Christa Lyford
published 28 November 2020
For most democratic societies, the term “re-education camps” brings disturbing imagery to mind—brainwashing, indoctrination, and abuses of human rights. So, when journalists and politicians began questioning China about compound-like structures that began appearing in the Xinjiang region in 2018, it was concerning to hear that their goal was the re-education of the local Uighur Muslims. A deeper investigation into these institutions has prompted outcry from the international community, worsened by the fact that China is currently slated to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. In the light of China’s history with its Uighur citizens, its current, dehumanizing treatment of them, and the impact of hosting the Olympics, it will become soberingly clear why China’s offer to host the Olympics should be rescinded.
The Uighurs have had a tumultuous past with the Chinese government. They are a Turkic ethnic group totaling about 11 million people; the majority live in Xinjiang, although the Uighur inhabitants refer to it as East Turkestan. They practice Islam and speak their own language, which is also called Uighur. In the early 20th Century, they briefly declared independence, but in 1949, the Xinjiang region was brought back under the control of communist China. Throughout the years, the religious and cultural rights of the Uighur people have been discouraged by the Chinese government. This includes the banning of fasting during Ramadan, as well as bans on headscarves, long beards, and even Islamic-sounding names. But the treatment of Uighur citizens has taken an even darker turn.
The truth of China’s “re-education schools” didn’t take long to see international light after the initial satellite images were detected. In 2018, at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, it was revealed that as many as 500,000 to a million people are (or have been) detained in the re-education camps. US lawmakers Marco Rubio and Chris Smith called it “the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today.” In 2020, Chinese documents revealed plans to force 80 per cent of women of child-bearing age to long-term birth control in four areas of Xinjiang with large Uighur populations. Adrian Zenz, a U.S.-based scholar, described that what is taking place in Xinjiang meets at least one of the United Nations criteria for genocide, citing that it is a clear attempt from the government of China to eradicate Uighur culture and religion.
This gross abuse of human rights has been on the radar of the international community, and some states have taken action against China as a result. But China’s attempts to sweep its treatment of the Uighurs under the rug is even more insidious in the light of the 2022 Olympics. In 1936, Berlin hosted the Olympic Games. Nazi Germany used the games for propaganda purposes to further the image of a strong and united Germany. A US boycott of the games was led by Judge Jeremiah Mahoney—who was president of the Amateur Athletic Union. Along with other influential Catholics (including multiple mayors and governors), they asserted that sending a US team to the Berlin Olympics would, “set the seal of approval on radically anti-Christian Nazi doctrines”. The boycott was ultimately rejected. The forty-nine nations that attended legitimized the Hitler regime in the eyes of the world, possibly contributing to the delayed response to its violations of human rights on behalf of the US. With China slated to host the Winter Olympic Games, more than 160 human rights groups around the world have approached the International Olympic Committee, calling for a reversal of its decision to hold the games in Beijing. A similar outcome is feared if things go as scheduled—a further legitimization of China’s leadership in the eyes of the global community, despite the cultural genocide in Xinjiang.
Through the lens of history, we can observe mistakes made in the past and strive to avoid them in the future. The legitimization of Nazi Germany through the Olympics was a mistake that may have cost thousands of Jewish lives. We are faced with an eerily similar situation today. Credible reports of unjust incarceration, forced sterilization, and linguistic and religious genocide should be enough to taint the image of the Chinese government. But letting them host the Olympics gives them an opportunity to assuage those concerns in the public eye, to distract with impressive architecture and proverbial shiny objects, the horrific actions being taken against their innocent civilian citizens.
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