As the Western world grows more intolerant and various nations continue to favor their preferred religions over others, I’ve become more critical of the Western claim of superior religious freedom. But inevitably, I get into it with liberal online who, having bad sources or none at all, claim that China is worse when it comes to religious freedom.

I don’t think it’s useful to defend everything a state does. They often make mistakes and use their violence in the wrong way. But I do think China in particular doesn’t have the same issues with religion as the Western countries do. Namely, they don’t allow one religion to dominate over others or set their laws on the basis of religious beliefs. To me, that’s an incredible step forward (I like in the USA, where women’s reproductive rights were just taken away in part on the grounds that the Bible (supposedly) says so).

But I’d like to be a little more educated. Finding any good resources on China these days is like trying to find anything on the internet before Google existed: you gotta just feel in the dark and hope you get lucky.

I cannot reason with the libs. They do not reason well. For example, pointing out the sheer lack of religious freedom that many face in Western countries does not phase them. They don’t care (usually they’re privileged to not).

So can somebody point me in the right direction? Even a book or paper on the topic would be great.

  • Hillock@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    I wouldn’t say China is dealing with refugees any better. Their biggest source of refugees are from North Korea. And guess what, North Koreans don’t seek asylum in China and rather continue illegally through to get to Mongolia or even down south to Laos, Thailand, etc. Because North Koreans captured in China are either returned to North Korea or sold into slavery. The later I wouldn’t attribute to the Chinese government.

    According to a quick Google China has around 1,200 refugees and 1,000 of that are North Korean awaiting deportation. So not only does China simply not get refugees, the few they get are usually treated in the worst manner. Being returned to a country where they will certainly be executed.

    There are few good government in this world. China isn’t the worst and indeed has been on an improving trajectory at least until recently. But their lack of bringing out tanks is mostly due to fear of intervention by the USA. Otherwise they would have brought them to Taiwan by now. In general they are following a rather aggressive strategy in the South East Asian Sea.

    That the USA isn’t exemplary when it comes to human rights is nothing new. What they did in the Middle East is also unexcusable.