| So, I'm not making a value judgement of what's going on but I always cringe when I see complicated geopolitical actions being reduced to one line talking points on HN. Of course it is actually much more nuanced in reality. These observations about imprisoning minorities always fail to include information about past terrorist attacks and militant activity in the region. Most of the people in the reeducation centers were sent there for things such as spreading Islamic propaganda glorifying suicide bombings.The reality of the situation is more nuanced than the depiction by western media.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_China In December 2016 in Xinjiang, Islamic militants drove a vehicle into a yard at the county Communist party offices and set off a bomb but were all shot dead. Three people were wounded and one other died. In July 2011, At least 18 people died in a series of alleged terrorist attacks in the city of Kashgar. According to state-run media accounts, the violence began when two Uyghur men hijacked a truck, ran it into a crowded street, and started stabbing people, killing six. The attack ended when the assailants were overpowered by the crowd, which killed one attacker. On the second day, state media reported that a "group of armed terrorists" stormed a restaurant, killed the owner and a waiter, and set it ablaze. They then proceeded to indiscriminately kill four more civilians. Armed clashes then reportedly ensured, ending with police capturing or killing the attackers. The Turkistan Islamic Party later claimed responsibility for the attack. One of the suspects appeared in a TIP video training in Pakistan. In March 2015 in Guangzhou, three ethnic Uyghur assailants with long knives attacked civilians at Guangzhou train station, 13 injured. In November 2014 in Xinjian, militants with knives and explosives attacked civilians, 15 dead and 14 injured. 14 of the 15 deaths were attackers In May 2014 in Ürümqi, Xinjiang, Two sport utility vehicles (SUVs) carrying five assailants were driven into a busy street market in Ürümqi. Up to a dozen explosives were thrown at shoppers from the windows of the SUVs. The SUVs crashed into shoppers then collided with each other and exploded. 43 people were killed, including 4 of the assailants, and more than 90 wounded. There are many more. Again, I'm not making of value judgement here but I think everyone should think critically and really understand what's going on from multiple points of view. |
(1) The area is not inherently Chinese. China does not need to occupy Xinjiang. It has belonged to other people at other points. (See texts on the Islamic conquest.)
(2) China has encouraged mass Han immigration to Xinjiang. The Han who moved were not moving because of hunger or thirst. They moved because the state provided incentives to do so.
(3) Radicalisation is largely driven by ideologies that the CCP helped to support in the first place, when sowing chaos in Afghanistan without deciding what to do next. Of course it did not do so alone—the Americans and Pakistanis were also involved. But it at least props up Pakistan who continue to empower the Taliban.
(4) The Chinese state is very violent—and more violent than most other states.
Ergo it is misleading to suggest that the Uighurs are being particularly violent, and to imply that they are simply being violent for the sake of it. China could try a number of things, including getting out, reducing violence against Uighurs, and ceasing to incentivise Han migration.