Of all of the many stories that are severely undercovered by the American press, the treatment of non-Han Chinese in China has got to be one of the worst. From Josh Rogin at the Washington Post:
If ethnic cleansing takes place in China and nobody is able to hear it, does it make a sound? That’s what millions of Muslims inside the People’s Republic are asking as they watch the Chinese government expand a network of internment camps and systematic human rights abuses designed to stamp out their peoples’ religion and culture.
Since last year, hundreds of thousands — and perhaps millions — of innocent Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region in northwest China have been unjustly arrested and imprisoned in what the Chinese government calls “political re-education camps.†Thousands have disappeared. There are credible reports of torture and death among the prisoners. The government says it is fighting “terrorism†and “religious extremism.†Uighurs say they are resisting a campaign to crush religious and cultural freedom in China. The international community has largely reacted with silence.
Horrific as they are, the camps constitute just one part of Beijing’s effort. The government has destroyed thousands of religious buildings. It has banned long beards and many Muslim names. People are forced to eat pork against their beliefs. The Chinese government’s persecution of innocents continues even after their death. Crematoria are being built to literally extinguish the Uighur funeral tradition, which insists on burials.
And it isn’t limited to the Uighurs. The Sinification of Tibet is all but ignored unless there’s an American celebrity protesting it. The Chinese authorities are not nice people.
And the disproportionate lack of coverage makes you wonder if the coverage of people using impolite words here in the U. S. is more political opportunism than it is genuine concern.
When the businesses owning and advertising in U.S. media also profit from the Chinese murder machine, what gets reported and what does not becomes understandable.
Of course, the official Chinese newspapers always report police suppressing roving mobs of Han attacking the peaceful in Xinjiang.
However, much more profitable to quote unnamed sources that have read utter top secret documents that say Trump refuses to wear black shoes with a brown suit.
It’s complicated, even though there are more Chinese than anyone else, they’re not Caucasian so they are a minority. The Uighur are a minority within a minority and American hands are so dirty from civil rights abuses and serial genocide we’ve no room to talk.
Also, the Chinese are in the middle of reshaping human behavior to form the perfect society and may have to break a few eggs.
Also, as far as I know, there are no Uighur pop stars to put a human face on it.
“makes you wonder if the coverage of people using impolite words here in the U. S. is more political opportunism than it is genuine concern.”
Which do you think would sell more advertising. Yet one more story about Stormy Daniels or a story about the Uighurs?
Steve