Thread by @paul_scharre

Just got back from China.

The mass detention of Uighurs in Xinjiang is like some big awful secret that no one dares mention.

The censorship is so effective that many Chinese are genuinely unaware. One grad student insisted to me it couldn’t be true, that the government couldn’t hide such an enormous thing. But they are.

Others know. A professor whispers to me, “I don’t agree with what’s happening in Xinjiang,” but only in a crowded room where no one can hear. He can’t speak it out loud, and I don’t blame him.

Others don’t know the full extent of what’s occurring. They’re aware of checkpoints being set up as anti-terrorism measures, but not the fact that the government has imprisoned over 1 million people and is systematically working to eradicate an entire culture.

The world’s silence on Xinjiang is deafening.

It’s bad enough that a gallery of rogues like Saudi Arabia, Syria, North Korea, and Pakistan signed an open letter expressing support for China’s actions in Xinjiang. reuters.com/article/us-chi…

Europe doesn’t fare that much better. Too many countries are willing to keep quiet to keep the money flowing.

https://twitter.com/georgetoparis/status/1149127760960528384

And then there’s this: washingtonpost.com/opinions/makin…

The open letter hit just before I arrived, and Chinese officials were happy to use the letter to argue that all of the problems in the US-China relationship were America’s fault.

I’m glad we’re having a robust debate on US policy towards China because things need to change. What we’re doing isn’t working. And I welcome a diversity of views. There are a lot of complexities to the US-China relationship and the nations are deeply entangled in many ways.

But nowhere in a 900+ word letter was there room to mention “Xinjiang” or “Uighurs”? What’s the rationale for the omission? That it doesn’t matter? They don’t want to anger China? They want to turn a blind eye from what is occurring?

Is the concern that mentioning the fact that the CCP has imprisoned 1 million Uighurs and is systematically working to eliminate an entire culture might undercut their argument for closer engagement with a nation committing horrific human rights abuses?

It isn’t complicated. Just speak the truth.

The CCP’s lies work because too few are willing to speak up and name what is happening. I was just at the World Peace Forum on a panel on, of all things, ethical principles for artificial intelligence. While China is using AI to surveil & repress its own citizens.

You know what? Not a single person at the World Peace Forum mentioned what’s happening in Xinjiang. Not one.

Meanwhile, China uses foreigners’ presence, including experts from major U.S. universities and think tanks, to give itself legitimacy. I say to my friends in the U.S. foreign policy community: stop. Stop giving legitimacy to the CCP’s abuses with your silence.

Not everyone is silent. As always, the incomparable @EBKania raised the abuses in Xinjiang with Chinese counterparts at every reasonable opportunity. The conference organizers knew enough not to give her a speaking role.

And that’s why it works. Because there are costs to speaking out. Maybe you lose access. Your next visa is denied. Money stops flowing to your university or think tank.

Or worse. The Chinese government has escalated harassment of visiting Americans, sometimes questioning them or even preventing them from leaving the country. nytimes.com/2019/07/11/bus…

The US-China relationship is changing and I welcome a robust debate on where it goes next, but we need to start first with the truth about the CCP’s behavior at home and abroad:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…

For more on Chinese censorship, see: nytimes.com/2019/07/12/wor…

On the 1 million Uighurs detained camps in Xinjiang:
amnesty.org/en/latest/news…

On the role of AI in enabling government surveillance and repression in China, see: hrw.org/report/2019/05…