
China Uighurs: Xinjiang 'legalises' Muslim internment camps - loriverkutya
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-45812419
======
emptybits
It has been suggested that, in Xinjiang, "owning too many books" or "receiving
email from abroad" contributes to one's likelihood of a police visit and
ending up in such a camp.

[https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/05/31/china-has-
turn...](https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/05/31/china-has-turned-
xinjiang-into-a-police-state-like-no-other)

[https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611815/who-needs-
democrac...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611815/who-needs-democracy-
when-you-have-data/)

~~~
pas
Textbooks printed before 2009 were burned, and houses are regularly searched
just to be sure.

Mandatory checkpoints between parts of the city.

Arbitrary arrests, arbitrary permission-restrictions.

[https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/10/01/an-internment-
camp-f...](https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/10/01/an-internment-camp-
for-10-million-uyghurs)

------
yasp
>Xinjiang's new legislation says examples of behaviour that could lead to
detention include [...] refusing to watch state TV and listen to state radio
[...]

------
Canada
Similar repressive policy was used against the native population of Canada. It
failed to achieve its intended goals, destroyed lives, and left behind a
painful legacy. It's a shame the CCP has decided to take this dark path.

~~~
gdhbcc
Did it fail though? Or do you only see the failures?

How many natives went through that? How many ended up with children that are
more or less fully assimilated into mainstream Canadian culture?

~~~
Canada
Taking children by force, confining them in education centers, and violently
coercing them to assimilate is counterproductive. A third of them went through
the residential school system. The land was fully conquered well before the
state setup that system. All it's done is produce generation after generation
with very good reason to hate and fear the culture that abused them. Not to
mention the related damage going through that does. Been to a few reserves
before, and what I see mostly isn't good. I consider it a failure because had
governments just done nothing and let them be for the last 100 years we'd
surely have the same dominant culture now in place regardless. So much harm
done for nothing.

~~~
gdhbcc
Is there data to support that idea though? Or is it just your gut feeling
based on popular opinion?

------
394549
This story is getting suppressed from HN. As of this writing, it has 25 points
and was posted 1 hour ago, but it's already off the front page. In contrast,
there's currently a story on the front page about mosh pits that only has 6
points and was also posted 1-2 hours ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18179662](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18179662)

In other news: Y Combinator announced two months ago that it's launching a
startup incubator in China: [https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/14/y-combinator-
china-qi-lu/](https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/14/y-combinator-china-qi-lu/)

~~~
noio
Is that actually true? Or is there another nuance to the formula that
determines what ends up on the front page?

~~~
394549
> Is that actually true? Or is there another nuance to the formula that
> determines what ends up on the front page?

I doubt it. I've noticed that China stories similar to this one are pretty
consistently down-weighted once they hit the front page. They'll get knocked
to the very bottom of the first page, or more usually the second page,
regardless of how many votes they get.

It's a very subtle form of censorship. The post still exists, just with
drastically reduced visibility.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
HN tends to want to avoid political flamewars. Articles about China tend to
devolve into political flamewars. If HN has an algorithm that spots flamewars
(and I think they do), that could explain some of the behavior you're seeing.

~~~
394549
> HN tends to want to avoid political flamewars. Articles about China tend to
> devolve into political flamewars. If HN has an algorithm that spots
> flamewars (and I think they do), that could explain some of the behavior
> you're seeing.

I don't think that explains it either. On most of the stories I'm talking
about (including this one), there are little to no comments before the story
is down-weighted. There's no flamewar for an algorithm to spot.

It really feels like topic-based censorship, and likely manual since it seems
reactive to popularity.

------
AnimalMuppet
Great. They're still persecuting people in a way that might legitimately be
described as genocidal, but now they're doing it with the support of Chinese
law. If we're going to oppress people and stomp all over human rights, let's
be sure that we do it _legally_.

/s

~~~
394549
I wonder, what will the reaction of the "respect local laws and regulations"
crowd will be to this development?

------
jakeogh
Oct 4th 2018:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYAHPPXmcts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYAHPPXmcts)

------
jordigh
This story is deeply upsetting. This is what genocide looks like. I feel so
powerless. Is there nothing we can do?

~~~
yomansat
I just wrote an email to info@enoughproject.org to point the fact that this
situation is heading towards dangerously close levels to a genocide. I suggest
people here do the same to raise more awareness.

I was surprised to see what's happening with the Uighurs doesn't put China on
their watchlist despite criterias being fulfilled:
[http://endgenocide.org/whos-at-risk/](http://endgenocide.org/whos-at-risk/)

Contact email taken from: [http://endgenocide.org/who-we-are/contact-
us/](http://endgenocide.org/who-we-are/contact-us/)

