A Market for Trafficking

The nation’s one-child policy (which was forced from 1979 to 2015), combined with the society’s preference for male children, has resulted in a disproportionate population that has 30-40 million more men than women. 

Because of the one-child policy, Chinese families were forced to choose between offspring, with the majority choosing to have sons over daughters. One contributing factor is the expectation of sons to financially support the parents while daughters are expected to join other families through marriage. Another is the desire to see the family line continue. 

The disproportionate population has become even more glaring in rural communities, where women migrate to more developed areas in hopes of finding financially stable husbands. Families and villagers, therefore, resort to purchasing brides for single men, even when this is against the bride’s will. 

A Global Affair

China’s disproportionate rural male population is offset by Vietnam’s rural female population. Societal expectations in Vietnam force single women into marriage, and Vietnamese women are often kidnapped or sold in order to provide suitable wives to Chinese men. 

However, it’s not just Vietnamese women who have fallen victim to bride trafficking. This also includes ethnic minorities from Myanmar and runaways from North Korea. A three-year investigation from Human Rights Watch has shown bride trafficking spread across Asia, with more than half a dozen countries supplying brides to China. These include Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, North Korea, Vietnam, and Myanmar. 

Every year, hundreds of young girls and women are trafficked to China – this is from Myanmar alone. Often promised employment, these women are sold as brides and kept in sexual slavery, locked in a room, and perpetually raped until they deliver children. Sold for amounts ranging from $3000 to $13,000, many have been forced to undergo fertility treatment, and those who have escaped to tell the tale have had to leave their children behind. 

Hope for Change?

When bride trafficking was restricted to minorities and those on the run, there wasn’t much hope for the Chinese government to do anything about the problem. However, since 2019, this issue has come to light with popular media outlets like The New York Times and BBC reporting on it. 

However, despite investigations and criminal cases brought forward, those responsible have not been punished. In October 2019, 31 traffickers were acquitted because victims and witnesses were bribed and threatened into silence. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has only made things worse – a 2020 article stated that financial hardship worsened by the pandemic drove even more Cambodian girls and women into bride trafficking. Despite horrifying experiences of forced labor, rape, and torture, the trade continues. With families complicit and governments turning a blind eye, it’s difficult to say when, or if the victims will get justice.

This is a role it embraced thoroughly after the first case of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan in 2019, and the subsequent outbreak. By January 10, 2020, the WHO was comparing the outbreak to the 2002 SARS outbreak in China, but the CAC was doing something entirely different – censoring “#WuhanSARS” and investigating Chinese citizens for “spreading rumors.” One such citizen was Dr. Li Wenliang, now known as a whistleblower who warned the world about the novel coronavirus before falling victim to it. 

On December 30, 2019, Dr. Wenliang warned his colleagues about possible infection and encouraged wearing protective equipment. However, this precaution on a group chat was met with a big response – from the police. Not only was Dr. Wenliang called in to the Public Security Bureau, but he was made to sign a letter in which he was accused of “making false comments” and “severely disturb(ing) the social order.” 

On January 10, Dr. Wenliang began coughing. On January 11, he had a fever. Two days later, he was admitted to the hospital. On January 30, a month after his initial warning, he was diagnosed with what is now known as COVID-19. On February 7, Dr. Wenliang died. Even then, China’s censorship did not stop. In fact, the CAC doubled down, ordered news outlets not to report on the doctor’s death, had social media platforms remove his name from the trending page, and tried to flood websites with comments to drown out any dissent.

Since then, China’s efforts did not cease. It used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to censor all mentions of COVID-19, including synonyms and semantically related words. In fact, a report from the Citizen Lab showed that China’s censorship included at least 516 terms that could be traced back to COVID-19. 

Although China insists that it notified the U.S. about control measures and the virus’s progress 30 times in the span of a month (January 3 to February 3, 2020), it did not even acknowledge human-to-human transmission until January 20, 2020. It is this denial of human-to-human transmission that led to the outbreak spreading across the globe without any control measures. 

