u/lordbootyclapper - originally from r/GenZhou
My mom just sent an article in our group chat from NPR about uyghur students being abused in boarding schools and i feel like there’s just so much information pointing towards there being an issue for there not to be at least some aspect of truth to it. I still want to keep an open mind tho and make sure i’m not being led to a certain conclusion by my western media influences. Can anyone give me some reasoning/explanation behind this? thanks

u/TheThrenodist - originally from r/GenZhouThe Chinese government will freely admit to you that Han chauvinism towards ethnic minorities is still a problem to some degree at all levels of Chinese society. They would also tell you that their path of economic development since the beginning of the reform & opening up period has caused the the western, interior provinces to lag behind in development (of which the Xinjiang Autonomous Region is one of them and both problems are ones where coordinated active efforts are being taken to resolve)
However, there is a VERY VERY big difference between “China has not yet achieved ethnic harmony or a countrywide equal level of economic development” and “The Chinese government is enacting a coordinated campaign to exterminate the Uyghur people”.
I know there are some people in this subreddit who have like Google docs of articles & can provide some context on other details (I can too if you have a specific question) but this is the prism through which you should (in my opinion) be looking at the situation.
u/juanlonelycantaloupe - originally from r/GenZhouVery well put. You filled in a few blanks for me as well.
Please correct me if this analogy is misguided, but I typically liken the PRC’s proactive approach to extremism in the Xinjiang region as a better alternative to Russia’s interactions with the Chechen population in the North Caucasus.
Would this be a fair comparison and critique of the latter’s policies and praise of the PRC’s own?
u/TheThrenodist - originally from r/GenZhouI don’t know enough about Russia’s approach to really have an opinion.
u/juanlonelycantaloupe - originally from r/GenZhouI respect that.
u/GreenforceFortune - originally from r/GenZhouAny sources for this please?
u/theUSSRwillriseagain - originally from r/GenZhouFrom Xinhua about a speech by Xi Jinping from august to the central conference on ethnic affairs. “Neither Han chauvinism nor local ethnic chauvinism is conducive to the development of a community for the Chinese nation, [Xi] stressed.” Not really a full source, just a recent article I found, but it can at least show that they’re officially against han chauvinism.
u/SEND_DUCK_PICS - originally from r/GenZhouthe constitution too talks about how fixing ethnic strife is an ongoing challenge.
u/laundry_writer - originally from r/GenZhouThen how do you explain lived experiences like these?
u/TheThrenodist - originally from r/GenZhouWhat do you think that Twitter thread demonstrates?
u/laundry_writer - originally from r/GenZhouHan solidarity with Uyghur prison survivors
[deleted] - originally from r/GenZhou[removed]
u/wunderwerks - originally from r/GenZhouWhere are all the refugees? Syria and Myanmar have tens of thousands of refugees. None except a small handful of folks giving speeches to Western media from a region that borders 6 other countries across one of the most porous borders in the world. Hell, despite claims of genocide the Uyghur are one of the fastest growing groups in China.
Ntm, the vast majority of claims about genocide come from one man who cannot speak or read any Chinese, has barely ever visited the country, much less the region, and every single one of his claims has been shown to be BS. And he’s paid by the NED (US State Dept.), also he’s a hardcore racist who thinks interracial relationships are a sin, that the end of the world is coming soon (both he’s published in books), and he has been quoted as saying that he is on a crusade to destroy China.
u/Zenmasterben - originally from r/GenZhouI guess Ishould have expected to be downvoted.
I take it you’re saying that those people are lying?
u/wunderwerks - originally from r/GenZhouMoney talks and the main woman they’ve used multiple times has huge holes in her stories (look up her claims about her passport).
u/Zenmasterben - originally from r/GenZhouFair enough, I’m not interested enough to go in-depth into the issue. I’m not pretending to know what’s going on in China, was just asking what the response is to the reports made by people in the ‘camps’ and it makes sense that they could be lying.
u/wunderwerks - originally from r/GenZhouThen don’t post* about a thing you don’t know about. Research it first. Spreading Western disinformation only helps capitalists.
Go check out the. Xinjiang videos by Numuves on YouTube. Dude is a Canadian English teacher in China who went to Xinjiang and took a bunch of videos while there. That’s a good very basic start.
u/The_Decoy - originally from r/GenZhouJust started watching that video you suggested. Thanks for mentioning that. It’s good to see the “on the ground” perspective in Xinjiang.
u/Zenmasterben - originally from r/GenZhouDon’t in about a thing? Not sure what you mean.
I didn’t spread disinformation. I asked a question and shared a video for context.
