1. Anti-terrorism / Religious Extremist Activities 2. Poverty alleviation
We have certainly seen similar situations play out in the past (e.g. US & Middle East), with different approaches. China's approach is to eliminate "ethnic separatism" through these "re-education camps". Not ideal, for sure. But what would be a better solution?
If we had terrorism in the US -- in fact, an entire state of people subscribed to that mindset -- what's the best way to deal with that?
(This is, ofc, assuming China's terrorism claims are real)
The Black population in the US is disproportionately impoverished. Should we round them up into re-education camps?
It's policy based entirely in ethno-nationalism (racism).
The US had a Civil War over separation and slavery, but we didn't establish re-education camps for all the people who were on the losing side. You didn't see Germans forced into re-education camps after WW1 or WW2 (at least on the non-USSR side).
I don't know of ANY instances of this kind of re-education thinking in first-world countries. Even third-world countries don't usually consider this moral. It's basically limited to second-world (communist) despotic countries. In recent times, I've heard people talk about re-education camps in the US, but (big surprise), they're always alt-left (communists, antifa, whatever).