The center of Asia remains virtually invisible to most of the students here at Cornell. The invisible Asia is the land of Tibet and Xinjiang, currently the site for an ongoing genocide, where there is no religious, cultural, intellectual or bodily freedom. Islam is institutionally targeted as “terrorism” and Tibetan Buddhist institutions are under strict Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control.
Recently, health workers in Xinjiang expressed that there were positive results as they treated COVID-19 patients with traditional Uyghur medicine, which dates as far back as 2,500 years. This is an irony, as the Chinese government imprisons Muslim Uyghurs for not conforming to Han culture. Uyghurs ought to have the right to practice their cultural traditions without fearing persecution and appropriation.