President Joe Biden Claims That Uighur Genocide Is Part Of Chinese Cultural Norms

By: Kylie Hapuarachchi

The outside of one of the concentration camps in Xinjiang, China. Credit: New York Times

As much as the present election tends to make it seem like we have gotten rid of a political leader whose certain beliefs did not sit well with a majority of the world, it has now come to our attention of claims that were made by the current president, President Joe Biden. 

Earlier last week, President Biden mentioned that the concentration camps that are set up in Xinjiang, China are part of Chinese norms and that one should not judge what is happening. 

The upsetting factor is that these concentration camps have led to a genocide of the Uighur population that currently resides in China. The Muslim minority has been targeted for a while and in more recent years, China has implemented a “re-education” program that is inevitable. 

According to Chinese officials, they had stated that the only reason camps were open was so that they could teach the Uighurs vocational training and to start re-education programs that will lower the poverty levels and the number of counter-terrorism threats. 

This is far from the truth, as cases of systemic rape and torture are brought to light. 

There are accounts of women who have been raped. They stated that they have been handcuffed together and stripped of their clothing while they awaited the Han men—the dominant ethnic group in China. 

The UN has spoken about the matter and understands the disturbing factors of this and demanding it to be stopped. However, according to the British Broadcasting Company, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, believes that these sources have been producing falsified statements. 

The United States state department has looked over the atrocities and stated that they too believe that what is happening in China is a genocide.

The inconsistent factor of this is that in late February of 2021,  President Joe Biden stated that this is a cultural norm and that the public can not judge something for what they do not understand. 

Statements from the New York Post vice President Biden’s opinions on the camps, 

“If you know anything about Chinese history, it has always been, the time when China has been victimized by the outer world is when they haven’t been unified at home,” Biden began. “So the central — well, vastly overstated — the central principle of Xi Jinping is that there must be a united, tightly controlled China. And he uses his rationale for the things he does based on that.”

Even with the knowledge of torture, rape, and death in the Chinese concentration camps, President Biden still stands by the Chinese president, President Xi Jinping. 

Whether this is due to economic standing between China and the US, it is leading to a distraught society as history seemingly is repeating itself as it once was in parts of Europe during World War II. 

The factors that China’s camps and their sizes are the largest ever since the Holocaust. The camps are built on factory land; therefore, there is the disturbing reality that the prisoners are being used for forced labor. 

The disturbing factor is that President Biden, a man who runs a country that is built off of the beliefs of freedom is supporting another nation that is stripping these very rights from their citizens due to them following another religion. 

President Biden vowed to be a change, the change he needs to make is to stand up when there is known violence that is occurring.

This is not about being Democratic or Republican. It is not to undermine either party or its members. 

It is about human rights and the fact that we are living everyday while there is a genocide happening on the other side of the world.