned away for the sake of “keeping our country safe (from brown people)”. People are being whipped from horseback while trying to reach our border and also experiencing forced eugenics by government officials and private doctors. Children are being detained and separated from their families, and being held in camps that “educate and teach” them. The current U.S. media won’t cover it because the subject is not trending, but those things are happening daily in our country.

Why the World is Ignoring Human Rights
Nations all over are not acknowledging or just ignoring the crisis. Some would have you believe that it’s not even happening. The People’s Republic of China has faced no consequences for their actions, and they won’t anytime soon. This is because the Chinese government is actively paying off countries to ignore it. Countries also cannot denounce China because they will be punished with rough trade restrictions that could harm any country that denounces them. There is also the fact that many countries just don’t care. Genocide does not openly affect them, so they won’t bother. This article explains the world’s apathy further.

Conclusion
There is currently a cultural genocide happening in China right now and it is being ignored by the world. “Undesirables” and several minority groups are being placed into concentration camps and being forced to abandon their lifestyles and religions in order to fit in more with the PRC’s idea of a model citizen, and the people are being raped, tortured, starved, sterilized, and killed to achieve obedience. Please note that this is not the fault of the Chinese citizens. The issue is completely due to the government of China. The PRC is responsible for leading a nation with little to no regard for human rights, with numerous recorded incidents of human rights abuses such as the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Do not blame the average Chinese person, as they are victims in another way.
What could you do to help? Sadly, there is no way for us to help Uyghurs or any other Chinese minority group as we do not have influence in Chinese politics. You can however take small steps to fight the PRC, such as boycotting companies such as Disney (who filmed Mulan on stolen Uyghur land), TikTok (a Chinese owned company that is likely being used for surveillance), or any major company that relies heavily on the exploitation of Chinese citizens.

References–
https://www.npr.org/2012/11/10/164732497/a-grim-chronicle-of-chinas-great-famine
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/china/overview#1
https://www.bbc.com/news/56213271
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Han_Chinese
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-54195325
https://www.vox.com/2020/7/28/21333345/uighurs-china-internment-camps-forced-labor-xinjiang
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55794071
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/new-details-torture-cover-ups-china-s-internment-camps-revealed-n1270014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmId2ZP3h0c
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/03/traumatic-legacy-indian-boarding-schools/584293/
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/03/traumatic-legacy-indian-boarding-schools/584293/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58654351
https://ccrjustice.org/home/blog/2020/09/18/allegations-forced-sterilization-ice-detention-evoke-long-legacy-eugenics
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-muslim-countries-arent-criticizing-china-uighur-repression-2018-8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/08/17/chinese-government-bytedance-tiktok/