China’s control of the narrative has resulted in a global pandemic, millions of jobs lost, and countless lives ended. While China itself is not to blame for the pandemic, their poor handling of the situation has certainly not helped. Even after a delegation from the World Health Organization visited Wuhan to investigate the initial weeks of the virus, the world still doesn’t have answers. While it isn’t clear whether the pandemic could have been avoided altogether, one thing is certain – openness and cooperation from the start may have made a drastic difference in the world’s response to it. 

Ongoing Racist Coverage

This racism has been obvious since the two were first romantically linked in 2016, with headlines such as “Harry to marry into ganger royalty? New love ‘from crime-ridden neighbourhood” and “Harry’s girl is (almost) straight outta Compton: Gang-scarred home of her mother revealed – so will he be dropping by for tea?” seen all over British tabloids. In fact, Prince Harry called out the “racial undertones” of the media coverage back in 2016 well before discussing the “colonial undertones” in the new interview. 

Although the duchess explained that “rude and racist are not the same” in the interview, it doesn’t seem like the British media understands what that means. This was made painfully obvious during an interview with Ian Murray, the executive director of the Society of Editors, where he was asked about the racist coverage of the duchess. Despite the news anchor’s repeated questions and countless examples of racist headlines, Murray refused to accept that the British press was racist.

However, the lack of accountability and complete denial aren’t entirely surprising considering the bombshell that the Sussexes dropped during the CBS interview. According to the couple, members within the Royal Family were concerned about “how dark [their baby’s] skin might be when he’s born.” 

Those who say that today’s world is equal and that racism is a thing of the past only have to look at the vile examples set by the media – one British publication even went as far as to say that “seventy years ago, Meghan Markle would have been the kind of woman the Prince would have had for a mistress, not a wife.” 

Global Response

While the Sussexes have received widespread support in North America, 47% of Britons thought of their interview as “inappropriate.” Additionally, when asked about how much sympathy they had for the couple after the interview, 23% of people said, “not very much” and 33% replied with “not at all.” In an interview that detailed racism, sexism, and the account of a woman brought to the verge of suicide, these answers are very telling. 

With alleged racism within the institution of the British monarchy and the cold reception of the interview from the British public, it is clear that a lot of work needs to be done before these matters can be rectified. 

Constant Surveillance and Restrictions

The ~12 million Uighurs who are not imprisoned are under constant surveillance, with their daily lives controlled and their actions monitored for any signs of disobedience. The high-tech surveillance includes tracking any and all movements through facial recognition cameras, police checkpoints, and home visits. Forced collection of biometrics, DNA, and voice samples have also been known to be collected in order to track Uighurs more effectively. 

Restrictions include what to wear, language, and even diet. If Uighurs are found praying, going to a mosque, or have grown a beard, they can be detained. This constant monitoring includes approximately 1 million Han Chinese citizens assigned to monitor Uighur households – mandatory homestays are used to ensure that no Uighur cultural practices take place. In fact, Uighur women are even forced to marry Han Chinese men in order to force assimilation, with all aspects of Uighur culture and identity being forcefully erased.

Global Response

While 22 countries including Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom have stood up for Uighurs by writing to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, many others have remained silent on the matter. Yet others have defended these atrocities – 37 countries, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, submitted a counterstatement.  

This is especially troubling considering that this human rights violation constitutes as genocide. Described as the “intent to destroy, in whole on in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group,” genocide is the correct term used for the mass eradication of Uighurs. In addition to forced labor, torture, and systematic rape, there have been reports of mass sterilization, forced organ harvesting, indoctrination, and medical experiments conducted on inmates.

China has consistently denied these reports and has said that any crackdown on the Uighur population is to prevent terrorism and violence – yet the majority of inmates aren’t charged with any crimes. The main reason Uighur women end up in detention camps is because they have more children than allowed by the state. If any woman deigns to refuse an IUD or sterilization, they’re threatened with permanent detention. 

