Whatever you do, don't ever compare President Xi Jingping to Winnie the Pooh: <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-08/winnie-the-pooh-film-christopher-robin-banned-in-china/10088446" rel="nofollow">http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-08/winnie-the-pooh-film-c...</a><p>Don't even think about it.<p>There's definitely an uptick of Chinese gov't influence operations on Reddit, HN might be a bit under the radar but just in case...<p><a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2018/621875/EPRS_ATA(2018)621875_EN.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2018/62187...</a><p>If you're a connected young prince w/ a cushy party/govt job in China you're ballin' and life is goooood.<p>But if you're Joe-Shmoe you're kinda screwed, like with a most nightmare regimes it's the worker bees who get hit worst.
It's odd that China denies the existence of these things, because as of late, they usually do some logical jujitsu to validate their actions, whatever they are.<p>To deny something that exists, and if there is open evidence that it does exists, really has to hurt one's own credibility.<p>The treatment of Tibetans is no secret, the Chinese use the 'look how Americans treated Aboriginals in the 19th century' which is bizarre, but not worse than denial.<p>Saudi Arabia is in a spat over human rights with Canada right now trying to indicate that Canada is a 'human rights abuser' given the number of homeless there.<p>But to just 'deny deny deny' is bad in the era of the Internet.<p>My bet is that average Chinese people could be propagandized into the line on Tibet, but if they find that there are 1M people in camps, and their government has been denying it, well, it just kills any credibility the government may have.
I traveled around Xinjiang in 2010. I was in Urumqi during the one year anniversary of the 2009 Urumqi riots and there was some tensions. Armored and armed guard units were walking the streets, and the Uyghur people we talked with were very nervous. There was segregation at a business level there. The main strip for food was Uyghur on one side, Hon on the other. At the time, it seemed unsettling, but people were getting on with their lives.<p>Looking back on it, I realize I was part of a joined agenda. We stayed in a Military hotel, and had a driver/escort who was special forces. We had to get permission to do the things we did. We wanted to stay with a Kazakh family, but were denied and told that we could stay with another Kazakh family. It was all pretty wild, and my friend kept in touch with a Uyghur we met, and she desperately wanted out of Xinjiang... and was essentially living in fear.<p>I didn't hear about camps then, but I wouldn't put it past the government.
China has detained over three million people in an even bigger area called Tibet.<p>A few years ago there was video of people; men, women and children desperately trying to escape over a mountain into Nepal. Long lines of people on snow mountain peaks. Chinese military snipers picked them off one by one.
Is there any other news that provides more details about who is being selected to be in these camps?<p>Are these criminals that have broken some law and are in prison?<p>I know 1 million seems like a huge number, but to put things in perspective, the there are over 2 million African Americans in "camps."<p>I understand there is a huge difference and I'm not saying they are remotely the same. I've just been more careful in recent years because these same news organizations seem to downplay terrorist attacks in China [1].<p>1. <a href="https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-same-act-in-Kunming-called-a-knife-attack-but-in-London-a-terror-attack-by-the-BBC-What-is-the-reason-for-the-calls-of-knife-wielding-versus-terrorism-by-CNN" rel="nofollow">https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-same-act-in-Kunming-called-...</a>
I don't know if this is really HN fodder or not, but I noticed it immediately after the announcement that Google is now moving into China and complying with everything.
Horrific to think this is an up and coming super power. What kind of standards does this set on a international scale? What kind of example does this send to surrounding nations?<p>I get the US is not exactly the best leader in human rights, but the transgressions of another is a tu quoque logical fallacy.<p>I wonder at what point do we sanction them on human rights concerns, if that is even possible at this point. If it's not physical genocide, at the minimum it's cultural genocide.
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17734840" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17734840</a><p>In addition, you rewrote the title to make it more sensational and tendentious. Editorializing like that breaks the site guidelines. Please don't.<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html</a>
I'm happy to see more headlines about this, because this doesn't seem to be getting the attention it deserves.<p>Here is one account from a camp:<p>> “Xi Jinping is great! The Communist Party is great! I deserve punishment for not understanding that only President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party can help me,” was one of the refrains that a Uyghur woman who was in a centre last fall, was forced to regularly repeat.<p>> The woman, whose name is not being used by The Globe and Mail for her protection, was put through regular self-criticism sessions. Part of the content was cultural. “My soul is infected with serious diseases,” she would repeat. “There is no God. I don’t believe in God. I believe in the Communist Party.”<p>> Other content was more explicitly political. Day after day she would say out loud that she was a traitor, a separatist and a terrorist.<p><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-former-detainees-recount-abuse-in-chinese-re-education-centres/" rel="nofollow">https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-former-detaine...</a><p>This story was published yesterday:<p>> She was one of the most revered academics from the Uighur ethnic minority in far western China. She had written extensively and lectured across China and the world to explain and celebrate Uighurs’ varied traditions. Her research was funded by Chinese government ministries and praised by other scholars.<p>> Then she disappeared.<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/world/asia/china-xinjiang-rahile-dawut.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/world/asia/china-xinjiang...</a>
The interesting thing about whole this Chinese persecution of Muslims is the complete silence from their Islamic friends such as Pakistan and Saudi. I would expect America's friend Saudi to be very vocal critic of China's actions. But so far everyone has been silent.
I hope that I see for once before I die a single report by BBC of what Muslims from Indonesia to Mali are doing with minorities, gays, even other Muslims from different sects other than Sunnis. I hope that BBC does a single report about the extremist Muslim neighborhoods in the UK and other European countries. I hope that I can express my opinions in this website without getting massively downvoted within seconds.
Characteristically, when videos of muslims cutting christian and "wrong type" of muslim heads are openly circulating internet, UN shows no slightest concern.