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This is semi off topic, but why (from a mainstream Chinese perspective) is China targeting Uyghur Muslims? Is there just a general ideology of enforced conformi

by api 7y ago

This is semi off topic, but why (from a mainstream Chinese perspective) is China targeting Uyghur Muslims? Is there just a general ideology of enforced conformity or is this a special case?

Proven 7y ago
How about you spare us and just google it?
ahmadss 7y ago
"Chinese officials are concerned that Uighurs hold extremist and separatist ideas, and they view the camps as a way of eliminating threats to China’s territorial integrity, government, and population." [1] 1- https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-crackdown-uighurs-xinjiang https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-crackdown-uighurs-xi...
aldoushuxley001 7y ago
It's not just Uyghur Muslims, it's also Tibetans & the Falun Gong. I'm sure there's other groups as well. It seems to mostly be about ensuring there's no competing power structures, the strongest of which usually revolve around religion. Effectively, China really doesn't want another Taiping Rebellion.
wsxcde 7y ago
Uighur's and Tibetans have historically not had significant ties with mainland China. The Uighurs are Turkic and have closer cultural ties to the likes of Kazakhstan. The Tibetans are more closely tied to India/Nepal.* After the Mao revolution, the Chinese annexed these territories and started a huge bout of propaganda claiming these regions were always part of China. The propaganda has worked on the mainland Chinese, but obviously, the Uighurs and Tibetans don't buy it because they know their own history. There's been some recent unrest in Uighur autonomous region, so China is starting around round of indoctrination and police state tactics. *I know this is a controversial claim especially for people of Chinese origin. So if you doubt this, a couple of facts worth pointing out are the following. The Dalai Lama's government in exile is headquartered in Dharamshala in Northern India. Loads of Tibetan kings have had Nepali wives. Tibetan is most closely related to languages spoken in Ladakh, Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal -- two of these are Indian states and the other two are effectively Indian protectorates. Some of the most important "gurus" in Tibetan Buddhism (e.g. Rinpoche aka Padmasambhava) were Indian. The Tibetan script is based on Brahmi which is an ancient Indian script that gave rise to all modern Indian scripts such as Devanagari (used for Hindi/Marathi etc.), Gurmukhi (used for Punjabi), Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, Assamese, etc.
- mytailorisrich 7y ago
  Tibet has been close to China, as opposed to India for more than a thousand years. Sikkim is in India because of the British, not because it is "Indian" (so to speak)... In fact it was in China's sphere of influence until the British took it over.
  - wsxcde 7y ago
    > Tibet has been close to China, as opposed to India for more than a thousand years. That is just laughably false. If you live in the US, I suggest visiting a Tibetan store to disabuse yourself of this communist propaganda. (There are tons of Tibetan stores in Berkeley, CA for instance.) You'll find them selling many items that are instantly recognizable to Indians that Chinese people wouldn't have a clue about. Things like Ganesha figurines, Rudrakhsha malas and kurtis. An easier option is to try asking an actual Tibetan person. They'll tell you the same thing that I'm saying.
    - mytailorisrich 7y ago
      I am not looking for political battles here or to spread propaganda from either side. I am not sure that a Tibetan store in Berkeley CA is a neutral and accurate representation of Tibet's history. The starting point is that geography makes access to the Tibet region much easier from the East and North than from the South. So-called "Greater Tibet" extends East and North East quite beyond the current Tibet Autonomous Region in China. Perhaps as a consequence, Tibetan are ethnically closer to East Asians than to South Asians (I think that is visually obvious). Their language is not related to Indian languages and neither is traditional clothing. Historically Tibet has had close contacts with China and was periodically under Chinese vassality/rule since at least the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century. To claim that Tibet "has historically not had significant ties with China" is simply not accurate. Likewise, Xinjiang/Uyghurs have had ties with China for even longer because of the silk road, with China establishing a protectorate over the area in the Han Dynasty about 2,000 years ago.
      - wsxcde 7y ago
Despegar 7y ago
It's always CCP regime survival.
mytailorisrich 7y ago
This is about fighting indepentist movements and religious extremists. Xinjiang has a border with Afghanistan and obviously the sort of religious extremism that we saw there can potentially spill into Xinjiang. The threat for China is thus nationalist sentiment strengthened by religious extremism.
pierrebai 7y ago
Also, there are natural resources on this territory, which China would not be willing to lose. See: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/world/asia/china-invests-in-xinjiang-region-rich-in-oil-coal-and-also-strife.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/world/asia/china-invests-...

by api 7y ago

This is semi off topic, but why (from a mainstream Chinese perspective) is China targeting Uyghur Muslims? Is there just a general ideology of enforced conformity or is this a special case?

