Absolutely fucking abhorrent that a popular anti-imperialist blogger on here has decided to post Uyghur genocide-denialism supposedly in the name of combatting western propaganda and sinophobia. If it weren’t clear already this wrong.
I’ve lost a mutual over this, but I promise you, blindly supporting the Chinese government no matter what is not the same thing as opposing American state and its sinophobia.
Anyways right off the bat here are some sources that show the persecution of Uyghurs:
Article by The Intercept, a fairly left-leaning, although American, news site discussing the surveillance of Uyghurs
Article by The Print, a left-leaning Indian news site that heavily criticizes the Indian government allied with the US, discussing sexual violence against Uyghur women in internment camps
An article by Al Jazeera, a left leaning Qatari news site, discussing the persecution of Uyghurs as a result of China’s “war on terror”
According to some, all of the evidence for Uyghur internment is from Adrian Zenz, an anticommunist born again Christian and Falun Gong, a cult. This is not actually true. One major piece of evidence is the China Cable Documents, published by the ICIJ, ie the same organization that published the Panama Papers
There are also many first hand accounts by formerly detained Uyghur people, their relatives, and other Central Asian Muslim ethnic groups living in China. You could argue, as some on this site have, that they are all getting paid to lie about a genocide happening. However, the prospect becomes less likely when you have this many direct accounts from different people through different organizations and countries.
It also has been argued that there isn’t a Uyghur genocide in China because many Muslim-majority countries disagreed that there were human rights abuses in China in a UN conference in 2019, citing this article. I feel like most of us can agree that the actions and views of a state do not necessarily, and often don’t represent the views of the people living in that state. I think it also pretty safe to say that Muslims are an incredibly diverse population that do not all have the same views.
And before someone goes and accuses me of being a CIA psy-op or American nationalist or whatever else: examine why me simply showing that a genocide in China exists indicates that I’m pro-America. You understand that both China and the US are oppressive states, AND that you can understand that the sinophobia perpetuated by the US is bad while knowing those two facts.
I won’t deny how the American right is using this to deflect criticism of the US and its own internment camps, nor will I deny that a coverage of this can be sinophobic. But this is not some grand cartoon world where one state is good and the other is bad. You’re not anti-imperialist for ignoring any criticism of a country affected by imperialism. You are literally just stereotyping countries of the global south and refusing to see them as complex places where real people live.