SocraticGadfly: What China is doing to the Uyghurs is not a genocide

June 24, 2022

What China is doing to the Uyghurs is not a genocide

It IS "deeply problematic" in many ways, contra the capitalist grifters for Xi Jinping, like Max Blumenthal, let alone, the Xi Jinping Thought stanners like Howie Hawkins and Margaret Flowers, or worse yet, some mix of Max's grifting by clickbait and reflexive pandering to anti-Americanism by the likes of Aaron Maté.

But, it is not, contra parts of the bipartisan foreign policy establishment, let alone the Religious Right's foreign policy establishment for Jesus, a genocide. Not even part one of a five-part installment proves that.

It is, contra the nutters, grifters and true believers in the first paragraph, forced labor by people who are inside work camps in many cases. Arguably, they're inside concentration camps of some sort. It is possibly cultural genocide, but I've not come down firmly on that, even. It is NOT, contra the bullshit of the Matés of the world, necessary to control Islamic extremists, or secular secessionists if they exist under separate cover, that make up a small portion of Xinjiang's population.

Genocide is what the Nazis did to the Jews. It's what the Ottomans did their best to do to the Armenians before that. It's what the Hutu later did to the Tutsi in Rwanda.

What's happening in Xinjiang, even with forced abortions, is not a genocide. The UN Convention includes "intent to destroy." Intent is always tough to prove legally. Tis true that the fourth point in an early section does include forced lack of birth. But China only relatively recently officially lifted its one-child policy.

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