What's Really Going On in China
By Isabella Canale
Holocaust Pt.2
What’s Really Going On in China’s Concentration Camps
History always seems to repeat itself, doesn’t it? Almost 90 years ago, the first Nazi
concentration camps were established and in 2016, China started establishing internment and
prison camps. Chinese officials deny all claims of the concentration camps and claim that the
camps act as “vocational educational schools,” however, investigations from Buzzfeed News
give insight to the actual happenings in the camps, with stories from ex-prisoners.
In 2016, Chinese police officers started detaining Uighurs and Kazakhs (Turkic ethnic
muslims) in China, into internment camps. Victims recalled that the officers showed up either at
their work or home (usually at night) and claimed the victim was being taken to a medical
examination. After being handcuffed, blindfolded, and given a thorough medical examination,
they were given interviews, consisting of questions based on their past travels, religious beliefs,
and practices. After hours of interviews, being forced to sign documents they couldn’t
understand, and giving up their phones, they were told they would be gone for ten days for
some “education.”
The given “education” is abuse, humiliation, and starvation. Victims are forced to cut or
shave their hair (for most women, it was their first time cutting their hair in their life), remove all
clothing and jewelry, sleep in cramped quarters with strangers, and eat insufficient amounts of
food. At the beginning of recruitment, China was rapidly bringing more and more detainees each
day, minimizing space in these camps. In the meantime, old schools and government-owned
buildings held the victims, until 2017, when construction started on more prisons. The prisoners
would soon be held in the prisons they constructed as a form of the unpaid labor they were
forced to do. When they weren’t attempting to sleep, work, or being put into solitary
confinement, China enforced actual education.
Some victims said that they would go to classrooms to study Chinese and Communist
Party propaganda, while others said they were told there wasn’t enough room in the
classrooms, therefore, they were forced to study in their cells with cameras watching. The
prisoners received a single stool upon arrival for their study sessions. They recall being yelled at
through speakers for improper posture or removing their hands from their knees while studying.
Punishments at the camp range from beatings to solitary confinement in a 10 ft x 10 ft dark
room.
Victims were never officially arrested, but were told they were being held for reasons
such as having too many kids, downloading WhatsApp (banned in China), traveling abroad, and
engaging in prayer. In the camps, women forcefully received birth control, abortions, and
pregnancy checks in an attempt to cut off the population of Uighurs and Kazakhs, also know as
genocide. If released, prisoners are put on house arrest, forced to never speak of their
experiences, and possibly told to move to Kazakhstan. Released victims still live in fear for not
only themselves but their entire family, as they could be killed or imprisoned as well. China
Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) estimates about one million Uyghur Muslims being held in
camps, as of July 2019. China’s control of citizens’ media output has restricted much coverage
on the topic, but we must continue to expose the current situation, by sharing news and media
coverage on the topic.
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