As Americans continue shouting “Black Lives Matter” as if anyone disagrees with the basic idea, real injustices across the globe are being glazed over and ignored.
Earlier this week, the AP published an investigation into the “draconian measures” communist China is taking to slash birth rates among Muslim minorities that are so bad, some experts call them a form of “demographic genocide.”
They found that while China encourages its Han majority to have more children, it “regularly subjects minority women to pregnancy checks, and forces intrauterine devices, sterilization and even abortion on hundreds of thousands.”
“The population control measures are backed by mass detention both as a threat and as a punishment for failure to comply,” the AP explained. “Having too many children is a major reason people are sent to detention camps, the AP found, with the parents of three or more ripped away from their families unless they can pay huge fines. Police raid homes, terrifying parents as they search for hidden children.”
The harrowing stories of women being thrown in internment camps for the crime of getting pregnant puts into perspective the conversations about “women’s rights” here in the United States. Whereas pro-choice advocates fight for abortions without limits, Uighurs are stripped of the basic right to bear children.
Conveniently, voices of “choice” advocates are missing.
Shortly after the AP’s report went public, China’s human rights violations got worse.
Yesterday, China imposed a new national security law asserting control over Hong Kong that’s so extreme, pro-democracy activists are fleeing for their lives. The move is a brazen display of power and control by a repressive regime that could hardly care what the international community thinks, let alone how it might respond.
NPR reports the law “empowers China to set up a ‘National Security Commission’ to oversee the investigation and prosecution of any violations. This committee is subject neither to judicial review nor Hong Kong law — meaning it operates without any local checks or balances.”
The law puts into perspective the protests that are happening here.
Over the past five weeks, we’ve watched individuals, corporations and businesses get behind the #BlackLivesMatter movement, which purportedly stands to protect people’s dignity, equality and human rights. But when it comes to the dignity, equality and human rights of those in China and Hong Kong, these same individuals, businesses and corporations are conveniently silent.
Remember that Hollywood was so outraged over a Georgia pro-life law, it threatened to boycott the state. But speaking out about an effort to eradicate the entire minority population from a country with whom they share close financial ties? That’s apparently a step too far.
All this leads you to wonder whether any of today’s protesters will stop to consider how lucky they are to live in a country with a First Amendment it vigorously protects. Even in the midst of a deadly pandemic where demonstrators are protesting the police, the police wake up every morning to protect those protesters’ rights.
It’s hard to imagine a world where law enforcement would do otherwise. But in Hong Kong, where pro-democracy activists are now seeking refugee status here, that’s exactly what’s happening.
This should all make it obvious that our American system and those who built it are worth defending to our grave. If not for ourselves, then for the thousands of others in China, Hong Kong and beyond, who can only hope to one day have the freedoms we have here.