this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023

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180

After years of brutal repression, China's Communist Party tries to turn Xinjiang into a tourism hotspot (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 1 year ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/world@lemmy.world

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[–] Nugelz@programming.dev 27 points 1 year ago (3 children)

My father visited western China in the early 90s, it was an absolute mission to get that far west back then. And it was a real back water. Very poor but he loved it, he absolutely loved it said the people and the food was amazing.

[–] luthis@lemmy.nz 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's the general sentiment I've seen a lot. China was really going places and dramatically improving until Xi turned up

[–] Anonbal185@aussie.zone 3 points 1 year ago

It's the system that is the issue. Without checks and balances if it wasn't Xi it would just be another guy with a different name.

I believe Deng Xiaoping had two successors lined up last being Hi Jintao, so a dictator was always going to seize power when xi came on.

So you can replace until Xi showed up with until anyone showed up that term.

[–] boredtortoise@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

Sounds like a wonderful trip. Hopefully there will be emancipation during our lifetimes

[–] Pussydogger@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You father must be hungry to appreciate the "famine" food.

[–] Nugelz@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago

He said the food in China was awful back then in general so it wasn't hard to beat.

[–] sadreality@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago

Mass tourism dilutes locals in any city or region

But I am sure that ain't what the goal here is...

Xipooh wouldn't so that to the undiserable ethnic "residents"

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 7 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

On the streets of historic Kashgar, a desert oasis in Western China known as the cradle of Uyghur culture, a brand new "Ancient City" is in the midst of a tourist boom.

For several years, the region of Xinjiang has been shut off from most of the world's media, amid a highly secretive government campaign to stamp out extremism amongst the Uyghur population and other Muslim minorities.

When a knife and explosive attack on Urumqi train station overshadowed President Xi Jinping's trip to the province in 2014, he ordered officials to "strike hard" against terrorism.

Since then, a chorus of academics, researchers, journalists and legal scholars have meticulously documented widespread abuses at the hands of the government, including mass internment camps, forced labour and birth prevention policies.

Describing such claims as "absurd", Peter Irwin said the UHRP has documented the destruction of thousands of mosques and upwards of 1,500 cases of Uyghur Imams and other religious figures who have been detained or disappeared.

The Chinese Communist Party's big tourism push for Xinjiang is another blow to members of the Uyghur community around the world who have been unable to speak to their families back home, let alone visit them.

The original article contains 1,528 words, the summary contains 197 words. Saved 87%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] khannie@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

That's some gumption.

[+] Filthmontane@lemmy.world -46 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Just ignore the existence of terrorist group that keeps stabbing citizens and setting off bombs. Pretend that Xinjiang is not an automous zone with its own governance. Condemn China for using prison labor even though the US has the largest prison labor population in the world. Get mad because the belt and road initiative is improving a region cut off from resources for so long. Brain broken Western media.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 40 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Condemn China for using prison labor even though the US has the largest prison labor population in the world.

TIL two wrongs make a right.

[–] DessertStorms@kbin.social 28 points 1 year ago

Condemn China for using prison labor even though the US has the largest prison labor population in the world

You genocide deniers are the only ones who think this is an either-or situation.

Most people who are even just inclined to the left condemn both, as should you, but you clearly don't give a shit about defending oppressed people, unless you can use them as a debate tool to help you lick other oppressor boot.

So despite what you like to tell yourself, you have no moral high ground to be judging others from, genocide denying bootlicker.

[–] Holyginz@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

More whataboutism from yet another whiny ignorant tankie. Cry more

[+] Filthmontane@lemmy.world -11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not whataboutism, ya dingus. Prison labor is simply a common part of most countries. I'm simply stating that there's no difference between "work camps" and "prison labor." There's also no difference between "reeducation" and "rehabilitation" or "forced labor" and "prison labor programs."

[–] tomatopathe@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The only response dumb tankies like you deserve is that if you say anything bad about Winnie in China, you'll get literally disappeared, tortured, "reprogrammed" or killed.

On the other hand I can say Biden is garbage, Trudeau is a fanny and Sunak is a cockwomble. Nothing bad happens to me, see?

You are an idiot if you're batting for imperialist authoritarians.

[–] Filthmontane@lemmy.world -5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

People protest in China all the time. They talk shit about the government too. This notion of "freedom" you have is a veil of capitalist propaganda intended to keep you working until you die. Don't worry, I'm firmly opposed to the biggest authoritarian nation in the world, the United States.

[–] bizzle@midwest.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do it then 👀👀

[–] Filthmontane@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

Do what? Talk shit about the Chinese government? Okay. Xi Jinping is getting lost in this ongoing propaganda war with America. His dumb ass is fueling the fire instead of just ignoring the constant poking and prodding. If China just keeps up with the belt and road they'll win the economic war with the West. But if they keep bickering over Taiwan and maritime borders in the South China Sea, they're gonna crumble like the USSR.

