Thanks for writing this out. I definitely need to watch that video to reckon with "both sides" instead of just constant western propaganda.

But let's say that what the situation amounts to is just purely re-education and de-radicalization of Uyghur people, I think there's massive problems there too. Here in the US I've been involved in movements against the rampant profiling that our police department does. As this is despite (as much as the statistics get skewed) the fact that non-white people are in fact responsible for more crime than white people, and that gang violence is genuinely a huge problem. People understandably long for solutions, and the only solution presented is either more tough-on-crime rhetoric, or a "soft-on-crime" rhetoric. But I understand that the issue is far more complicated than just locking up the bad people, that we need to address people's material circumstances. Lasting poverty inevitably leads to crime, therefore it's both incredibly unjust and unpractical to lock up people who are "more likely to be criminals," so to speak. This makes me very hesitant when I hear about a lot of the surveillance programs which is admitted by Chinese media (forgive me if I'm misremembering on this point).

I do also understand though, you have to do SOMETHING to deal with terrorism. A re-education program for US neo-nazis for example sounds like a pretty merciful deal. From a 'hand of god' perspective this is obviously preferable to a war if it does indeed solve the problem.

Feel free to call me a lib or a pathologically western leftist, that's fair - but I'm not confident enough to come out in support of what likely amounts to cultural genocide. Very possible this is the propaganda speaking. I'm still reading and learning.