this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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Falun Gong: yes.
Uyghur genocide: yes
There's no need to bend over backwards to try to justify the government treatment of Uyghurs as being a genocide. It just isn't and there's no evidence that it is. The claims are paper-thin and always trace back to these things:
I remember watching hexbears tie themselves in knots trying to justify this or that academic spewing absolute bullshit, like they are just itching to believe a China Bad line. Believing statements next to satellite images analyzed by a teenager and going, "yeah that checks out" or citing one Zenz-collaborating academic ghoul that has literally never been to China nor speaks any Chinese languages but appropriated the language of the left so I guess it must be legit.
I'd also like to remind everyone that the claim of genocide magically appeared as a result of think tank ghouls that cited no new evidence and did not make any kind of case that stands up to the lightest criticism. It just got put out there in the classic style of manufacturing consent during a series of anti-China pushes. Prior to this, it had been getting called a cultural genocide, a term intended to play on the gravity of genocide while being fuzzy enough that libs who know nothing can argue about any level of ethnic discrimination fitting the bill. The claim of cultural genocide was supported by people duped into believing that salafist politics is traditional Uyghur culture (because they didn't deign to actually learn anything about Uyghurs before believing the paper-thin propaganda of empire) and that any form of ethnic oppression, any form, is cultural genocide. If you find that you or anyone else on the left is trying this hard to make excuses for the imperialist line, take a pause and ask yourself why you're doing it and whether you're asking the right questions. You are not immune to propaganda and finding a way - any way - for the imperialists to be right is its basic function in these scenarios.
The claim of Uyghur genocide is a series of rhetorical escalations that do not match conditions on the ground and is coming from sources that any competent leftist should learn how to scrutinize and reject.
I started reading this comment right after reading OP's "Is there any truth to those claims or is it all" question; with you starting with two "yes", I've been frustratingly reading this comment waiting for the bad take until I realized you were answering OP's title and there was no bad take.
To add to your answer, my go-to is often this open letter to the UN (PDF) from 51 states having freely inspected the deradicalization efforts in Xinjiang. I quote:
We note with appreciation that human rights are respected and protected in China in the process of counter-terrorism and deradicalization.
We appreciate China’s commitment to openness and transparency. China has invited a number of diplomats, international organizations officials and journalist to Xinjiang to witness the progress of the human rights cause and the outcomes of counter-terrorism and deradicalization there. What they saw and heard in Xinjiang completely contradicted what was reported in the media. We call on relevant countries to refrain from employing unfounded charges against China based on unconfirmed information before they visit Xinjiang.
... in the end they either realize it's bullshit or their new position becomes "China made them say that" which basically means they're arguing China can control over 50 countries including among others Algeria, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Venezuela; you know, clownery. At this point mocking them is an acceptable strategy; they won't take it well but it'll rattle them and increases the chances they'll feel embarrassed and end up trying to look it up by themselves soon after.
That's a very good document! Thank you for sharing it.
And yeah that's very funny that I gave the exact opposite impression at first.
The thanks should go to the people that run the /r/TheDeprogram sub to be honest, they maintain a pretty useful wiki (which they also mirror here/through lemmygrad) and they're the one that initially introduced me to it