[–] MindSkipperBro12@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

So, are these “Western media” in the room with us right now?

[–] Peaty@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like you are pretending that imprisoning a substantial portion of an ethnic group isn't just racist genocide?

[+] Filthmontane@lemmy.world -12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The "ethnic group" in question are arrested because they're associated with Turkistan Movement. A terrorist organization that believes Xinjiang belongs to Turkistan. While members of this terrorist organization are Uygher Muslims, they also attack Uygher Muslims and are arrested by Xinjiang police, which employ Uygher Muslims. Half of the region is Uygher and they're trying to handle a terrorist situation.

[–] Peaty@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's a percentage of the total population. That's genocide not justice. When the state rounds up roughly 10% of a population it isn't confronting terrorism it's being imperialistic.

The fact that Turkic people don't want to be part of a Chinese state shouldn't be a surprise given China's imperialistic tendencies.

[–] Filthmontane@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If 10% of the population wants to leave and 90% wants to stay, how is that imperialism? The Taliban are a small portion of the population, so they deserve to control everyone else in the country? Listen to your own logic.

Your logic is also based on a dumb idea. There's 683 prisons in China, 380 of them are in Xinjiang. If over half of the prisons in all of China are in Xinjiang, then it's really obvious that there's going to be a large prison population in Xinjiang.

In the US there's 1,677 prisons and 1.2 million inmates. The state with the most prisons is Texas with 313. China has 1.7 million inmates and more than half of them are in a region twice the size of Texas and roughly the same population. So if a country with 1.4 billion people keeps 55% the 1.7 million inmates they have in one single region with 25 million people, it stands to reason that a large portion of that regions population will be prisoners. The US just spreads out its prison population more as it doesn't have a giant desert to put them all in.

[–] Peaty@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

10% didn't want to leave that's the number the Chinese rounded up into concentration camps to "reeducate" aka torture them.

The fact is China has so many prisons there because they have a lot of Uighur in concentration camps. That's the issue we are discussing not the non-Uighur Chinese prisoners that are also sent there. RQ

Your whataboutism is a bullshit dodge. The fact that America has issues with imprisoning has nothing to do with the Chinese Communist Party's racist imperialist genocide of the Uighur.

[–] Filthmontane@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

It's not whataboutism, it's a comparison of data between one super power and another. So, if China has 1.7 million inmates, than that means roughly 1 million are Uyghers, since that's around 55% of the Chinese prison population. Which means if you subtract the Uyghers in prison from the rest of the inmate population is the other 700,000 non-Uygher inmates. This means that you are too accept that China, a country of 1.4 billion people, only has 700,000 prisoners not related to the genocide. So you're saying, if it weren't for this Uygher genocide, China, with 1.4 billion people, only has a 700,000 person inmate population? Just for comparison, remember that the US has 332 million people and 1.2 million inmates. That's 1 in 2000 people in China are in prisons (when adjusted for the genocide) in comparison to the 1 in 276 Americans in prison. Does that sound right to you?

A country with 1.4 billion people and a 1.7 million inmates population means every 1 in 823 people are in prison. A reasonable number that does not reflect the existence of a massive genocide or a huge labor camp population. To compare this data to a real genocide, Nazi Germany had roughly 70 million citizens and 1.65 million prisoners, which brings the prison population to 1 in 42. The statistics just don't match up to a population being genocided.

That all being said, where's any legitimate photo evidence? There's pictures of people protesting waving flags for Turkistan. Sure. I'm not arguing that some of the people want to be part of Turkistan. There's pictures of people being arrested. Yes. All wearing the colors of Turkistan. Likely Turkistan Movement agitators, since agitators like wearing uniforms. And you can find people holding up signs, in English for some reason. No signs with mandarin on them confusingly enough. Just signs in English. I feel like it would be just as suspicious if we saw a bunch of protesters in front of the white house with signs in Mandarin.

Every bit of information you've provided is based purely on rhetoric and assumptions. The US is just butthurt because the belt and road initiative is actually working by bringing tourism into Xinjiang and it's going to expose the lack of a genocide while stabilizing the region's economy.

[–] sadreality@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tankie or CCP bootlicker?

[–] ieatpillowtags@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

Is that not the same thing?

[–] mrbubblesort@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You're right! We need to do something about all those terrorists lining the streets of Xinjiang. We all must band together to rid the world of this vile, evil scourge called the CCP!

[–] InvertedParallax@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

They'll be lined up against the wall soon enough.

[–] Deceptichum@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

But no one is ignoring the existence of China?

[–] dumdum666@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Filthmontane

Bwaaaaahhhh sob