Chinese Concentration Camps

Something that I have seen in the news and all over my various social media feeds has been the concentration camps in China. Located in the Xinjang region, these “re-education” camps are aimed solely at Uighurs and are aimed at “stripping Uighurs of their identity and [indoctrinating] them into being secular and loyal party supporters” according to this Washington Post article. These camps are truly abhorrent, with gross breaches of Muslim religious practice being forced upon those held within the camp. China continues to claim that these are “re-education” camps for Uighurs, as there have been “several thousand” Chinese citizens that have died in terrorist attacks supposedly committed by Uighurs. However, this seems like no excuse to place members of this religious minority in a concentration camp. It is plain to see in even just reading one article about the situation that the Chinese government is trying to hide the fact that these are, in fact, concentration camps. The New York Times recently published several pages of leaked documents from inside the Chinese Communist party where these camps are referred to as detention centers. This article has prompted the most recent outcry about the events, but publicity has since died down for this religious minority. It saddens me that this event has gotten so little press or media coverage, as some people are calling it a “modern day Holocaust.” I think that it would help if more people were educated about this, and felt comfortable speaking out in support of the Uighur people. This is definitely a situation to follow.