I subscribed and will watch a video later, thanks.
u/wunderwerks - originally from r/GenZhouYou shared a video that is misinformation.
u/YallidaritySiempre - originally from r/GenZhouConsider what “forceful assimilation” is and whether it actually works for whatever goal is trying to be accomplished. We don’t have to pretend every State is a rational actor but what exactly would be achieved by punishing people for…not being Han Chinese I guess?
I’ll take you come from the States since you mentioned NPR. When places like NPR, Buzzfeed, or the Economist try to discuss the “question” at hand, it’s absurd that there isn’t presentable evidence readily available for perusal. For example headlines about a company “operating in an area ‘sanctioned by the U.S. government’” is not an endorsement or validation of the govt’s position. Simply reporting the truth, that the US govt has a designation on the area…sort of like they had a terrorist designation for the East Turkistan Islamic Party which operates in the area (and suicide-bombed Kabul last November) up until the year 2019…when I assume they discovered some form of geopolitical leverage that comes from attempting to stir up internal strife as well as publicly damage the US’s so-called “enemy number one.”
There’s an inherently pro-American bias to media b/c that’s what society is propagandized for, but from a strictly (and I hate this word) realpolitik view…is it not sensible that the world’s current preeminent superpower - which is facing its own domestic issues - is more invested in maintaining its geopolitical throne and thwarting all rising powers by any means necessary?
If you’ve read through the reports that arise every 2-3 months, they’re genuinely not very convincing. Each story seems to point back to the same handful of “reports”, mostly made by a crackpot who hadn’t visited the region, testimonies from people that have changed, and constant “anonymous sources.” At this point, I can’t even get the exact story straight: is it a ‘cultural’ genocide so they “adapt” and live for the evil Han Chinese? Forced assimilation b/c ‘the evil CCP can’t stand non han culture’? Or is it a literal genocide where there are undoubtedly millions (?) of bodies that had been killed and then…hidden away from view but just never captured by any verifiable sources? Or is it mass imprisonment and surveillance for slave labor because somehow China needs more economic assistance despite that concept being anathema to a state that’s raised the living standards of hundreds of millions of people?
The US has pulled all these sleights of hand before, and we know the government will lie to achieve whatever goals it has. Whether it’s gathering witnesses to lie to congress, pretending there are WMDs present to destroy and control other countries, or simply to detract from domestic issues. All goals are in service of US supremacy.
1200 visitors from more than 100 countries between 2018-2020 didn’t find much. Perhaps the great US spy machine, one that is active domestically and abroad, has all the evidence to level the claims it wants and simply doesn’t want to share the information…but I’ve heard that before and when it came down to it the US did what it wanted, the human cost be damned. The US will fluster and bluster but as an organization they can only do so much in an official capacity without annoying their largest trade partner and so they rely on “independent” media to influence public opinion in the favor they find acceptable.
If you’d like, a group from Italy took a stab at deciphering the region. Italy itself was not one of the 23 signatories to the letter to the UN claiming some sort of genocide to be clear but it’s still an independent institute.
I’m open to convincing evidence—and the most convincing evidence I’ve got is that the US has a certified record in not giving a shit about things like human rights or the truth when they’re in the way of an objective, so when they US pretends to care about that it seems necessary to hold reservations.
https://eurispes.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/rapporto.en-xinjiang_2021.pdf
Here’s retired colonel Lawrence Wilkerson speaking about Xinjiang in 2018 at the Ron Paul InstituteIgnore the title of the video
I also acknowledge abuses can occur on an individual level, since no human-to-human interaction is without prior experiences and even prejudices. There’s a decent chance someone who is from Xinjiang or a surrounding province could come in with bias against a certain ethnic or religious group, especially after the deaths of dozens of people as recently as 2014 in rounds of terrorist attacks. Someone upset to this day about these events shouldn’t be able to work their way into law enforcement or official administration to settle a vendetta, but I don’t deny it’s possible.
u/Zenmasterben - originally from r/GenZhouThanks for the effort of the reply. I didn’t mention NPR and I’m not American though. I’m not going to follow yours links sorry, this is getting way too complicated and I can’t follow so I’m going to stick with my original opinions of not knowing what goes on there. Yeah some Uyghurs probably get beaten up by racists, but Western media is definitely sensationalist and a pretty fucked up machine that is capable of making all this shit up. Peace.
u/YallidaritySiempre - originally from r/GenZhouOh yeah that was supposed to be a comment on the original post whoops, my bad, should probably put my glasses on before posting.
Not to flame you as you’re obviously free to do as you please but keeping one’s self “above the fray” so to speak isn’t going to ‘decomplicate’ things, so I simply encourage you to revisit at a later time when you feel more up to it and wish you good tidings until then.