China razes Mosque ...

[afleitch]

Independence for East Turkestan NOW!
Seriously. These people have gotten it far worse from the Chinese than Tibet, they're just lacking a Dalai Lama.

And then what they would probably end up getting, after the initial power vacuum and the following struggle? Their own Islamic despot or their own Ataturk? In todays climate where those who can shout the loudest, advance the concept of 'brotherhood' based on faith and military support from middle eastern despotic regimes at the expense of the concept of a secular, non exclusive state for the Ughyur people, promote ethnic cleansing and generally blow people up will probable emerge victorious.

And China would then blast them back to the Stone Age.

And most bizzare is that people probably wouldn't blame them for doing so.

[afleitch]

So, in other words the Uyghur deserve slavery because they're fairly unsophisticated radical Muslims.

Of course most of them are not, but many of those involved in the independence movement (barring moderates like Erkin Alptekin) are. Who do you think is going to come to their aid if East Turkestan tunrs on itself? Likewise, as you should know and certainly not feign ignorance of, Islamist movements tend to emphasise religion over ethnicity. Many ethnic Uyghurs are not Muslim and East Turkestan is also home to people who are not Uyghur. Fundementalists in East Turkestan have also not been shy in indicating what would happen to them under an Islamist state.

Statements like 'Independence NOW !!!' are not constructive without taking into consideration the likely alternative arrangement for the Uyghurs which is replacing one tyranny with another! Any independence for East Turkestan (which yes, I do support) has to be phased and monitored not triggered by war or encouraged by hot air blowing from the West blinkered by 'China=Bad'

[afleitch]

And a lot of Chinese immigrants who wouldn't be there if the central government didn't explicitly want them to be there. Just as in Tibet, except far more of them. Just as in much of the German-occupied parts of Poland before 1918 (not everywhere - some areas had a legit German presence). Point being: Most of them would leave voluntarily if China just let them, quite without an Uyghur post-independence ethnic cleansing campaign (which I sadly agree would probably occur.)

The Han Chinese make up some, say 40% of the population. Even 'letting' them leave would probably devastate the local economy. And any policy based on the pretence of 'asking them to leave' bearing in mind the high % of those born in Xinjiang would also be a policy of ethnic cleansing, just without violence. As was the forced population 'exchanges' between Germany and Poland post WWII and the attempts by nationalists in the former Soviet Union to drive out ethnic Russians from Latvia or Tatarstan for example.

'Asking' or the pretence of giving people the means to 'let them leave' do not forget is the very sort of policy proposed by parties in Europe such as the BNP. On that note some of the smoke and mirrors nationalistic drivel from Western liberals during the riots in Lhasa regarding the position of the Han Chinese in Tibet was not far from that

[afleitch]

That is not what I was referring to at all... as you hopefully know... or else you were talking of something about which you know nothing.
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Of course. It was my example and my reference as I said. As was my reference regarding 'minority majorities' in the Russian Federation.

[afleitch]

China is fascist.

Communist, actually...

Well, they call themselves that but I'd say they are closer to facism from a practical standpoint looking at how they run their economy. They use private and public enterprises where it suits them, rather than solely public like a communist economy would. That's more in line with how the fascists operated. Either way though they are still authoritarian.

There really is no difference between communism and fascism, at least in practice.  Any suggestions to the contrary are just wrong.

There are significant differences between fascist and communist social theory.

[afleitch]

I'm sure most businesses would love if they could enforce number 1 on you, but they can't.  I guess one could argue that some corporations are run in the style of number 2, but certainly not all (or even most) businesses are run that way and they certainly don't have that power over their customers in the same way a govt has it over it's citizens.  What am I missing?

Authoritarianism is found at all levels and the penalty for acting against authority differs from example to example. The family unit for example, and the power hierachy within, is often cited as an authoritarian structure though the highest punishment for disobedience is (hopefully) a small smack.