There is a hard-to-believe story in the Wall Street Journal today about Congress in the US thinking about what they can do (read sanctions) about the camps established by the Chinese in Xinjiang. These camps are largely holding Muslims who are also Uighur. The Chinese claim these are for job training, so all these stories about political indoctrination are just made up. This leads us to believe the Uighur population have vivid imaginations.
On the other hand, we have some vivid imaginations in Congress, if this story is true. The Chinese are not going to care very much if the US sanctions someone over what is basically an internal problem for China. The Uighur have killed a number of people in some very imaginative ways, largely because they can't get guns or high explosives. We can be fairly sure they would kill more if they could. So, in the name of terrorist job education, they are put into camps where someone can keep an eye on them. Is there due process? Is there pervasive monitoring? What business is that of ours?
We frequently think because we believe in a certain type of behavior that everyone in the world must think along the same lines. You haven't been outside the US in many years if you believe that. Women are treated differently in many of our friends host countries. Animals are treated differently in many other countries, including those making the menu in some restaurants. Different countries handle terrorists differently, and they are rapidly becoming less tolerant of certain behaviors as a result.
I suggest China has some latitude on this and sanctions are not the best solution for getting them to come around to our way of thinking. Congress needs to rethink this matter a little more and figure out what the best course of action might be. Doing nothing does about the same as putting sanctions on a few people in China.
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