So I know there's no "genocide" going on, and that the facilities are there to mitigate the real threat of terrorism in China, and basically every claim Western news makes about it is some Grade-A bullshit, but...

How many people are in these facilities at a given time? My BF claims it's gotta be at least 5% and that seems hella high to me. But if I google, all I get is Zenz bullshit, or people discrediting Zenz bullshit, but no real information about how many people are actually going through the reeducation/vocational training that China is doing. Does anyone have any good sources? Particularly for someone who is critical of Western news but considers Al Jazeera and AP as the pinnacle of journalistic credibility?

It's easy to discredit bullshit, but he's really caught up on knowing the real numbers here and "all your sources are straight-up lies" isn't gonna fly here if I don't have a counter-offer.

    • Nagarjuna [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      once it’s established that the goal is purely to diminish risk of terrorist activity rather than some sort of war on Uighur culture or people,

      I mean, we know it's the latter but could well be the former. The US war on terror was a real attempt to prevent terror attacks, but it was also an attack on Muslims and Arab Americans.

      I guess I just think about how important it was to claim to be Han throughout Chinese history, in order to access a lot of privileges, and that kind of racism doesn't just... go away, it's got to be actively combated, and in a situation where Uyghurs are being encouraged to learn Mandarin and assimilate into Han Chinese culture, that doesn't seem to be the case.