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by akfanta 2178 days ago
> China is a great place to be if you've got the right connections

This might be true for the majority of China, but for big cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, no, connections mean far less even comparing to western world.

> but no so great if you're gay, muslim, tibetan, or like to have opinions.

Do you get this from reading western media or did you actually go there and talk to those actual human beings? I can't speak for everywhere, but being an ethnic minority comes with tons of perks in China. For ethnic minorities, one child policy never applied to them, the kids get extra points during high school/university entrance exams, my Mongolian roommate even got extra financial support due to his ethnicity. People would fabricate document to gain minority status because that gives their kids an edge in almost everywhere. Growing up, as a Han Chinese, I always feel this is unfair and absurd.

As for religions, again I can't speak for Xinjiang itself, but from my experience in east coast, no one cares what religion you believe in. It's only an issue when you try to challenge the government with it. You can find mosque and churches in most cities.

And gay? Believe or not, I know it sounds absurd, but being gay is sort of a hip thing among the youngsters. The will obviously face repulsions from older generations, but this rings true all around the world. Bottom line is, the general public does not actively persecute the LGBT group, nor do they care.

The only thing that would bring you trouble is having an opinion against the government. I am not saying this is not a big issue, but stop pretending that the country is constantly oppressing everyone.

4 comments

I'm not saying you're wrong,but what was the deal with the lesbian author who was arrested for her books? There was this webcomic I read called 他们的故事 which is about a lesbian high school couple which has gone nowhere plot wise, and someone told me the reason why they stopped focusing on the romance part of the story is it was the author's reaction to the news about the erotic novel author getting arrested.
I am pretty sure she was arrested for selling/profiting exotic sex content. Agree with it or not, selling pornography is illegal in China. I think her sentence has more to do with explicit sex content itself rather than being lesbian/gay.

This is also a perfect example of media manipulation, is it not? Put on a sensational title to grab attention, but convenient ignore the fact that similar sentences were given out to people selling straight porn. While I don't agree this should be illegal but this is not a good example of prosecutions against the LGBT group.

Yep, from my understanding what you're saying is completely correct, and the treatment of those groups is something the CCP ought to be commended on. The differences are more things like the legal status of things like drugs and prostitution and pornography. Of course whether or not those things _should_ be legal is a matter of opinion, but they certainly are harder to defend.
Disclaimer: I'm someone in favour of all the things I mentioned being legal, but I imagine if you asked the average person on the street I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them disagreed with me.
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_cultural_ genocide which is a very different thing from genocide
It might be different but it's hardly a perk
There are some built-in biases favoring some of the minorities, but there is a reason for this: to avoid that those minorities protest and push back against the PRC/Han China which in the mind of many is still an occupying force. Contrary to Chinese propaganda/school teaching these areas were hisotircally never/rarely in the same realm as the han-dominated regions.

But stepping away from perceptions: being any kind of critic (say, someone warning of a new corona virus epidemic) or just being the wrong religion/ethnicity can mean your life will be hell in China. Look at the treatment of those giving first warnings from Wuhan - even the globally/publicly known critics have been disappeared; and there are many more that never reached this visibility and have the same happen to them.

More at scale: more than 1 Million Uyghurs are in what propaganda calls 'vocational training institutions', which translates to them being brought to and held against their will in reeducation camps. The stories coming out of there ate nightmarish. Assigned CPC representatives live in their homes to keep watch, and in cases where one or several parents in those camps the children were forcibly put into orphanages and the parents have no chance to find out where they are and even less chance to get them back.

Sorry but China is absolutely and 100% oppressing these people, just for existing and daring to be born in a specific ethnicity/religion.