For years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has pushed ethnic minority groups like Tibetans and Uyghurs to adopt an identity rooted in Chinese nationality and allegiance to the ruling Communist Party.

Now, that push has been codified into a sweeping new law that reaches into classrooms, neighborhoods and homes – and gives Beijing the right to target people outside of its borders that it believes violate its rules.

The statute, officially known as the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law, came into effect on July 1. It bans acts that “undermine ethnic unity or create ethnic division” among China’s 56 officially recognized ethnicities, which include a Han Chinese majority that makes up over 90% of the country’s 1.4 billion people.

  • HM King Charles III DG FD@feddit.ukEnglish
    11·
    1 day ago

    because of their religious beliefs

    Then why isn’t it allegedly being committed against the Hui people as well? In fact, there are places such as Muslim street in Xi’An where the local government have refused to grant licences or allow businesses to sell alcohol there because it goes against the religion of the local Hui population. I have even been in a Hui run public restaurant asking visitors to not bring outside food or alcohol into the restaurant because it was a muslim establishment, along with islamic imagery. Such a thing I have never seen in the UK.

    I couldn’t find any substantive evidence for a systematic genocide happening outside of western sponsored media reports. In fact, I have known Uyghur Muslims who have came to study abroad in the UK. Atrocities have likely been committed, sure. The problem is, China is a huge country. Whenever one thing happens to one person of a specific group, western media paints it as happening systemically to everyone. The same narrative follows that of the alleged persecution of Christians in China. A few over zealous party officials in China makes a few Churches remove their crosses in their jurisdiction, suddenly this is nationwide persecution. Many times does the higher levels step in and tell them to leave the Churches alone, due to Chinese laws protecting religion, but that’s not as widely reported. I’ve heard similar stories from the USA of schools suppressing Christian beliefs and promoting “liberal” ideas, yet generally we accept these are just isolated incidents.

    China is a complicated place. It’s a country that is bigger than the continent of Europe, and you’re clearly viewing it through an american lens. For example your earlier comments about “dogwhistles” and such.

    One thing to understand about China is that they overreact. A stabbing happened on metro train over a decade ago, and to this day you have to go through metal detectors and x ray bags, as well as testing water to go through any metro system in China.

    A good example is that schools in China do look like fortified compounds. They have heavy security and barbed wire fences. This was likely resulting from a blanket law regarding children being kidnapped by traffickers and measures to protect them. However, this law also applies to vocational schools which is what is being alleged to be camps, and to the untrained eye, it makes it look more like a camp.

    American and Western propaganda is a real thing. I have been to China and have experienced things which definitely run against the grain of media protrayal (particularly regarding the state of Christian worship in the PRC). At worst they’re motivated by organisations such as the US government or the Falun Gong, at best they’re just looking for clicks. It’s okay to scrutinise things, lest the boy cry wolf.