Arjen wrote: ↑October 18th, 2020, 3:27 am
Count Lucanor wrote: ↑October 17th, 2020, 8:54 pm
I wonder, if you had to rate these in terms of the harshness of collective punishment and tyrannical abuse, which one would come on top?
- Chinese treatment of the Uyghur minority.
- Israel treatment of Palestinian population.
- US treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
- Saudi Arabia's treatment of its own population.
1) Uyghur. Genetic cleansing is the most extreme possible.
However, as the BBC article you provided states, it is closer to an ideological operation than to an ethnic apartheid system or eugenics:
"There are Uighurs in positions of authority in Xinjiang.
Many of the government officials and police officers who tailed and stopped us were Uighurs.
But while the system of profiling and control has been likened by some to Apartheid, clearly that is not entirely accurate.
Many Uighurs do have a stake in the system.
Shohrat Zakir, a Uighur and, in theory, the second most powerful politician in the region, suggests the battle has almost been won: 'In the past 21 months, no violent terrorist attacks have occurred and the number of criminal cases, including those endangering public security, has dropped significantly,' he is reported to have told state media."
Arjen wrote: ↑October 18th, 2020, 3:27 am
Much lower at 100) Saudi Arabia. It is severely oppressive and racist/sexist.
Much lower again at 200) Israel's treatment of Palestinians. While Israel has a right to a country and Palistine denied it, now Israel is gradually taking the land initially belonging to Palestines and, given military superiority, not likely to lose.
Much lower again at 300) Guantanamo Bay. A very small number of people that were judged to be terrorrists are being treated in a horrible way. It should not be that way.
Other than the population control measures, I don't see in the article references to torture and collective punishment towards the Uighurs at the same scale of Israeli's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Unlike the Chinese authorities, apparently, it is doubtful that the state of Israel would be able to come up with propaganda pointing to"
rising living standards for Palestine's residents". Assuming that the suspicious correctional facilities held the thousands of people that are being estimated, that would pale against the 13 million Palestinians held as hostages of their own land and systematically oppressed. Although any wrong from Israel or any other state doesn't make any right from China (typical
whataboutery), and we should direct proper criticism to each one, it seems obvious that this overly dramatic focus on China's authoritarian politics is more interested in peddling anti Communist propaganda than in raising balanced concerns about oppressed populations around the world.
Arjen wrote: ↑October 18th, 2020, 3:27 am
It is the group of not totalitarian countries, where the population has the largest amount of control on who will lead them.
Are any of these part of the "free world": Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, India,Turkey?
Is any intervention of a foreign power consistent with population having "the largest amount of control on who will lead them"?