The most upsetting thing to me is that the American brain refuses to accept China as a real place where real people live that you can go to. You can visit Xinjiang. It's not locked down or anything. I've been to Kashgar before and it's lovely. But everyone talks in these weird theoreticals about a place they act like they can't go to or talk to people in. A lot of Uyghur people have trouble speaking Mandarin, but are very nice regardless. Islam is practised openly and vibrantly in beautiful mosques, and the internet is full of new Eid videos at the moment. This takes seconds to verify, yet is talked about in mystical terms.