A Week in Xinjiang’s Absolute Surveillance State
palladiummag.com
A team of Palladium correspondents spent a week in Xinjiang. They saw how the Chinese state uses Uyghur manpower and high-tech Maoism to suppress Islam and extremism.

It looks pretty interesting. Author's obviously not a communist, but this appears to be a fairly neutral look at what Xinjiang's like for the average person

  • Bloodshot [he/him,any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I would guess that what's said in here is accurate. And living under that kind of police presence and surveillance fucking sucks. Like if every time you walked outside it was a TSA checkpoint everywhere.

    What is interesting is the extent to which it isn't racialised. In the United States, the FBI fabricates "Islamic Extremism" by coercing young, vulnerable brown people; armed cops target non-whites. It is similar in England, which has ever increasing surveillance.

    The article really made me liken the cops there to TSA agents here, rather than U.S. cops. Not violent, not provoking shit, just "doing their job", and everywhere.

    This can only be the result of numerous policy failures in response to a pile of contradictions.

  • skeletorlaugh [he/him,any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I have nothing to add other than I've had those raisins, and they're damn good raisins.

  • kristina [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    theres a supermajority opinion in china that surveillance is good so its kinda unlikely that itll change

    and tbf, the west has a massive surveillance state too that is largely decentralized. anyone can legally whip out their camera and film you in public. if you get robbed you can go to a nearby business and see if they have a tape of it. anyone can crawl websites and build databases on people. its just in china, a lot of it is a national investment rather than an individual one.

  • Doc14 [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I read this article when it first came out, I think Xinjiang is still under lockdown.