In recent weeks, the discourse has circulated the fanciful claim that over six million Uyghyrs are being “genocided” in the Northwestern Chinese province of Xinjiang, though it is unclear what “genocide” is supposed to mean here. Have six million people been executed? Is there evidence of mass graves anywhere? Why would the Chinese government be invested in carrying out such an execution of millions of people? Perhaps an examination of what is actually happening would be useful here.

During the Soviet-Afghan War, the U.S. coordinated Uyghur recruits to fight on the side of the mujahideen against the Soviet-backed forces. Ever since then, there has been an issue regarding extremism among certain sectors of the Uyghur population. Most recently, there have been a number of Uyghur fighters that have joined ISIL in their battle against various factions, including the Syrian state, Kurdish forces and other sectarian militias in the region. While counter-terrorism can certainly be a pretext for repression, as has been the case many a time in the West, this is also a legitimate concern. Unlike many European states, which merely allow their citizens to leave to join ISIL, China is invested in taking proactive measures to ensure that radicalization does not occur, to the extent that it can.

Unlike the West, which sees radicalization and terrorism as individual moral faults, the Chinese Communist Party has a much more holistic and historical materialist perception when it comes to dealing with terrorism. For China, the root of the radicalization problem lies in economic underdevelopment, as economic anxiety can lead to alienation and ultimately a revolt against modernity. Xinjiang is a rural, agriculture-based province, and the Chinese government, in terms of its deradicalization as well as its anti-poverty efforts – which basically amounts to the same thing – seeks to move many of the residents here into industrial jobs in the cities.

As such, they have developed facilities where residents can be provided job training and education so that they can fill these industrial jobs. Furthermore, schooling in Xinjiang can be done entirely in the local languages, without teaching Chinese, so many residents will also need to learn the language to take up jobs in the city. These job training programs seem to be undertaken in efforts to reduce poverty, and hopefully to reduce radicalization in the process.

However, far-right evangelical Adrian Zenz began spreading the fabricated story, picked up by mainstream media outlets in the West, that China was engaging in the process of ethnic cleansing of the Uyghur population. This case is mainly built from inconclusive satellite photos taken of these facilities which in no way speaks to the function of these facilities, as they are merely pictures of buildings that have been built. The second main component of evidence for this case is first-hand testimony from a handful of people, some of whom have given inconsistent stories of their treatment. Zenz is clear about his aim, as he is rabidly anti-China, and the media clearly also has a vested interest in fomenting anti-China feelings among Westerners.

White liberals, for their part, always rabid to display their virtue and anti-Islamophobia, quickly took up the line on “Uyghur genocide” to display their allyship and supposed knowledge of international events, without knowing anything about the circumstances, and seemingly with no awareness that they were merely parroting and reinforcing warmongering narratives from the foreign policy establishment.

One may well critique the specifics of China’s anti-radicalization campaign, but the breathless reporting and condemnation of “genocide” is simply without evidence of such an occurrence. It is much more reasonable to assume that things are unfolding as has just been described above.