I think we can all agree the situation is bad. But a harder, more complicated question is: What should China do about Islam? Islam, by any honest account, is an all encompassing worldview and not just a religion. It chafes under all forms of non-Islamic control and often leads to serious social problems. This is clear - it can be seen today in every non-Islamic jurisdiction that has developed a substantial Muslim population. While China is an authoritarian regime, even a democracy scarcely has room for movements like that. So, what to do?
The very concept of rights is blurring internationally, and Biden could help stabilize what the concept even means by how he approaches this genocide, and it is a genocide. Classical liberal rights are negative protections. The government will protect my Natural rights given from nature or deity. But now we talk of rights more and more in terms of entitlements. I have a right to receive the things I need from the government. China could easily contort its brutality to pretend to be sacrificing the Uyghurs in order to give more entitlements to the general population. That is the problem with conflating rights and entitlements. Rights die subsumed by utilitarian pragmatism. Life and liberty are natural rights negative rights not positive entitlements won at the expense of others, and world governments must protect those sacred negative rights of all people.
Thanks for the article.
I think we can all agree the situation is bad. But a harder, more complicated question is: What should China do about Islam? Islam, by any honest account, is an all encompassing worldview and not just a religion. It chafes under all forms of non-Islamic control and often leads to serious social problems. This is clear - it can be seen today in every non-Islamic jurisdiction that has developed a substantial Muslim population. While China is an authoritarian regime, even a democracy scarcely has room for movements like that. So, what to do?
Thank you for spotlighting this
The very concept of rights is blurring internationally, and Biden could help stabilize what the concept even means by how he approaches this genocide, and it is a genocide. Classical liberal rights are negative protections. The government will protect my Natural rights given from nature or deity. But now we talk of rights more and more in terms of entitlements. I have a right to receive the things I need from the government. China could easily contort its brutality to pretend to be sacrificing the Uyghurs in order to give more entitlements to the general population. That is the problem with conflating rights and entitlements. Rights die subsumed by utilitarian pragmatism. Life and liberty are natural rights negative rights not positive entitlements won at the expense of others, and world governments must protect those sacred negative rights of all people.