Throughout human history, there have been numerous events of injustices and inequality that a certain country or government has shown against their minority groups. Therefore, it is important to know that such events are still happening in today’s time.
In South Korea, religious minority group, Shincheonji Church of Jesus, faces violence and vitriol from the public. It is often called the South Korean cult, even by mainstream Western media.The government and law systems refuse to allow them to practice their religious freedoms.
The members of the church live their lives in fear. However, South Korea is not the only place where religious groups face such harsh treatment. Chinese Muslims are examples of groups in the People’s Republic of China that are facing similar hostile actions from their government.
Dwelling into China’s autonomous region of the Xinjiang territory stands minority groups such as a population of approximately 12 million Turkic Uyghurs. As Xinjiang was originally an autonomous and somewhat independent region, it became part of China in 1949.
Even though Xinjiang was unified into the Chinese Communist country, massive tensions still breathed between the minority groups and Han Chinese. As the Han Chinese made up 40% of the population, there has been massive tensions between the Han Chinese and minority groups.
In the case of the Uyghurs, some Xinjiang government departments have even banned Muslims from fasting during the month of Ramadan, a direct act of oppression to their religion.
In one event for the Chinese government to tighten authority and crackdown on minorities such as the Uyghurs, the Integrated Joint Operations Platform was launched. This is a government-regulated surveillance app that gathers data from minorities such as vehicle ownership, health, family planning, banking, and legal records with the intent of reporting information that is “unusual.”
With this, It is evident to the eyes that the Chinese government is violating the privacy rights of the citizens of Xinjiang. As we can see, Chinese minorities are constantly facing the oppression of human rights from their government that should not go unnoticed.
With such incidences, the discord and oppression from the Chinese government stem from deep differences of cultural and religious values. The Chinese Communist government is showing further oppression to their Muslim minority groups through the detainment of them in reeducation camps/prison camps.
For the Turkic Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz are constantly being detained in such camps just because of their religious identity and the fact that they are minorities. As of 2020, there have been approximately 800,000 Uyghurs and Muslims have been detained in such camps.
Oftentimes, their reasons for detainment are impertinent for the severity of the punishment. Reasons for such detainment include instances like small crimes if they are suspected of traveling to or having contact with countries that China finds sensitive, and even attending mosques for services.
Knowing this, what can citizens of the world outside take away from this? If the Chinese Communist government is going to continue to crack down on its religious minorities, this will create more tensions between the two sides.
As global responses, such as from the European Union that have called out the unfair repression of Chinese minority groups, there seem to be little changes for Chinese Uyghurs and other minorities.
This is an issue that cannot go unnoticed. As citizens that live in the world, we need to be aware of injustices that are happening and be united to take a stance to defend for human justice.
