I was looking up footage of the ICE LA thing the other day and about 2/3 comments are just “HELL YEAH! THIS IS WHAT I VOTED FOR! KICK THESE CRIMINALS OUT!”
Holy shit 
I was looking up footage of the ICE LA thing the other day and about 2/3 comments are just “HELL YEAH! THIS IS WHAT I VOTED FOR! KICK THESE CRIMINALS OUT!”
Holy shit
This is a horrendous rebuttal. The Palestinian population has, in fact, gone up since the Nakba, and quite often this fact has been used to dismiss the policy of apartheid and ethnic cleansing that the Zionist entity employs.
If you want to argue against nonsense claims about China’s policies regarding its ethnic minorities, then focus on concrete facts, such as the lack of any corroborating evidence that there is a genocide happening. If you want to compare it to Palestine, instead compare the overwhelming flood of footage and primary source evidence of the atrocities being perpetrated even under Internet blackout and blockade, and how it would be comparably impossible for there to be a targeted policy of genocide within China that didn’t have any footage or photographic evidence in the modern age.
Raw population number is itself a terrible argument against violent repression and discrimination (Palestine is not the only example of a violently oppressed people whose population has grown, either)
when’s the last time missiles landed in Urumqi?
Raw population numbers is a terrible argument, but relative population numbers is not. If the percentage of the total Chinese population that is Uyghur is increasing over long sustained periods of time, then that is indeed evidence against ethnic cleansing and genocide. As is China exempting the Uyghurs for years from the one-child policy, there’s literally a stronger case that China ethnically cleansed the Han majority than there is for Uyghur genocide when looking at the population numbers and policies.
Palestinians for example, despite increasing in total population during certain periods (not since Oct 7th, 2023 though - now we have a total population decrease) has been decreasing in relative population in Occupied Palestine since the nakba. Thus you could determine ethnic cleansing was happening by just looking at the relative populations.
That’s still not a great metric of ethnic cleansing. Relative populations of white people in Canada are decreasing, does that mean there is ethnic cleansing of white Canadians? Of course not. The same also goes the other way: an exploited group’s relative population increasing does not mean they are not exploited. Population levels are not on their own a very useful metric for trying to understand whether a group is being oppressed.
There are much better arguments to use that are clear indicators of oppression/systemic violence, since population on its own is not inherently correlated to racial discrimination. It’s so much more effective to point to, as you mention yourself, the exclusion of ethnic minorities from the one-child policy, or the increase in life expectancy, the elimination of absolute poverty, the increase in health care, cultural/religious protections, civic engagement, etc in Xinjiang (or other regions with large minority populations) to dispel myths about Chinese targeting/elimination of minority populations.
I would say a decrease in relative population is not enough to positively confirm ethnic cleansing is happening (just one indicator), however an increase in relative population is sufficient to dismiss any claims of ethnic cleansing or genocide.
I don’t think the person I’m responding to would consider Palestinians as being “ethnically cleansed” before operation al-Aqsa flood. Has the Palestinian population in Palestine gone up since then ?
Oh they probably wouldn’t, I’m just saying that I have seen this literal argument, that if the entity is trying to get rid of Palestinians why is their population increasing, as a way to refute the oppression of Palestinians pre-2023. So to use it in this case is just not a strong argument, because that isn’t really a metric of oppression.
Much clearer to point out the increase in living conditions, education, employment opportunities, health care, transit, places of worship, cultural protections, political engagement, etc. and the decrease in street violence and poverty, in Xinjiang, which is something that absolutely at no time has ever occurred for Palestinians.
If you check out my comment history I’ve written more in depth responses on the subject, this was a passing comment to someone I didn’t expect to really care. I see your point about raw population not being a strong argument, and I think z poster’s response on relative population versus raw population is important to consider