(Sorry in advance for the long post, I'm just frustrated)
My friend leans anarchist, but doesn't really read theory or history, he kinda just like punk music and reads/watches easily digestible leftist stuff online (twitter, tiktok, etc), and recently he's been on a kick of complaining about "tankies who apologize for and idolize authoritarian governments" as well as harping about how "tankies" don't believe the genocide in china is real. I tried to push back and say most people you'd label as tankies, including myself, probably just want to give a more fair and balanced view to leftist governments that exist/have existed, and credit their successes, rather than totally write them off, primarily based on capitalist propaganda. I also mentioned how the state department found no evidence of genocide in china, as well as the fact that most sources on it come from skewed studies and propaganda by right wing nuts like Adrian Zenz.
He referred me to this twitter thread that is supposedly proof of the Uyghur genocide by "non-western" and anti-capitalist sources. I'm bad at debunking stuff, so what do you all make of these articles? I'm just curious and skeptical of them, given that one, although an ML publication, is from India, who generally dislike China and look to discredit them, and others seem to base their arguments on dubious/non-specific Chinese government reports. Can anyone help? Also, how do I talk to my friend about learning to embrace the communist countries of the past and present that he thinks were/are failures, and show him that being an ML doesn't mean I'm like pro-genocide or anything.
I think it goes without saying that there are problematic aspects of the way China is handling separatism in Xinjiang. I also would be surprised to find out that there were highly problematic aspects of the politics of the separatists.
I think the question for your anarchist friend is should be ok, let’s assume China isn’t handling the situation perfectly, what praxis are you going to undertake in order to rectify this situation? If they can’t come up with anything that will be even remotely helpful to oppressed people in Xinjiang, which I can guarantee they won’t, maybe kindly suggest that they direct their attention to something that isn’t directly in line with imperialist foreign policy.
note: I posted this on your deleted version first
I don't know, I think Yugoslavia turned out great. NATO never ignites racial wars to further their neoliberal imperialists ends.