Even the International Criminal Court has done nothing – despite a dossier of evidence submitted, the ICC has insisted that it cannot interfere because China is not a signatory. 

However, recently, there has been increasing awareness on the topic, which has moved it to the front burner – the newly elected president of the United States of America, Joe Biden, has also condemned the Uighur genocide and has rejoined the UN Human Rights Council. The UK has taken an active role in this, with the UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab set to testify before the UN Human Rights Council.

Beijing has been slowly chipping away at these freedoms, especially political freedom. Even before this became evident, Hong Kong was never a full democracy – instead of free votes, it used an election committee system which allowed Beijing to influence results. However, it is more recent events that have sparked outrage and resulted in the 2019-2020 Hong Kong Protests.

Beijing’s Crackdown

Although the infamous Hong Kong protests were a result of law suggested in 2019, Beijing has been chipping away at Hong Kong’s freedom for years. In 2003, for example, a national security law being discussed would have prohibited secession, sedition, treason, and subversion against the Chinese government. 

In 2012, there was an attempt to change the curriculum in schools in Hong Kong to promote Chinese national identity, which the people of Hong Kong saw as Chinese propaganda. In 2014, Beijing proposed a new framework for universal suffrage – the people of Hong Kong could vote for their chief executive, as long as this was from a pre-approved list of candidates. This resulted in the Umbrella Movement protests, a pre-cursor to the resistance the people of Hong Kong showed in 2019.

Extraditions to Mainland China

In 2017, the undemocratic election process elected a new chief executive – Carrie Lam, a candidate hand-picked by Beijing.  In April 2019, Carrie Lam proposed a bill that would allow suspects to be extradited to mainland China in specific cases. 

The public came together to protest this bill, which threatened freedom, gave China undue influence over Hong Kong, and exposed the people of Hong Kong to violence, abuse, and unfair trials. It was only after hundreds of thousands gathered on the streets to protest that Lam eventually called off the bill in September of the same year.

However, by this time, the protests had grown increasingly violent, with police using tear gas, rubber bullets, and at times, live bullets. Police brutality was highlighted using social media and these protests continued well into 2020 until the COVID-19 pandemic caused them to end.

National Security Law

In June 2020, Beijing took a drastic step and imposed a national security law on Hong Kong. Under this law, dissent of any kind is criminalized. Crimes like terrorism, secession, subversion, and collusion with forces abroad have extremely broad definitions, and can be used to crack down on any citizen who stands up to the authorities. 

Global Response

While countries like the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, and Canada have opposed this law and have spoken out against it, this isn’t true of all countries – in fact, only 27 countries stood up for Hong Kong at the UN Human Rights Council in July 2020. 53 others sided with China. However, it’s important to note that a large number of countries that chose to support China are part of its Belt and Road infrastructure project, showing China’s power and influence over not only Hong Kong, but the majority of its geographical neighbors. 

While these justifications seem reasonable to some, they don’t take into account the nuances of the situation. One of the many arguments heard when talking about prison reform is the imprisonment of drug addicts, who require treatment instead of incarceration. Another is about how a large proportion of individuals are in jail, not because they’ve been convicted, but because they cannot afford bail. Even when discarding these issues, something remains – the high recidivism rates seen in the United States. Two longitudinal studies (8 and 9 years) studied recidivism rates and determined that 83% of state prisoners, 39.8% of non-violent criminals, and 64% of violent federal prisoners reoffended. This fact alone is enough to question the efficacy of the current system. 

Prison Reform in America Is Essential

However, this isn’t all that’s wrong with the prison system in the United States – from unsanitary living conditions to abuse by guards, there’s a lot to unpack when it comes to talking about prison reform.

Living Conditions

While most of us think of bunk beds in individual cells that we see in the movies and on television, this isn’t always the case – many prisons are overcrowded “dorms” with one large room filled with beds. Imprisonment is supposed to be the punishment for the crime, but it seems that prison living conditions are an additional punishment. 

