To the folks on the left who (I guess) think that because Trump administration is sanctioning officials in Xinjiang and listing companies conected to the genocide, the reports of genocide must be bullshit, I say
Use your head. Read around. There are lots of detailed sources reporting with many different types of evidence, transparently cited. Many many separate media reporting this independently. Don’t believe faux-lefty sites with dubious relationships to authoritarian states.
And sad as this may be to accept, both CCP and Trump admin are deplorable. I hate Trump with a passion, but there are folks in his admin who legit care about the Uyghurs and use his desperate China bashing to implement US policies that might have some impact on the situation.
May the new left live 10,000 years. But don’t be naive. You if anyone can detect bullshit. Alas, it’s all around, not just from Trump. Don’t deny CCP atrocities just cuz Pompeo and co happens to call them out for their own shitty reasons. A broken clock is right 2x / day
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This news that Uyghur folklorist Rahile Dawut was given a life sentence reders absolutely ridiculous any PRC claim that its oppression in the Uyghur region is about terrorism, job creation or poverty. (a thread) duihua.org/life-sentence-…
@nytimes wrote about her before, so should do a follow-up now. Prof. Dawut had a job teaching and researching. She didn't need vocational training. She studied Uyghur folklore, oral literature, some aspects of religion, and did so for many years at Xinjiang's main university.
Rahile Dawut didn't change. The Chinese Communist Party's policy towards non-Han culture changed, and under Xi Jinping decided that Uyghur (and other) non-Chinese culture cannot be tolerated and must be assimilated.
Some thoughts for how to try to think about and report the story of the 11-24 Urumchi fire and wave of protests across PRC opposing zero-Covid policies (a thread).
1. Obviously try to find out what happened (how many dead? were doors and gates sealed? Could people exit freely as Urumchi officials said? Who were the victims? What ethnicity?
Obviously, this will be hard to confirm definitively, since officials will attempt to enforce their version, and it's hard to report from Xinjiang.
We should see the GOP bandwagoning on the complaint by a former employee of @thechinaproj as part of a broader shift, or lurch, in US politics to a point where even to suggest having anything to do with China ("engagement") or PRC people is now considered suspicious (thread)
We've seen this in FBI ethnicity-profiled investigations of Chinese academics under "China initiative." We've seen this in Trump's nearly cancelling student visas for ALL Chinese students. We see it in the Biden admin continuing $billions of Trump tariffs that add to inflation.
We see this in the fact that Chinese students in STEM fields now have problems getting visas to study in US (though that's US cutting off nose to spite face). We see it in anti-Asian hate crime.
Rubio and GOP Rep Chris Smith have decided to go after The China Project (Sinica, SUP China). They say it’s a foreign agent, like Global Times.
Here’s what Global Times says about Darren Byler, who’s work has done so much to explain and call out the atrocities in the Uyghur Region:
And here’s how Sup China project treats Darren Byler : they print his invaluable series of exposés and deep explainers of oppression of Uyghurs: thechinaproject.com/author/darrenb…
Why do I post that pears labeled “Xinjiang pears” are on US supermarket shelves? I have nothing against XJ’s delicious fruits (thread)
But, first, the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act makes it a “rebutable presumption” that ANY product mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in Xinjiang, could be made with forced labor. Importers have to make the case that it is not.
But PRC does not allow 3rd party auditing firms to operate in XJ and / or given recent and current conditions in XJ, auditors decide they cannot certify supply chains free of forced labor.
Stories portray defeat of resolution to debate UNHCHR report about crimes against humanity as contest of China vs. the West. This gets it very wrong. (thread) reuters.com/world/china/un…
Sure, democracies (not just US) have been pushing the point that throwing 1-2 million people in concentration camps, separating families, banning language, etc. are crimes against humanity. UN report agrees. But casting this as geopolitical contest severely misses the point.
It is sad that so many post-colonial countries (Pakistan, Indonesia, Bolivia, Cameroon, Cuba, Eritrea, Gabon, Namibia, Nepal, Senegal, Sudan, etc.) voted no or, like India and Mexico, abstained on the resolution to debate what's been happening in Xinjiang.