In 2014, the first wave of articles began to roll out, accusing the Chinese government of targeting on the Uighur community. An ethnic minority that practices Islam, the Uighurs mostly live in China's northwestern province of Xinjiang. While their relations with the majority Han Chinese population has been characterized by tensions stretching back to the beginning of the twentieth century and the Communist Revolution, recent years have seen the Chinese government initiate a violent crackdown on the Uighurs that has inspired talk of genocide.

Genocide is defined by the United Nations as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

1. Killing members of the group;
2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

On a less lethal but no less painful note, reports have revealed the government-enabled use of cattle prods, waterboarding, and other methods of torture on Uighur detainees. The people forced into these camps live in fear of beatings, their suffering compounded by the mental stress of knowing their family is living in a precarious state of perpetual danger. Those who are living in exile are not often that much better off, at least on an emotional level. Uighurs who have escaped to countries like Turkey or America often do not know whether those they have left behind are being surveilled, interred, or worse. They are also afraid to seek asylum or refugee status, fearing that it could lead to violence against family members still in China. Many Uighurs do not even have exile as an option, however, as the government confiscated their passports.

Surveillance is much more pervasive. Along with run-of-the-mill civil liberty violations like forcing Muslims to install spyware that enables authorities to monitor their phone activity and the implementation of checkpoints that use facial recognition technology, the Chinese government has sent Han Chinese officials to live in the houses of Uighurs for the kind of 24/7 surveillance most authoritarian states can only dream about. These relatives frown upon halal practices and abstention from alcohol on religious grounds, as well as reporting back to the Communist Party on their targets prayer habits, "cleanliness" and political beliefs.

The government has used these "relatives" to even more insidious ends. The State Department has released information that Uighur women are being coerced into marriages with Han Chinese men in an effort to prevent births within the group. The women know that if they refuse to marry these so-called "relatives" that were sent to spy on them, their families are at risk of being sent to the camps.

And even after death, Uighurs are not allowed to rest easy. The Chinese government has begun desecrating the Uighurs' ancestral burial grounds. Bones and tombs alike are tossed into broken disarray. Under the guise of urban development, the government is attempting to destroy Uighurs' connections to their land and history. The desecration of these cemeteries follows the destruction of mosques across China. It is a cultural genocide of disturbing proportions. It is likely also motivated by the Chinese government's commercial and political interests in the Xinjiang region. Commercially, the region has vast mineral reserves, particularly in oil and gas. Politically, Xinjiang is part of China's projected One-Belt One-Road initiative (OBOR), a project that has drawn criticism from various quarters and which requires an article of its own to explain.

Reporting on these events has not been easy, thanks to the heavy surveillance of reporters stationed in China and the Chinese government's stranglehold over media releases. News outlets have primarily relied on a combination of satellite imagery and information from people who have managed to escape from China. These reports have accrued to paint a chilling picture. In a few years time, China has seen the construction of giant complexes, purportedly for "re-education centers" and camps "to combat terrorism". People are removed from their homes and taken to these centers and camps for actions as inoffensive as reading the Quran, praying regularly, or maintaining any form of contact with people outside of China. There is no trial, no due process, no civil rights.

As of this year, the atrocities have gone on for over half a decade and it does not appear that conditions will improve anytime soon. While Turkey, Malaysia, and Indonesia have taken strong stances opposing the atrocities, other countries seem more hesitant to go further than lackluster platitudes inserted into speeches by state leaders. Their hesitancy is likely borne out of fear of the economic ramifications that could result from displeasing Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, who last year removed the two-term limit from the Chinese constitution, enabling him to retain his position for life.