I genuinely went to read this in good faith since it's The Intercept (I know it's not great, but it's not CNN) but decided to do a quick text search for Zenz just to make sure. And of course, the whole fucking thing is full of Zenz.

This is just ridiculous at this point. I really don't want to be a genocide-denier if there is actually one happening, but for fuck's sake this is just ridiculous, LET ME SEE ONE REPORT ON THIS WITHOUT ZENZ ALL OVER IT.

      • englesintheoutfield [they/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        but... are they all terrorists? who's definition of terrorism are we relying on? what process do they have to argue they're not terrorists?

        • richietozier4 [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          well, its more going after people in poor material conditions to help them learn how to integrate, get a job, while still allowing to practice their culture. By keeping them out of poor material conditions, they prevent terrorism

          • TheOldRazzleDazzle [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            2-3 years in detention and intentionally reducing practice of Islam as a key goal is not allowing people to practice their culture.

            It is a shitty situation that didn't start with the CCP--it starts with the Qing genociding an entire Buddhist ethnic group and then promoting Han settler colonialism in the area ~250 years ago--but CCP has a bad track record of figuring out how to productively engage with non-assimilated ethnic minorities, and this is a continuation of that.

              • space_comrade [he/him]
                ·
                edit-2
                4 years ago

                This one was always weird to me, what's the big deal regarding the name? Why is it a big deal for either side how they refer to the party?

                Not trolling just geniunely curious since I've seen people react like you did occasionally.

                  • TheOldRazzleDazzle [he/him]
                    ·
                    4 years ago

                    Meh, 中国共产党 is literally Chinese Communist Party. If you want to be really precise you can start the movement to call them the GCD, short for Gongchangdong, or Communist Party :xi-lib-tears:

                      • TheOldRazzleDazzle [he/him]
                        ·
                        4 years ago

                        Fair enough. My area is literature before WWII, so I've probably spent more time worrying about whether to call the nationalist party GMD to be accurate or KMT to be in sync with historical nomenclature than all the times I've typed CPC or CCP combined.

            • grisbajskulor [he/him]
              ·
              4 years ago

              I imagine it's also somewhat analogous to Cuba, where despite the economic revolution, remnants of anti-black racism is still prevalent. Much better than before, of course, but still there. (As I understand it)

              • TheOldRazzleDazzle [he/him]
                ·
                edit-2
                4 years ago

                China is a technocratic country that leads the world on scientific innovation. Which is great, but it leads to a lot of trickle down soft (or with the Uyghurs, often kind of blatant) bigotry towards disenfranchised minorities who seem "backward," religiously "superstitious," or otherwise unassimilated into modern society.

                Would you say the situation in Cuba a bit like Brazil, where there's not exactly racism the way there is in the US, but still lots of colorism and classism tied to white European privilege?

                • grisbajskulor [he/him]
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  Just to be clear, I am completely uninformed on this point. I'm pretty much just repeating some bits of info I heard on Revleft radio.

                  My general sense is that racism is not stamped out by socialism. It is a cultural issue that is very distinct from economic issues (and to claim otherwise IMO would be one of the few times 'class reductionist' actually makes sense). That said, socialism is its best antidote. Racism is supported by capitalism, black people in America are by and large still suffering from generational cyclical poverty and discrimination by society & the state, which we materialists understand is exactly what leads to crime. When class lines are blurred or wiped out completely I believe racism will slowly die out or diminish. That general idea is all I could really apply to Brazil.

          • keki_ya [none/use name]
            ·
            edit-2
            4 years ago

            I personally don’t agree with China’s approach, but how exactly are you supposed to get a bunch of 22-year old men to learn marketable skills without forcefully enrolling them in jobs programs? If you do nothing, many won’t enroll and will get left behind only speaking one language, and Xinjiang will stay poor. If you force them to learn Chinese and stay overnight at schools/camps, well then you’re putting people there against their will, potentially erasing their culture and violating them. Seems like a difficult situation

            • CatherineTheSoSo [any]
              ·
              edit-2
              4 years ago

              This sounds so strange to me. People all around the world including in socialist and religious countries pay good money and/or study to get education. What's wrong with those people that they have to be physically forced to get marketable skills? That just sounds like a failure to use available economic levers.

                • CatherineTheSoSo [any]
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  I dunno. My rural relatives here in Russia have all the opportunities to engage in subsistence farming. Their parents and grandparents have been doing it their whole lives and have plenty to teach about farming. They've inherited more than enough land and it's hilariously cheap to buy. The healthcare and education are free. Yet they jumped at opportunity to do shitty physically demanding jobs that pay like $200 a month instead of farming potatoes without using any machinery as my grandparents used to do just twenty years ago.

                • kegel_dialectic [he/him]
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  4 years ago

                  Yeah I hear sustenance farming was great for the elderly and disabled. Do they deserve commodities? Workers have to produce surplus if society cares about non-workers.

          • TheOldRazzleDazzle [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            The leaked records in the article work out to 10% of all children in the region cited having one or more parent in detention.

              • TheOldRazzleDazzle [he/him]
                ·
                4 years ago

                This is a long article and I read bits and pieces, but did they say anywhere that they got the document from Zenz? Seems like they aren't afraid to align themselves with him, so why not put that right at the top? Either way, 50+ gigabytes of government records isn't an easy thing to fake, and presumably they have their own staff members employed to at least spot check the translations.

                It is kind of odd that they didn't post the Chinese originals along with the English translations, I will certainly give you that.