I could go on and on about Adrian Zenz, his terrible methodologies; about terrorist groups trained by Isis and utilized by American for creating unrest in Xinjiang; stats about real population numbers in Xinjiang; about differences between American and Chinese anti-terror efforts regarding radical islamic terror groups; about infrastructure building in the area, investment by China; about the number of mosques per capita; about the preservation of regional identity that Xi is working towards; etc. Etc.
But, regardless, just saying that I don't believe that there is religious persecution in Xinjiang means, in their eyes, that I don't care about our Muslim brothers and sisters.
It's similar to talking about Hong Kong.
Libs use these places as tools to spread liberalism, so caring about the actual policies, people, and reality is a disadvantage to conversation.
How can I approach these subjects?
Yes, thank you for this. I certainly don't want my question to come across as asinine nor as simplistic as good/bad. I don't support the detention of anyone on a cultural basis, but I know that the situation in china is being drastically misrepresented in western media as part of an anti-china propaganda campaign.
It is a complex topic, and that is what I want to clarify with people i know - that it isn't China bad, it is a particular strategy that China has developed to deal with an issue that has the potential to destabilize the west of their country.
It's something no one is ever going to agree on 100% because of it's intricacies. It's become one of those things I just don't even try to bring up to liberal friends. I find HK protests easier to tackle than this. It's too many facets really.