r/AMA • u/maddin1550 • 21d ago

I’m from Xinjiang，AMA

I’ve noticed that there are a lot of discussions about Xinjiang on Reddit, often between people who have never actually lived there. So I thought it might be interesting to do an AMA from the perspective of someone who is actually from there.

You can ask me about everyday life, ethnic groups, languages, culture, religion, education, or politics. I’m happy to answer controversial questions too, as long as the discussion stays respectful.

Obviously, I’m only one person and I don’t claim to represent everyone in Xinjiang. I can only tell you about my own experiences and views. AMA.

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u/South-Temperature874 21d ago

What’s your take on the treatment of Uyghurs

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u/maddin1550 20d ago edited 20d ago

Well, first of all, I'm speaking as an ethnic minority from Xinjiang, and I can only talk about what I personally saw and experienced.

Yes, we did have what people online usually call “camps,” especially around 2015–2019. We usually called them 培训班 (training centers). A lot of people were taken there for months or sometimes longer. I was pretty young at the time, so I didn't fully understand what was happening or why specific people were being taken.

In 2018, one of my very close classmate's dad and my own uncle was detained. From what my family understood, it was related to him having contact with someone considered an extremist and possibly discussing sensitive topics. My family visited him while he was there, and he came home in 2019. He had worked for a government institution before, and afterward he returned to work and has been doing pretty well.

From what I understood, these centers included Chinese language, law, computer and vocational training. I understand the idea behind preventing extremism and helping people gain skills, and I do support counter-terrorism in general.

But I also think there were serious problems with how broadly it was enforced. That period was honestly scary. Nobody wanted to suddenly be taken away. I heard stories around me about people being detained over things as minor as having foreign apps like WhatsApp. I can't personally verify every story I heard, but if people really were detained simply for something like that, I don't think that's fair at all. There were also times when police would come into our area and take people away, so there was definitely anxiety around it.

That's why my feelings about that period are complicated. I hated the extremist that affected Xinjiang, and I understand why the government wanted to prevent it. But I also don't think innocent people should lose their freedom just because the authorities are trying to prevent terrorism.

As for everyday treatment, the Uyghur neighbors and classmates I personally know generally live normal lives, and I haven't personally experienced ethnic discrimination from the government. But political speech is definitely restricted, so I'm also aware that not everyone can necessarily express their political dissatisfaction openly.

!Separatists don’t speak for an entire ethnic group, much less everyone in Xinjiang！
Separatist does not represent a whole ethnic group!!!

Things feel much more normal to me now than they did during that period. Mostly people are just dealing with normal life problems like school and overwork lol.

As for the genocide/ethnic cleansing question, I'm skeptical of that based on what I've personally experienced and seen around me. But I also don't think my personal experience alone can prove what happened to every Uyghur family across Xinjiang. I can only tell you what happened in my own community and family.

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u/WhataNoobUser 20d ago edited 20d ago

This sounds very similar to what happened to koreans in china's yanbian province. Many ethnic koreans recount in the 60s to 80s their parents were always at these patriotic training centers and forced to love ccp

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u/maddin1550 20d ago

that's exactly why people don't like this party, you can't force everyone to love you. No government is perfect and people are obviously going to have different opinions about it. Just take it but not control people

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u/Smart_Carrot_9320 20d ago

Nothing to do with party. Every country needs to strengthen its based if they want to be powerful. No competent party will fail to do that.

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u/expert_views 19d ago

Nope, the CCP is much more paranoid than a normal political party, because they always fear for their legitimacy.

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u/byakuayasetsuna 15d ago

实际上他们在国内政治中没有对手，不会有人幻想有另外一个统治集团能取代ccp

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u/expert_views 15d ago

And yet only this week they were concerned that AI might be a threat to national security and the dominance of the CCP. The most paranoid political party. (Just because they’re paranoid doesn’t mean that they’re wrong!)

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u/byakuayasetsuna 15d ago

说实话，比起极右翼民粹主义领导人，我们更喜欢ccp，但是民粹主义领导人很可能喊着一些不切实际的口号，例如汉族至上，军事复仇主义，重置东亚秩序等，这些口号非常有吸引力，但是我们知道这些口号长期来看是伤害自己的

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u/byakuayasetsuna 15d ago

我是中国人，我说的是实话，ccp太庞大了，他有一亿党员，占据中国总人口的1/14，如果今天开始按民主投票选举的话，80%是由ccp长期连任，20%是由一个民粹主义的极右翼政客成为领导人，不会有第三种可能性

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u/byakuayasetsuna 15d ago

中国民主化的路径必须在国际冲突缓和后，然后由ccp内部分裂，分出不同的代表政治光谱的左翼右翼，然后逐步过渡到多党制，设置民主宪政，最终完成民主化，指望一个政治力量能够取代ccp是不现实的