I asked two friends about this issue, one live in Southern XinJiang, another one whose family is there. They both told me that they do not believe the allegations of genocide or systemic rapes are true. They said the education level of local population in Southern Xinjiang is generally low, many live in extreme poverty and some have been influenced by radical Islam that have become rampant. I was told that the Gov. actually pays the social welfare tax for companies to come and recruit Uygher workers as most employers don’t want to hire from that region. I was also told that in that region, many police/gov. Workers are often killed by Islamic militias, one time an entire Gov. building in a city near my friend was sieged and 40-50 workers inside were executed by Islamic militias, news that neither CCP or western media would disclose.

Again, just another person’s claim and I have no way to tell besides drawing from my 5 trips to Xin Jiang (only the provincial capital and tourists spots) in 2014-2015. However, as Ken Wren said earlier, when the allegation is genocide and systematic rape and the impact is this significant, we should all be more diligent in doing our own research and not fall into the echo chamber. It would be nice to see the news outlets who claim genocides interview people on the other side, just to make it seem more objective. I would assume it’s not that hard to find some Chinese people living in the west, who are from Xinjiang and hold the opposing view. One could argue they would never tell the truth for the fear of CCP retaliation, but it sure would be good to see and hear the opposing view points.