Ugh, reading the rest of this thread and so many bad takes here.
Quote (Black XistenZ @ Sep 30 2022 01:31am)
1. Subjecting an entire ethnic group to mass incarceration, forced sterilization and a targeted destruction of their culture just because some terrorists shared their religion is excessive, even for an authoritarian country.
There was never 'mass incarceration', there was a *wink wink* voluntary training program in order to rapidly bring up the incomes of Uyghurs. Even Western "journalists" openly admit that these training centers are largely closed now. Why are they closed? Because they served their purpose of getting Uyghurs into the workforce. Chinese thinking here is that terrorism resulting from radical ideologies need poverty to find fertile ground, and so they sought to rapidly raise the living standards of people in XUAR. Indeed, incomes in XUAR have quadrupled over the past 10 years. Yes, quadrupled.
For extra bonus points, square that with the absolutely insane and unfounded claims of forced labour in XUAR. It's impossible.
There is no forced sterilization. The guy who came up with this insane stuff is Adrian Zenz, a right-wing Christian fundamentalist who literally believes he has been given a mission by God to defeat the Antichrist, whose rise will come about when Chinese communism destroys capitalism. I am not exaggerating that, that's not an unfair characterization of his beliefs. He doesn't speak or read Mandarin, Uyghur or Tibetan (he was previously a Tibet "scholar" before the West got bored of that and switched to Xinjiang warmongering).
The genocide-by-sterilization stuff is especially awful because it basically casts birth control and family planning as a form of genocide. When you get down to it, accepting this thesis brings you very close to right-wing Replacement Theory beliefs.
Rather than a destruction of Uyghur culture, China is protecting it. For hundreds of years since Islam's introduction into Xinjiang, Uyghurs have had in their culture wine making, female imams, expressive dance. Wahhabi Islam of the type that was starting to take hold in Xinjiang (and yes, America was pushing it just as they did in the 1970s in Afghanistan) was threatening that. Opposing Wahhabism is an act of cultural preservation, not destruction.
Quote (Black XistenZ @ Sep 30 2022 01:31am)
2. It is still mainland China which wants to forcibly "reunite" (read: annex) Taiwan while Taiwan just wants to be acknowledged and left alone. The CCP still holds a massive grudge against Taiwan out of ideological and historic reasons.
No. The PRC wants peaceful reunification. Also, they simply will not allow Taiwan to become riddled with US military bases and become a de fact US staging ground (sound familiar?). Taiwan does not "want to be acknowledged and left alone", poll after poll shows that people want the status quo, which is also what Beijing wants.
It's America who is trying to break the status quo with repeated provocations designed to undermine the OCP.
Quote (Black XistenZ @ Sep 30 2022 01:31am)
3. China's military spending increased by a much larger percentage than US or NATO military spending over the past 10-15 years. They are very clearly playing catch up and strive for their military to become America's match.
China spends 1% of their GDP on the military, the USA spends 3%.
Now, I may not be a mathemagician, but it sure seems like China is spending much, much less than America! Can some math genius help me out here?
Quote (Black XistenZ @ Sep 30 2022 01:31am)
4. I never claimed that the United States were a "peaceful" nation. ;) Kusostare, on the other hand, disputed my notion that China is not as peaceful as they might look at first glance.
Reading Western media about enemy states isn't a "glance" of any sort, first or otherwise. You're so deep in a hole of lies that you can't imagine what reality actually is.
This post was edited by kusotarre1 on Sep 30 2022 05:40pm