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China’s Vanishing Muslims: Undercover In The Most Dystopian Place In The World

7 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
3 HN users recommended this documentary3 months2019–2022 score 3
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN cites it as first-hand, independent reporting on Xinjiang that does not rely on state-sanctioned access.

VICE News reporter Isobel Yeung goes undercover as a tourist in Xinjiang, documenting heavy surveillance, policing and internment of Uighurs. It also covers children taken into state-run institutions.

“here's a very thorough look from an established news source” (HN, 2020)

3 recommendations · 9 citations · Documentaries · partly dated

12 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@LilBytes Aug 2019 Recommends
on HN thread Information operations directed at Hong Kong
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Yes, totalitarian dictatorships are a literal alternative to Democracy, though I feel we're nitpicking on the semantics of my words here. When I say I don't see Totalitarian Dictatorships as an alternative, I don't mean in the literal sense, I mean in the viable sense. In the literal sense, yes, it's an alternative to Democracy. As is building a house on sand is a literal but not viable alternative to building a house on concrete. I don't think many would want to live under a Chinese authoritarian rule given the Democratic alternatives. Or perhaps they would until they're rounded up in Xinjiang camps, shot in the face with rubber bullets for wanting to protect their current way of life or ran over by Tanks by asking for change to better their way of life. But if we've seen what the conversations that are occurring in China about these violent acts taken by the CCP, it's clear the populace think it's in their best interests at this time. Though it's worth adding that the message we receive about the CCP's actions is very different to those living in China. I recommend anyone to watch the documentary created by Vice below about the atrocities that are occurring in Xinjiang and the first hand opinions of those that live there. I would guess the opinions of those being interviewed are honest with a side of oppression. [1] [this video]
First-hand documentary on atrocities in Xinjiang
@_bxg1 Mar 2020 Recommends
on HN thread ‘Re-education’, forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang
> Almost everything ughyur and xinjiang related has pretty much been shown to be propaganda and from highly questionable sources Do you have any evidence for that whatsoever? In contrast, here's a very thorough look from an established news source: [this video]
Thorough look from an established news source
@network2592 Jan 2022 Recommends
on HN thread Intel removes Xinjiang references from shareholder letter
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Most people would be unequivocally against slave concentration camps. Do not confuse lack of action with lack of caring. Effective action may require collective action. But individually, most people care. Yet, collectively, they cannot seem to do anything meaningful. You are making a statement that is the definition of an ecological fallacy [0] The article you pointed out is hardly balanced. The access of journalists is heavily restricted. Naturally, any information that comes out from a standard news outlet with government sanctioned offices like Associated Press will sound like government propaganda. CCP will not let AP have access to any information that counters the narrative of the propaganda. For a different take on things, and an outlet that does journalism differently without official representation with CCP, have a look at this piece from VICE [1]. [0] [link] [1] [this video]
Independent reporting without CCP-sanctioned access

Citations, criticism and jokes

@_iyig Aug 2019 Cites it
on HN thread Drink Poison and Smile: How I Arrived at My Position of Pro-Democracy
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>(are the Uyghur Muslims treated worse than immigrants in many western places like US / EU / AUS?) This question would be simpler to answer if China allowed foreign reporters access to the camps, cities, and provinces where (millions of) Uyghur Muslims are held, such as Xinjiang. Could you imagine if Chinese reporters were denied to access to, for example, the state of Texas? What if plainclothes Texas Rangers stalked tourists visiting El Paso, and aggressively detained and deported anyone caught interviewing local Hispanics? That’s the type of media blackout which I understand is currently imposed on Xinjiang. VICE News on the ground: [this video] Foreign Policy editor, “All of my Uyghur sources are gone”: [link]
On-the-ground reporting from Xinjiang
@loceng Aug 2020 Cites it
on HN thread Blanked-out spots on China's maps helped us uncover Xinjiang's camps
How to compare that with this experience then? [this video] Also, it's interesting that on Twitter of sharing related articles you'll have Asian people with accounts commenting with very short messages simply saying "you're stupid" or similar without explaining themselves nor actually engaging with the comments - their replies getting 4+ Likes from near bot-looking accounts. It seems the CCP is working hard to craft the narrative worldwide.
Offered for comparison with another account
@justicezyx Jun 2021 Cites it
on HN thread YouTube takes down Xinjiang videos, forcing rights group to seek alternative
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> Youtube videos from randos aren't very good sources Sure But a rado guy who have not even had the first-hand information, would be an even worse source. That's always been my #1 rule of assessing the reliability of any news reporting. My point still stands, the mainstream media's report on Xinjiang is lazy, they have no first-hand deep reporting. Note that the early reporting by Vice is the right approach [1]. But it still suffers from the same inconsideration to the different cultural and political aspects of Chinese society. For example, when reporters are followed by government employees, that's the usual lazy bureaucratic reactions to western media. Those are not evidences of "vanishing Uyghurs". Instead, if they just pretend to be normal travellers, and hop on trains, on bus, on the street, and gather the information through small talks and gossips with real locals, they'll have much more freedom to reach deeper. No, they dont think they should be restricted at all. They believe in free press; which was never been established in China since the unification in Qin dynasty. They believe that news reporting is so universally believed that, they would get whatever truth they seek just by showcasing their face. From a larger scope, government in US enjoys an legitimacy through voting democracy. So they usually do not care much about criticism about their performance from media. Individuals certainly are much more sensitive to such reporting, but that's same for Chinese beau
Early Vice reporting discussed as a reporting approach
@legofr Dec 2021 Cites it
on HN thread Steam has been banned in China
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I'm personally opposed to the idea of visiting certain countries, such as China and North Korea, to 'see for yourself', especially when you don't know the language, when you're not willing to risk your life to understand and uncover the parts the government doesn't want you to see, like VICE did in Xinjiang: [this video] That being said, if you go then please try to walk into a random hotel/apartment you see on the street to try to book a room.. then you'll discover that 9/10 hotels/apartments won't allow foreigners to live there. I lived in China for more than a year before I realized this was the case, and I have on multiple occasions even been kicked out of friends/partners apartment because someone told the landlord there was a foreigner in the building (or maybe they saw through the surveillance camera).
Example of risky reporting that uncovers hidden parts

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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