The genocide in Xianjing has highlighted a huge problem within the way that the media prioritise their news content. This article mentions how there needs to be more coverage of the global atrocities that are occurring daily within media, and how governmental bodies need to do more to help the Uyghur Muslims.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently proposed that there needs to be a second investigation in to the outbreak of the COVID-19 Virus from the Wuhan Virology Lab. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the WHO, has admitted that there was a premature push to rule out the theory that the virus originated from the lab in Wuhan, suggesting that there needs to be a much more thorough investigation in to the inception of COVID-19.
This will be an extremely hard task in a country that has a terrible track record of transparency from their government, as well as the state-owned media which perpetrates lies and deceit to save face for their economy. The reason this troubles me (as it should you too) is because of the concealment of other issues that the Chinese government is perpetuating, such as the genocide in Xianjing. Countries such as United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, The Netherlands and many others have already declared the imprisonment of 1.5 million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps as 'Genocide', which is alarming at its core. The Chinese Government are denying access to any journalists in to the region of Xianjing, which is extremely distressing considering the persecution that the Uyghur Muslims are experiencing just for their religious beliefs. This is downright oppression to the highest degree. The question I pose to you is this. What are the similarities between this persecution and the Holocaust?
The lack of clarity from the CCP about what's going on, the clear disregard of the Uyghur people, the millions in forced labour - all signs lead to worsened conditions for the Xianjing natives. Back on the 24th January 2021 (also known as Holocaust Day), the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews Marie Van Der Zyl said that 'As a community, we are always extremely hesitant to consider comparisons with the Holocaust.' Nevertheless, she and many others have made significant comparisons to the horrifying event that left 6 million Jews dead by the end of 1945. The Nazi's didn't begin by killing Jews; instead they created a social disconnect between the German people and the Jewish populations within Germany with ghettos, and slowly, began to persecute them with famous events such as "Kristallnacht", where the shops of Jews were destroyed in an attempt to ostracise them. This worked in creating a social disgust within Germany toward Jews, thus legitimising the heinous attacks that the Nazi's made against the Jews. The exact same is happening in China. Through their state-owned media (such as China Daily), they are perpetuating harmful rhetoric towards Uyghur Muslims because of the Uyghur's reluctance to conform to governmental norms. The Chinese government claims that their 'vocational camps' are used to nullify separatism and extremism, and have used mass surveillance as well as forced contraceptive measures to subdue their birth rates. This extremism that they claim to exist in the Xianjing province is actually a rebellion to the direct racist mistreatment they have received since the 1990's, where conflict was used by the Uyghur Muslims to relax the restraints of their persecution.
The reason that most media and governments aren't reporting on this crazed massacre more is, in my opinion, the economic ties that the West has with China. Although China is a Communist Country, since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, China has actually attempted to mask their communist agenda as capitalist, in order to encourage parliamentary democracies such as the U.S. and the U.K. to trade with China, allowing the Eastern powerhouse to improve their perception in the eyes of the world. This reputation has been slowly growing ever since the atrocities at Tiananmen Square, which has enabled them to get away with the expulsion of the Uyghur Muslims as we see today. The media are creating articles on their secondary pages about the genocide, but surely this should be on the front page of news every day? We have already seen a lack of punishment for China with their treatment of the Hong Kong people, where 2,600+ people were injured and 10,000+ unjustly arrested - leading to very few reparations from China itself. I feel as if the apathy from most of the media to fully scrutinise the Chinese government will eventually lead to a far worse situation than we could have pre-empted. If no horrific incidents are occurring within the province (to which we already know to be false through accounts from Uyghur Muslims), then why are the government covering it up? What have they got to hide? I anticipate that as more stories such as Mehray Mezensof's and Mirzat Taher's (CNN, 2021) continue to reveal themselves, more traumatic visualisations of the barbarity that is occurring in these camps will ensue.
There is not being enough done by governments and the UN to prevent this. As aforementioned, there will be extreme consequences if it is not dealt with promptly and properly. There needs to be much larger sanctions on the country if we are to prevent another mass-decimation of a population from happening. Only then, will the answers be uncovered, and China will pay for their wrongdoing.
Comments