In the age of digital media, a time when we have access to minute by minute updates on breaking news at the palm of our hand, you’d think that it’d be impossible for a country as big as China to get away with imprisoning millions of their citizens in concentration camps. And yet, the world is barely whispering of the cruel persecution of Chinese Uighur Muslims. 

For years now China has been imprisoning Uighur Muslims in a network of concentration camps and detention centers, aiming to “prevent terrorism thoughts from happening.” The Chinese government has coined these camps to be re-education centers, where participants are willingingly attended a series of classes that are aimed to make them better Chinese citizens. These aren’t concentration camps, no, not at all. They are merely a nice, safe place for citizens to learn Mandarin and different aspects of Chinese history and culture. Doesn’t that just sound wonderful?

Well, that’s certainly what the Chinese government wants you to think.

However this picture perfect scenario that the Chinese officials have painted could not be further from the truth. They can try to dress up the situation as nice as they can, but the facts don’t lie, and they reveal a haunting truth behind these so-called “re-education camps.” 

Millions imprisoned in dirty and unsafe quarters, being forced to eat pork, women being sterilized against their will, organs being harvested, the list of torture goes on and on. Make no mistake, this is a genocide, and the Chinese government is killing millions of Uighur Muslims on a basis of Islamaphobia and xenophobia. Even so, no world leader has stepped up to condemn these actions. 

That’s right, no one seems to care. The New York Times, CNN, NBC, and a variety of other news outlets wrote various exposes about the terrifying truth of Chinese concentration camps, and still nothing happened. No one stepped up to the mantle to denounce China’s actions, and you want to know why?

Our world leaders appear to be more afraid of the economic consequences. They are afraid of what might happen to trade relations with China if they were to denounce China’s actions. Maybe that concern is valid to a certain extent, but how can we put a price on millions of innocent human lives? Is the cost of standing up to China really our trade relations, or is it our humanity? 

Countries and citizens all around the world have kept a pin-drop silence on China’s cruel imprisonment and torture of the Uighur Muslims for far too long. Millions have already died, and will continue to die until something is done to stop these inhumane practices. So it’s time for the world to take a long, deep look in the mirror and ask ourselves what side of history we want to be on. History is watching us, and we have the choice to decide whether or not we want to repeat it.