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?

  • OgdenTO [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    Yes, thanks. I didn't want this question to seem dumb, but as a dumb person it's inevitable.

    Essentially what I'm trying to say is that America's method of dealing with what they would characterize as radical islamic terror groups, such as al qaeda and Isis, is war and indefinite detention. War in Iraq, war in Syria, establishing black detention sites such as Guantanamo Bay and detaining indefinitely (with no trials) Muslim people who they suspect are involved.

    Additionally, there are reports from American government agencies, detailing the strategy and opportunity to amplify the discontent of the Uighur populations along the Chinese border, and providing encouragement to carry out violent terror attacks in Xinjiang. This has been occurring for a while there, which is the basis of why the Chinese education program started.

    As a contrast with what I see is happening in Xinjiang, which is to counter the terror attacks, by detaining and providing education in how to assimilate or understand Chinese language and culture, in order to reduce violence.

    It is still problematic. Detention by ethnicity, without charges, but it appears that detention is not indefinite, and there aren't all out wars killing millions.

    It is a gray area, for sure, and I don't claim to understand the root causes of the violence in the region. Maybe this is something that I can get a good source on and learn. Maybe my whole view is wrong and bad.

    I'm here to learn.

    • Sidereal223 [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      I'm not the person you're replying to. I can completely empathise with you about how grating it is that people keep recycling the same old talking points about organ harvesting, Nazi comparisons etc. I'm an Australian-born Chinese and here in Australia, the atmosphere this propaganda creates, we pretty much have straight up McCarthyism (just today, an Australian-born Chinese academic was told to denounce the CPC during a Senate inquiry). In my experience, people who are liberal types are just straight up not worth the type to engage with in this topic. They don't understand the sort of intellectual vanguardism of US think tanks etc and have way too much trust in US institutions. The best you can do is to probably sow doubt into the obviously messed up characters like Zenz.

      In terms of sources, I have found good articles written in the Made in China journal. In Australia, there is a historian of Xinjiang, China, and the Soviet Union, by the name of David Brophy whose opinions I really respect. He has emphasised repeatedly the importance of recognising the human rights violations in Xinjiang without lending support to cold warriors like Zenz or the ASPI and the US sanctions regime.