China (MNN) — Earlier this week, the U.S. recognized the Armenian Genocide, the organized killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
Todd Nettleton of The Voice of the Martyrs USA hopes the U.S. will also focus on a current genocide happening in China. “The Armenian Genocide that happened 100 years ago, we’re going to use the word genocide for that. We’re also using the word genocide for something that’s going on right now with the Uighur people in western China.”
According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, the Chinese Communist Party has continued its mistreatment of Muslim minorities, especially the Uighur people. At least 1 million Uighurs have been taken to about 85 prison camps in Northwest China. Read more here.
Praying for an end to the mistreatment
In January, the U.S. State Department designated these actions as genocide against the Uighur people. Nettleton says, “There’s nothing we can do about what happened 100 years ago, in eastern Turkey. There are things we can do about what’s happening today in western China. So I hope that the administration will also take steps to address the ongoing genocide that’s happening today, not simply take steps to talk about a genocide that happened 100 years ago. Pray there can be a response that will slow the suffering and the death that is happening in western China.”
Meanwhile, the Gospel continues to surge throughout China. Pray this good news will change hearts and stop the mistreatment of the Uighur people.
The header photo shows Chinese Communist Party propaganda in Kashgar, a city in the Xinjiang region, where the Uighurs are being put in camps. (Photo courtesy of Kubilayaxun, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