Proven 7y ago

How about you spare us and just google it?

ahmadss 7y ago

"Chinese officials are concerned that Uighurs hold extremist and separatist ideas, and they view the camps as a way of eliminating threats to China’s territorial integrity, government, and population." [1] 1- https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-crackdown-uighurs-xinjiang https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-crackdown-uighurs-xi...

aldoushuxley001 7y ago

It's not just Uyghur Muslims, it's also Tibetans & the Falun Gong. I'm sure there's other groups as well. It seems to mostly be about ensuring there's no competing power structures, the strongest of which usually revolve around religion. Effectively, China really doesn't want another Taiping Rebellion.

wsxcde 7y ago

Uighur's and Tibetans have historically not had significant ties with mainland China. The Uighurs are Turkic and have closer cultural ties to the likes of Kazakhstan. The Tibetans are more closely tied to India/Nepal.* After the Mao revolution, the Chinese annexed these territories and started a huge bout of propaganda claiming these regions were always part of China. The propaganda has worked on the mainland Chinese, but obviously, the Uighurs and Tibetans don't buy it because they know their own history. There's been some recent unrest in Uighur autonomous region, so China is starting around round of indoctrination and police state tactics. *I know this is a controversial claim especially for people of Chinese origin. So if you doubt this, a couple of facts worth pointing out are the following. The Dalai Lama's government in exile is headquartered in Dharamshala in Northern India. Loads of Tibetan kings have had Nepali wives. Tibetan is most closely related to languages spoken in Ladakh, Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal -- two of these are Indian states and the other two are effectively Indian protectorates. Some of the most important "gurus" in Tibetan Buddhism (e.g. Rinpoche aka Padmasambhava) were Indian. The Tibetan script is based on Brahmi which is an ancient Indian script that gave rise to all modern Indian scripts such as Devanagari (used for Hindi/Marathi etc.), Gurmukhi (used for Punjabi), Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, Assamese, etc.

mytailorisrich 7y ago
Tibet has been close to China, as opposed to India for more than a thousand years. Sikkim is in India because of the British, not because it is "Indian" (so to speak)... In fact it was in China's sphere of influence until the British took it over.
- wsxcde 7y ago
  > Tibet has been close to China, as opposed to India for more than a thousand years. That is just laughably false. If you live in the US, I suggest visiting a Tibetan store to disabuse yourself of this communist propaganda. (There are tons of Tibetan stores in Berkeley, CA for instance.) You'll find them selling many items that are instantly recognizable to Indians that Chinese people wouldn't have a clue about. Things like Ganesha figurines, Rudrakhsha malas and kurtis. An easier option is to try asking an actual Tibetan person. They'll tell you the same thing that I'm saying.
  - mytailorisrich 7y ago
    I am not looking for political battles here or to spread propaganda from either side. I am not sure that a Tibetan store in Berkeley CA is a neutral and accurate representation of Tibet's history. The starting point is that geography makes access to the Tibet region much easier from the East and North than from the South. So-called "Greater Tibet" extends East and North East quite beyond the current Tibet Autonomous Region in China. Perhaps as a consequence, Tibetan are ethnically closer to East Asians than to South Asians (I think that is visually obvious). Their language is not related to Indian languages and neither is traditional clothing. Historically Tibet has had close contacts with China and was periodically under Chinese vassality/rule since at least the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century. To claim that Tibet "has historically not had significant ties with China" is simply not accurate. Likewise, Xinjiang/Uyghurs have had ties with China for even longer because of the silk road, with China establishing a protectorate over the area in the Han Dynasty about 2,000 years ago.
    - wsxcde 7y ago

Despegar 7y ago

It's always CCP regime survival.

mytailorisrich 7y ago

This is about fighting indepentist movements and religious extremists. Xinjiang has a border with Afghanistan and obviously the sort of religious extremism that we saw there can potentially spill into Xinjiang. The threat for China is thus nationalist sentiment strengthened by religious extremism.

pierrebai 7y ago

Also, there are natural resources on this territory, which China would not be willing to lose. See: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/world/asia/china-invests-in-xinjiang-region-rich-in-oil-coal-and-also-strife.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/world/asia/china-invests-...