Physical and Mental Healthcare

When citizens enter prison, the state is responsible for their health. However, there is little to no physical healthcare, and a severe lack of mental healthcare. In fact, most prisoners are afraid to even ask for help because the result is them being thrown into solitary confinement. Suicide is common among those in solitary confinement, which makes this even more alarming. 

Correctional Officers

While correctional officers are in charge of keeping the peace, a vast number of them are corrupt and allow assault, rape, and other violent crimes. 

Hygiene

The lack of hygiene (particularly women’s hygiene) in prison is appalling – there have been reports of women not being given sanitary napkins, tampons, and even toilet paper. Pregnant women have it even worse – they’re not given any gynecological or prenatal care, and they’re often left alone for hours when they’re in labour. One woman was even forced to give birth alone in a cell despite screaming for help – she ended up having to chew the umbilical cord off. 

Rehabilitation

One way to decrease recidivism is by providing proper rehabilitation to inmates – if those incarcerated are not taught skills to survive in society, they tend to reoffend. However, the current programs are very limited and very few prisoners can take advantage of them. To make them widely available is to strengthen the prison population and to rehabilitate them so that they can contribute to society. 

In addition to knowledge and skills, prison reform should consider decriminalizing mental illnesses. Those suffering from drug addiction, for example, should be given treatment and sent to rehab instead of being locked up with violent offenders.

Until we treat prisoners as human beings and give them basic human rights, there is no way that society can be safe. Remember – most of the people who are being traumatized in prison today are going to be out in the same world as you. Do you want them to be rehabilitated or come out more damaged than when they went in?

The problem of school shootings in the U.S. isn’t just that they’re a common occurrence – it’s an epidemic. Philip Bump has estimated that there have been at least 188 school shootings in America since 2000. More than 200 students have been killed. Yet more have been injured. Even still, any number of school shootings statistics have not convinced the federal government to enforce strict gun control measures.

Discourse and Possible Solutions 

Some have suggested arming teachers with weapons and tactical training. Others have suggested metal detectors. However, both solutions forget something very important – prevention. Instead of focusing on preventing students from carrying out violent attacks, these methods serve as responses. This assumes that there’s no way for the problem to be fixed at the root – this has been categorically denied by experts. 

In fact, a group of experts even drafted a document outlining prevention measures that could work toward a comprehensive solution. While this document includes points such as banning assault-style weapons, universal background checks, and limited restraining orders that allow authorities to recover firearms, this isn’t all they’re focused on. 

6 of the 8 points focus on other matters – these include removing legal barriers when individuals need to share safety-related information, mental health and threat assessments, rethinking school discipline policies, comprehensive mental health services, policies that address bullying, and more. 

Unfortunately, these have not yet been enforced, and it’s unclear whether they ever will be. This is partly because the country is rife with misinformation – this includes blaming all shootings on mental illness, assuming that psychiatric diagnoses can predict (and thus prevent) school shootings, and that shootings can’t be stopped with gun control.

Of course, this is further emphasized by organizations such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) who not only perpetuate these falsehoods but suggest so-called solutions that involve even more firearms. One such example is schools hiring armed security guards.

Even more concerning is the comparison against other countries – while school violence in Europe has been steadily declining, this is not true for the U.S. This is despite the startling statistic that the U.S. was responsible for half of all shootings in research that recorded 57 separate instances in 36 countries across the world.

Yet, Americans remain divided over gun control. While there are heated debates on both sides and some lawmakers trying to change policies for the better, one thing is for sure – the rest of the world’s confusion as to whether Americans truly value the second amendment over human lives remains valid. 

Julian Assange is an Australian editor and activist, best known for founding WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks is a non-profit online “dead drop” for news leaks and classified information and has published more than 10 million documents since its inception. These include documents on the Iraq War, Afghanistan War, Guantanamo Bay, and even emails and documents related to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. 

While Assange has received international praise and recognition for his work, including being awarded Amnesty International’s 2009 Media Award, he has also been attacked and investigated, even being called a “cyber-terrorist” and a “high-tech terrorist.”  

