Steve James wrote:Hey Bao, what do you personally think happens at a re-education camp in China, generally? Do you think re-education is necessary? would you call these places re-education camps of something else?
Granted that calling them work camps or concentration camps might be an exaggeration, if they exist, do you think they are a good thing?
Hi Steve, I think that I have explained my view a few times.
Of course education camps exist. China has never denied it. Do I believe in concentration camps or ethnically based genocide? Absolutely not. Do I believe that they hunt terrorists? Of course they do, they have never denied that. Do I believe that people are thrown in jail just because they are Uighur? No. Do I believe that you can find people in those camps from small, distant rural areas, who never had the opportunity to go or finish school and maybe even can read or write very well. Yes. Do I believe that one million Uighurs are put there against their will? No.
"would you call these places re-education camps of something else?"
There are probably various degrees of re-education. I don't doubt that they try to discover radical islamists and deal with them in various ways. Every country have their own fight against terrorists. Yet, there are schools in many different places in China where people from small areas have a chance to re-educate them, or get a new education. It's not only in Xinjiang. There are also Han Chinese in rural areas that get this opportunity. They might be farmers or workers in places where there are no work left, so they need to add things to their skills. China is rapidly opened up and modernised. Extreme poverty is almost gone in China and people need to be relocated. So they need education and skills. Trying to teach them a nationalistic thinking might be on the table or a standard ingredient even if the school is more about learning than re-education. But this is what the government is trying to do with all Chinese. There's a massive Chinese nationalistic propaganda in Chinese media. But how is it different from what you find in many countries in the West?
You know, I have already mentioned that I know several Chinese Muslims in China, even Uighurs. They are successful and do well in society. If someone would suggest that they would laugh. So knowing what I have said in the past, for someone as Graham to say that I don’t like Muslims is not only a very juvenile kind of provocation, but it also show how the China haters are completely unreceptive for things that goes against their extremist beliefs. When you come with information or facts, sometimes that are very easy to look up and verify, they won't even notice that they exist. In general, they have no idea what is going on in China right now, they have no clue who Xi Jinping is or how minorities live in China. And obviously they couldn't care less.
I would like to suggest to someone who has that extreme negative view on China should look around, speak with Chinese people, read a bit general facts about its history and culture, to get know how things generally works in China, and get to understand the relationships between the many different minorities. But obviously, just by looking at a place as the RSF, the China haters don't like to discuss in a mature and sensible manner or read anything that goes against their preconceived ideas. I believe it's sad that people rather attack because they are just not mature enough to have a civilised conversation.
Yet, the way the West keeps on bullying China, try to press it down by stirring up conflicts, and build up mistrust here in the West, is understandable. Lies and lies. The bigger the lies, the easier people believe in them. Something even Trump understand and use on an every day basis.