I'm reading through the law itself rn, gonna read the UN reports next.
The law is pretty bad though. Like, implementation is always an open question but it gives the state authority to define "distortions of religion" and states a goal of making Islam "more Chinese" which is exactly what the critics have been worried about.
It also escalates vandalism to being extremism. Imo this law is similar to US "gang" enhancements. Take normal crimes and increase their severity when done by a certain ethnicity. Just like gang enhancements, it's in response to a real problem, but we already have strong critiques of these practices.
The context is that terror attacks have been happening, and they are not trying to make them "more chinese", they're giving them vocational training so they can speak chinese for example in workplaces.
They've also banned head coverings and calling anything besides food "haram" or "halal" and instructed every single cultural and political institution to curb "extremism" (incredibly broadly defined) using whatever tools they have. For the police and prisons, those will be violent and carceral tools.
Like, I believe you that they're offering vocational lessons but I've got questions like "are they arresting people for wearing burkahs?" These are real questions that can only be answered with field work that no independent scholars have done.
Like, we get so hung up on proving it's not a genocide we end up looking past the fact that it's still something we'd be fighting tooth and nail in our own countries.
Like, I believe you that they're offering vocational lessons but I've got questions like "are they arresting people for wearing burkahs?"
I'm not gonna suggest that this definitely isn't happening, because we don’t know, but what we do know is that if the west had anything that even looked like evidence for it, we would be having it shoved in our faces nonstop, like they tried to do for a while with those satellite images of high schools they claimed were extermination camps before walking it back a couple years ago.
Of course, that doesnt make the situation not bad. I think that broadly, the CPC's course of action is probably the least worst option for diffusing the homegrown-Afghanistan situation the US has been trying to stir up over there for a while, but acknowledge that their solution, like all policing/reeducation initiatives, creates power differentials that are ripe for abuse. Real damned if you do, damned if you don't situation, and I really hope they manage to thread that needle.
Sure, it's an insanely heavyhanded policy, and it's not really "good" in any way, but racial profiling and ethnic discrimination does not make it genocide, or even a cultural genocide as certain libs like to call it. I also don't really like the heavyhandedness that China uses, and wishes they had come up with something else, but I guess the logic was that the heavy hand was needed at first to create enough stability for the government to begin investing and doing development.
This is referring to Chinese national identity, not Han culture. China is a multicultural nation, which I'd have expected any principled leftist to know.
I'm reading through the law itself rn, gonna read the UN reports next.
The law is pretty bad though. Like, implementation is always an open question but it gives the state authority to define "distortions of religion" and states a goal of making Islam "more Chinese" which is exactly what the critics have been worried about.
It also escalates vandalism to being extremism. Imo this law is similar to US "gang" enhancements. Take normal crimes and increase their severity when done by a certain ethnicity. Just like gang enhancements, it's in response to a real problem, but we already have strong critiques of these practices.
The context is that terror attacks have been happening, and they are not trying to make them "more chinese", they're giving them vocational training so they can speak chinese for example in workplaces.
They've also banned head coverings and calling anything besides food "haram" or "halal" and instructed every single cultural and political institution to curb "extremism" (incredibly broadly defined) using whatever tools they have. For the police and prisons, those will be violent and carceral tools.
Like, I believe you that they're offering vocational lessons but I've got questions like "are they arresting people for wearing burkahs?" These are real questions that can only be answered with field work that no independent scholars have done.
Like, we get so hung up on proving it's not a genocide we end up looking past the fact that it's still something we'd be fighting tooth and nail in our own countries.
I share your concerns but just want to address:
I'm not gonna suggest that this definitely isn't happening, because we don’t know, but what we do know is that if the west had anything that even looked like evidence for it, we would be having it shoved in our faces nonstop, like they tried to do for a while with those satellite images of high schools they claimed were extermination camps before walking it back a couple years ago.
Of course, that doesnt make the situation not bad. I think that broadly, the CPC's course of action is probably the least worst option for diffusing the homegrown-Afghanistan situation the US has been trying to stir up over there for a while, but acknowledge that their solution, like all policing/reeducation initiatives, creates power differentials that are ripe for abuse. Real damned if you do, damned if you don't situation, and I really hope they manage to thread that needle.
Sure, it's an insanely heavyhanded policy, and it's not really "good" in any way, but racial profiling and ethnic discrimination does not make it genocide, or even a cultural genocide as certain libs like to call it. I also don't really like the heavyhandedness that China uses, and wishes they had come up with something else, but I guess the logic was that the heavy hand was needed at first to create enough stability for the government to begin investing and doing development.
"Every ethnic group shall study and follow the law; and build identification with the great motherland, the Chinese people, Chinese culture, the Communist Party of China, and socialism with Chinese characteristics"
This is referring to Chinese national identity, not Han culture. China is a multicultural nation, which I'd have expected any principled leftist to know.