The Chinese government persecutes disfavored ethnic groups like the Uyghurs all the time. But sometimes it works even harder at it, such as during its hundred-day “strike hard” campaigns. According to a July 2023 story by Radio Free Asia:
Reports about the start of the new campaign in Xinjiang appeared on the Chinese social media app Douyin on July 3….
Local public security bureaus are carrying out the operation in their respective areas, focusing on “crimes” deemed to pose a threat to public order, Chinese media reports said.
The illegal activities include “stirring up trouble, engaging in group fights, bullying the public, blackmailing, monopolizing the market, participating in illegal gatherings, and spreading rumors with malicious intent.” Authorities also will target “illegal mafias and criminal organizations.”…
“While some individuals may attend gatherings with good intentions, there are others who may have ulterior motives,” the policeman said. “However, regardless of their initial intentions, if any participant engages in discussions or activities involving forbidden matters, all individuals present at the gathering will face consequences.”
One or two of these activities (if being characterized accurately) may be criminal, and would be considered criminal anywhere: things like “group fights,” if this means initiating a physical attack on people, and “blackmailing.” But since Chinese policymakers and those who rationalize Chinese policy lie constantly about matters great and small, one can’t be sure that a Uyghur nabbed for being involved in, for example, a “group fight” really did participate in such a fight. Moreover, if, because of some actual quarrel and scuffling, he is then interned for years in a brutalizing “reeducation” camp, any logical relationship between crime and punishment is nonexistent.
Other “crimes” listed include “stirring up trouble,” “spreading rumors with malicious intent,” and “participating in illegal gatherings.” The imaginary sins are so encompassing, the lines that one had better not cross so fuzzy, that in practice any Uyghur who walks and talks is at risk. In the eyes of the Chinese autocrats, the problem is being a Uyghur, not any particular thing a Uyghur happens to be doing when he catches the attention of the authorities.
