[ashwagary]

The Uyghurs being targeted for deradicalization are Wahhabist (an offshoot of Salafism) that have a lot in common with, and in many cases directly trained by, Al Qaeda.

Granted, the net may be slightly larger than it needs to be due to China's high population density and the resulting fact that terroristic acts have a high human cost... but it's nowhere near the scale of our (US) net across Afghanistan, Syria, and Pakistan.

The vast majority of muslim communities in China have nothing to do with this kind of extremist ideology, don't commit acts of mass terror, and are not part of these deradicalization programs.

[seanmcdirmid]

The net worth a cast really broadly, and a Uighur doesn't have to be a Wahhabist to be labeled as needing re-education through labor, just expressing dissent is good enough. China has already done this with the rest of its population, even many Han were subject to these camps. The party has a lot of practice here and is only doing what it knows.

[ashwagary]

>many Han were subject to these camps.

Any source you can provide for this claim?

I've only seen evidence of these programs in certain Western parts of the country, mainly Xinjiang.

[seanmcdirmid]

I'm sure you are aware of that entire cultural revolution thing? Just read up on laogao and laojiao. They never really went away, they just moved the camps from east China to west.

[ashwagary]

>Just read up on laogao and laojiao.

According to the Wikipedia description, they sound like US prisons. Prisoners in the US can spend years in solitary confinement (like Kalief Browder from NYC, an unconvicted minor), are forced to work for pennies an hour (same as UNICOR and other such US orgs), and the amount of violent deaths of inmates within the US prison system that generally have little to no followup investigations are alarmingly large from my understanding.

>The United States Department of State called the conditions in prisons "harsh and frequently degrading," and said the conditions in re-education through labor facilities were similar, citing overcrowded living spaces, low-quality food, and poor or absent medical care.Detainees in camps are required to work for little or no pay; while Chinese law requires that prison laborers' workday be limited to 12 hours a day. In 2001, sociologist Dean Rojek estimated that detainees generally worked six days a week, "in total silence." Much of the labor done by re-education through labor detainees is geared towards agriculture or producing goods, many of which are sold internationally, since re-education through labor detainees are not counted as official "prisoners" and therefore not subject to international treaties. They also perform work ranging "from tending vegetables and emptying septic pits to cutting stone blocks and construction work."

>Although drug abusers are ostensibly placed in re-education through labor to be treated for their addictions, some testimonial evidence has suggested that little "meaningful treatment" takes place in at least some of the centers, and that drug abusers often relapse into addiction upon their release from detention.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-education_through_labor#Con...

[seanmcdirmid]

Chinese prisons are completely separate things. These are more like concentration camps for people who aren't branded exactly as criminals but somehow need re-education through labor or indoctrination.

I have no idea why you are comparing them to US prisons. Chinese prisons compare to US prisons, and both are inhumane.