re: #238 freetoken

Well, we have given asylum to some Uyghurs, IIRC.

China is a large and complex conglomeration of peoples, something that Americans tend to ignore.

China is large, and there are many ethnic minorities, but even in aggregate, they are a very small part of the whole. There can’t be any whirlwind. The Uyghur’s likely fate is to intermarry into the Han population, somewhat, and to be swamped by them and marginalized and dwindle in numbers, somewhat. The Han tend to be better educated, they speak and read the national dialects better, and there’s nothing wrong with their work ethic. Plus, they’re kind of clannish and they favor their own. Add that up, and the likely demographic fate of ethnic minorities is easy enough to see.

In a few decades, China will have the largest GDP of any single nation. We’re going to have to get used to China having a big voice in world affairs, and we’re not going to have the option to hector them over their treatment of minorities. Their commercial and military weight will be such that they will be able to shrug it off with impunity, and even scores at their leisure.

Plus, we really need China on board for the human effort to mitigate and contain global warming. China will be gravely hurt by AGW, and might come on board the effort to limit it if the rest of the big economies can be persuaded. Side irritants will have to be put to the side.