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Comment by boomboomsubban | Hacker News Reader

That you can make this post without mentioning the continued US/Saudi war on Yemen largely proves their point. People care when oil states are involved in a sport they follow or a US residents life. What is happening to millions of people in Yemen doesn't register.

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I would say it proves my point. Most people couldn’t care less about what happens outside their borders unless the country responsible also do things that impact their life. No on gives a damn when North Korea starve its citizens to death, subject them to hard labor and execute them left and right. But the western world care a lot when they imprison/torture a western citizen.

Similarly, no one cares about China kidnaping girls from neighboring countries to force them into marriage/prostitution in China. But people care a lot when China force gaming companies to censor their games and ban western citizens playing western games in a western country because they write “Free Hong Kong” in the chat.

I will remind you that this thread is about what is happening with the Chinese Uighurs, a group that has no impact on Western lives.

>Most people couldn’t care less about what happens outside their borders unless the country responsible also do things that impact their life

The US is the country responsible here. US military commanders have said that the war in Yemen would end tomorrow without US assistance, and the US declared war on Afghanistan.

It does because these Uyghurs are subjected to hard labor where they’re producing goods for Nike, Gap, H&M, Amazon, Puma, etc. It’s a lot harder to look past these things when you know they’re happening (similarly to how it’s hard for football fans to look past the slave labor used for the World Cup in Qatar). The fact that their treatment feels equivalent to the holocaust makes it even worse.

It also adds great frustration/anger when western companies fight for human rights in USA while they stay silent on China’s human rights issues (and even censor western citizens voicing support for them).

> does because these Uyghurs are subjected to hard labor where they’re producing goods for Nike, Gap, H&M, Amazon, Puma, etc.

I have not heard these allegations of slave labor surrounding these internment camps. Maybe you're thinking of US prisons.

>The fact that their treatment feels equivalent to the holocaust makes it even worse

I'm still not defending China here, but their actions seem limited to cultural genocide not actual genocide. The US treatment of Muslims in Yemen is far worse.

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