In 2010, he was arrested in London on charges of rape and molestation. In 2012, he lost his legal battle against being extradited to Sweden to face rape charges and sought political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He remained there until 2019, when his asylum was withdrawn, and he was arrested by Metropolitan Police officers for skipping bail.

After a lengthy investigation and consideration of charges since 2017, Assange was indicated by U.S. courts in 2019 on 18 counts of publishing classified information and violating the Espionage Act.

Mixed Opinions

While some have hailed him as a hero deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize, others have pointed out that Assange isn’t a journalist and does not deserve the same protections as one. However, despite the mixed opinions about him, one thing is certain – the U.S. case against Julian Assange signals a much bigger issue.

Sweden both, reopened and discontinued their investigation into Assange in 2019, but his extradition to the U.S. has been a cause of concern for many. Human rights’ groups have argued that delivering Assange to the U.S. to face 175 years in prison sets a dangerous precedent for press freedom and the right to freedom of expression. 

Amnesty International has argued that the charges against Assange are politically motivated and can have a drastic effect on his fragile mental health. If extradited to the U.S., Assange could undergo torture, solitary confinement, and other human rights’ abuses. The International Federation of Journalists has called for Assange’s release and called sending him to the U.S. “tantamount to a death sentence.”

An Ongoing Battle

Although the U.S. extradition request has been denied by a British judge, Assange’s troubles are far from over. His bail application has been rejected and he remains in isolation. Even the UN has said that Assange has undergone 10 years of arbitrary detention and political persecution.

Therefore, handling him over to the U.S. is not an option – in addition to physical health concerns, Assange suffers from extreme stress, anxiety, and psychological trauma. To subject him to more is unacceptable and has grave implications for the future of press freedom and the importance of basic human rights. 

Racial Disparity in Criminal Justice

Racial disparity in criminal justice and sentencing has long been known, but recently, it shifted from explicit racism to more overt racism. While people have worked to fight this, it is hard to do so because it is embedded deep within the system. It doesn’t just affect the trial and sentencing – it starts before the criminal justice process even starts, and then continues throughout the process to the trial, verdict, sentencing, imprisonment, and release.

The recent killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have shed light on racism upon first contact with police officers. However, it is because of systemic racism and historical injustices that this even happened in the first place. 

Racial disparity statistics are shocking – although Black people are only 13.4% of the American population, the numbers don’t reflect this. 22% of fatal police shootings are of Black victims. Black people make up 47% of wrongful conviction exonerations. They’re also 35% of the total number of people who are executed by the death penalty. 

Racial Disparity in Healthcare

While differences in healthcare can be attributed to reasons such as disability status, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation, it cannot be denied that race is one of the most prevalent factors. In fact, a report by the National Academy of Medicine even confirmed that “racial and ethnic minorities receive lower-quality healthcare than white people – even when insurance status, income, age, and severity of conditions are comparable.” 

For Black readers, this is nothing new – it’s a reality that has been confirmed over and over again. One of the most recent and heartbreaking examples is that of Dr. Susan Moore, who died of COVID-19 in 2020. Although an experienced doctor in her own right, she was made to “feel like a drug addict” by the physician treating her, who downplayed her pain and even considered discharging her. 

Dr. Moore was a knowledgeable doctor who advocated for herself and still didn’t get the treatment she deserved – how much worse is it for those who cannot advocate for themselves and don’t have a medical background to argue their points?

Other studies have even found that Black individuals received not only cheaper, but also older and more conservative treatments than white individuals – in fact, they’re more likely to receive less desirable treatment. 

Talking About Racial Disparity

As much as some people like to deny it, race matters – it affects how long you’re going to be sentenced for a crime, it affects how likely you are to be pulled over by cops, and it affects the quality of healthcare and education you receive. It is only by talking about it, discussing matters with those who can influence policy, and discussing the roots of the problem that American society can try and move on from its shameful past and present.